As part of its 30th Anniversary Season celebration, the Huntington Theatre Company brings the cast of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom to Roxbury’s Hibernian Hall to perform a reading of the play on Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 7pm.
The reading is free and open to the public, but an RSVP at huntingtontheatre.org/raineyreading is encouraged, as seating is limited. Liesl Tommy, director of the Huntington’s acclaimed 2011 production of Ruined, helms the production. The ensemble features “ER” cast member Yvette Freeman as the legendary blues singer Ma Rainey and local favorite Jason Bowen (Ruined, A Civil War Christmas at the Huntington) as Levee.
The reading marks the continuation of a longstanding tradition of the Huntington bringing its work beyond its homes on the Avenue of the Arts and in the South End to Boston’s neighborhoods and communities, including past events at the Strand Theatre (Breath, Boom; 2003) and Roxbury Community College (Gem of the Ocean, 2004; Radio Golf, 2006; Fences, 2009).
In the play, a quartet of blues musicians gather in a run-down 1920s Chicago studio waiting for legendary blues singer Ma Rainey to arrive to record new sides of her old favorites. Young, hotheaded trumpeter Levee aspires to a better life for himself and sees the emerging form of the blues as his ticket to fame and fortune. When he clashes with veteran musicians Toledo and Cutler and Ma Rainey spars with her white music producers, generational and racial tensions explode in the drama.
“Over its 30-year history, the Huntington has not only provided Boston with outstanding theatre, but also demonstrated a passionate commitment to bringing its world-class offerings into this city’s neighborhoods,” says Boston Mayor, the Honorable Thomas M. Menino. “I congratulate the Huntington on celebrating its completion of August Wilson’s Century Cycle with this exciting event at Hibernian Hall, one of our city’s most treasured cultural venues.”
Huntington Managing Director Michael Maso adds, “Here at the Huntington, we have had the honor of seeing August Wilson’s stories come to life on our stage. We’ve been privileged to share those stories with all of Boston and are excited to make our debut at Hibernian Hall.”
The Huntington’s full production of the play will run March 9 – April 8 at the BU Theatre / Avenue of the Arts. Tickets and more information are available at huntingtontheatre.org/maraineys.
With the upcoming production of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, the Huntington completes its mounting of August Wilson’s Century Cycle, comprised of one play about the African-American experience in each decade of the 20th century. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom was Wilson’s first play, written (along with Fences) before he established his relationship with the Huntington. Beginning in 1986 with Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, the Huntington and Boston audiences enjoyed a special relationship with Wilson who came to consider the Huntington an artistic home. Here, he mounted early productions of seven of his Cycles plays before their New York productions.
“I have a long and valued relationship with the Huntington. They have contributed enormously to my development as a playwright, and I guard that relationship jealously,” Wilson remarked in 2004.
Hibernian Hall is located at 184 Dudley Street, Roxbury.
Find more information on the event at huntingtontheatre.org/raineyreading.
