Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company is tackling a complex piece about gentrification, identity, and belonging over the next month.
Quick Facts
Dominique Morisseau’s Paradise Blue will take the True Colors stage September 24-October 20 under the direction of Jamil Jude.
Bonus tidbits for theatre nerds
Paradise Blue originally premiered at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in 2015. Another Morisseau piece, Pipeline, had its Southeastern regional premiere earlier this year at Horizon Theatre in Little Five Points. A recent MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant” recipient, Morisseau received a Tony nomination for writing the book of jukebox musical Ain’t Too Proud.
Cast
Cynthia D. Barker- Pumpkin
Keith Arthur Bolden- Corn
Javon Johnson- Blue
Enoch Armando King- Sam
Tangela Large- Silver
Paradise Blue
It’s 1949, and the new mayor of Detroit is working to get rid of the blight of
the city—and to move African Americans out of Detroit’s Black Bottom. Blue, a
gifted trumpeter, considers selling his once thriving family jazz club, leaving
his beloved Pumpkin and her dreams aside. As Blue fights personal demons to
better his life and maintain his sanity, his fellow band members, Corn and
P-Sam, are stuck wondering where they fit into the plan to benefit from the
changes in their neighborhood. Silver, a mysterious woman with a history,
enters the scene with her own plans, turning the lives of everyone upside down.
Set against a backdrop of gentrification and displacement, Paradise Blue
encompasses the pain and suffering that accompany the erasure of Black history.
About those tickets…
Click here to purchase $20 discounted tickets!
For more information, visit the True Colors website here.
