Late Bus times two

In Late Bus to Mecca, Pearl Cleage introduces us to two women - Ava Johnson is a confident, talkative prostitute looking for salvation; and A Black Woman (ABW, as it’s written in the script) is a woman whose unknown past has bruised her spirit enough to make her silent throughout the play.

In the production Thomas Jones is directing (which opens on Sunday), actors Frances Wilkerson and Alana Arenas are playing the two roles in rotation - Frances will be playing Ava this week, Alana will play Ava next week, and so on.

It’s been fascinating to watch two very different shows develop through the rehearsal process - both women are wonderful in both roles, and they’ve made some different choices and discovered some different aspects of each character.