The Alliance Theatre has extended “What I Learned in Paris,” playwright Pearl Cleage’s romantic comedy about passions and politics in 1970s Atlanta. The world premiere was scheduled to close Sept. 30, but will now continue with performances at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 4; 8 p.m. Oct. 5; and 2:30 and 8 p.m. Oct. 6.

The cast features a star turn by Atlanta-based actor Crystal Fox. Danny Johnson plays her ex-husband; Eugene H. Russell IV and Kelsey Scott play a pair of would-be young lovers; and January LaVoy is a bemused campaign worker. Alliance artistic director Susan V. Booth directs.

“What I Learned in Paris” begins the night Maynard Jackson becomes Atlanta’s first African-American mayor. It’s a time when miniskirts and bell-bottoms sell for $8.87 in downtown stores, Stevie Wonder is on the radio  singing “Livin’ for the City” and change is in the air from Buckhead to Butler Street.

Cleage, a well-known author as well as a playwright, also wrote  The Nacirema Society Requests the Honor of Your Presence at a Celebration of Their First One Hundred Years, which played the Alliance in 2010.

For tickets, visit alliancetheatre.org/paris or call 404.733.5000.

To learn why Cleage wrote this play, go HERE.

 

About Kathy Janich

Kathy Janich is a longtime arts journalist who has been seeing, working in or writing about the performing arts for most of her life. She's a member of the Theatre Communications Group, the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, Americans for the Arts and the National Arts Marketing Project. Full disclosure: She’s also an artistic associate at Synchronicity Theatre.

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