Back to Pearl

After taking a couple of weeks to go exploring with Suzan-Lori Parks, we’re about to start rehearsals for Bourbon at the Border, the last in our year-long journey through the works of Pearl Cleage. The design team met last night to kick around some ideas and hammer out some logistics, and the actors will get started at the end of the month.

We’re also starting to put together our fall Playwright Scholar Series event - an afternoon of readings and discussions of Pearl Cleage’s non-theatrical writing. Everybody in the company is reading her novels, essays and poetry and choosing pieces to share in December. I don’t know what we’ll end up with, but I know that we’ve got some great options:

Oprah selection and NY Times bestseller What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day

Mad at Miles: A Black Woman’s Guide to Truth, a tough and beautiful handbook for women

Political and personal essays and columns in Deals With the Devil and Other Reasons to Riot

Semi-autobiographical stories in The Brass Bed and Other Stories

Whatever we end up with, it’s going to be a great afternoon - and a great way to get to know a writer better. We’ll be writing more about Bourbon at the Border and the Playwright Scholar Series as the fall moves along.