Signature Theatre Announces 2008-2009 Lineup Celebrating Negro Ensemble Company
The First Breeze of Summer August 5-September 28
Leslie Lee's Obie Award-winning 1975 play charts the collision of three generations of the Edwards family over the course of one sweltering weekend in June when Gremmar, the matriarch, looks back on her past and considers its legacy for her children and grandchildren. Ruben Santiago-Hudson will direct Signature's revival.
Home November 11-January 4, 2009
Samm-Art Williams' 1980 play is the story of one man's struggle to stay true to himself in a changing, turbulent America—from the 1950s to the Vietnam War and Civil Rights eras. Leaving behind his family's farm in North Carolina, Cephus Miles seeks refuge and prosperity in the North. Three actors portray more than 25 characters as Cephus moves from adolescence to adulthood. The play and its original star, Charles Brown, received Tony nominations for its original production at the Cort Theatre. A director for the revival has not been named.
In addition to the full productions, a series of staged readings will be held on Monday nights at the Peter Norton Space, including Douglas Turner Ward's Day of Absence, directed by the playwright. Ward and Santiago-Hudson are serving as curators for the Signature's Negro Ensemble Company season.
In this Obie Award-winning 1980 drama, Charles Fuller, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Soldier's Play, depicts how a random act of violence leaves Reuben Tate and his family questioning their friends and neighbors—but the community has been scared into helpless silence. Stephen McKinley Henderson will direct the revival.