Blues for an Alabama Sky

In This Program

• From the Artistic Director
• About the Show
• For Our Patrons
• Cast
• Creative Team
• Setting the Scene: A Society on the Brink of Change
• A Conversation with Blues for an Alabama Sky director Valerie Curtis-Newton 
• Print Edition
• More About Seattle Rep

Dear Friends, 

Welcome to Seattle Rep! I hope your new year is off to a promising beginning. We’re excited to kick off the second half of our 2024/25 Season with Pearl Cleage’s timely and riveting drama, Blues for an Alabama Sky. The first half of our season offered escapes from the anxieties of day-to-day life through different forms of comedy, from poetic and absurd (The Skin of Our Teeth), to quirky and heartfelt (Primary Trust), to glamorous and farcical (Blithe Spirit). Blues brings us very much back to reality, exemplifying Seattle Rep’s mission to give Pacific Northwest audiences the widest array of theatrical experiences we can create, and in ever-changing theatrical forms, settings, stories, and styles. And while humor offers one much-needed type of release, so does pathos. The human experience requires both comedy and catharsis.   

It’s worth taking a moment to define that word, “catharsis.” In the context of art, it was coined over two thousand years ago by the Greek philosopher Aristotle to describe the positive feelings of relief that wash over us after we experience difficult emotions in a safe environment. Experiencing the healing effects of catharsis in community is one of the gifts of live theater. Now, as we welcome the compelling characters of Blues for an Alabama Sky to the stage and are drawn in to their hopes and plans for the future, we’ll share in the emotions and catharsis that can only come from great drama by a playwright at the top of their craft. 

Originally premiered in 1995 by renowned playwright-novelist-poet-essayist Pearl Cleage (pronounced “Cleg”), Blues for an Alabama Sky is a new American classic; it has endured beyond its early productions to be revived frequently by a second generation of theater artists. It should be no surprise that Cleage’s work resonates with audiences and theatermakers. Her plays convey universal truths while placing the African American experience and people from historically marginalized communities at the center of the narrative. Blues for an Alabama Sky, set in 1930 during a period of cultural renaissance and economic struggle, feels particularly relevant today as we navigate a world still grappling with inequality, dreams deferred, and the enduring need for hope and connection. 

Producers are certainly taking note of Cleage’s gorgeous work, which I believe warranted more attention during its first run nearly 30 years ago. Major revival productions began about a decade ago, and the play continues to receive accolades for new productions across the U.S. and a 2022 production at London’s National Theatre. In 2023, Chicago held a city-wide celebration devoted to Cleage’s plays. I hope and expect Cleage’s dynamic body of work will enter the global theater canon alongside the 10-play American Century Cycle by her contemporary August Wilson, becoming a touchstone for new generations. 

At the helm of this production is the esteemed Valerie Curtis-Newton (Selling Kabul; Nina Simone: Four Women). Val’s experience as the longtime head of Directing and Playwriting at the University of Washington School of Drama, Founding Artistic Director of the local professional African American theater lab The Hansberry Project, and a freelance director with countless acclaimed credits at theaters across Seattle and the U.S. (including the upcoming production of Cleage’s great comedy The Nacirema Society Requests the Honor of Your Presence at a Celebration of Their First One Hundred Years at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis), make her an incomparable director to guide Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky to a long overdue Seattle Rep debut.   

As always, I hope you’ll find yourself moved by the experience of seeing this play and inspired to return to Seattle Rep soon.   

Until next time, 

Dámaso Rodríguez
Artistic Director 

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Dámaso Rodríguez   |   MANAGING DIRECTOR Jeffrey Herrmann

Presented in partnership with The Hansberry Project

By
Pearl Cleage

Directed By
Valerie Curtis-Newton^◊

* Member of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

‡ Represented by the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) of the United States and Canada, Local 76-493, AFL-CIO/CLC.

◊ Support for the role of Director is generously provided by Grace Nordhoff and Jonathan Beard.

Commissioned by and World Premiered at
Alliance Theatre Company, Atlanta, Georgia
Kenny Leon, Artistic Director | Edith Love, Managing Director
With support from the Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Fund’s Resident Theatre Institute

Blues for an Alabama Sky is presented by special arrangement with Broadway Licensing, LLC, servicing the Dramatists Play Service imprint (www.dramatists.com)

Producing Partners

Alida & Christopher Latham

Production Sponsors

Season Sponsor

January 30 – February 23, 2025 | Bagley Wright Theater

Thanks to Our Production Sponsor

Microsoft is proud to support Seattle Rep and its efforts to put theater at the heart of public life. By presenting culturally relevant works and centering diverse voices, Seattle Rep creates opportunities for our community to come together, explore different perspectives, and connect with each other.     

Arts and cultural organizations like Seattle Rep serve as the heart and soul of our community and directly contribute to the overall quality of life and vitality of the Puget Sound region, the place Microsoft calls home. It is why we are steadfast in our support of arts and culture.  

As our 50th anniversary approaches, we look to the future while recognizing the people and partners who’ve been with us through it all. Our partnerships with nonprofits and community-based organizations aim to create an environment where our region will thrive for generations to come. We support the work of local nonprofits directly and encourage employee giving and volunteerism. In 2023, our employees, together with Microsoft, donated more than $84M, volunteered more than 450K hours, and supported over 4,800 causes in Washington state. 

On behalf of Microsoft and our employees in the Puget Sound area, we thank Seattle Rep for enriching our community. 

Enjoy the show! 

Jane Broom
Senior Director, Microsoft Philanthropies

We welcome you to take pictures of the set before and after the show.

Share Your Photos 

#BluesforanAlabamaSkySREP
@seattlerep

Photography, recording, and use of cell phones are strictly prohibited during the performance. 

Mission 

Seattle Rep collaborates with extraordinary artists to create productions and programs that reflect and elevate the diverse cultures, perspectives, and life experiences of our region. 

Vision 

Theater at the heart of public life.  

Values 

Artistic Vitality
Sustainability
Generous and Inclusive Practices 

Code of Conduct 

Seattle Rep is committed to being a racially, culturally, and socially just organization. We promote equity, diversity, and inclusion in all aspects of the work we do, and uphold a safe environment wherein all people are welcome to our space and are treated with respect and dignity.

It is our expectation that all patrons and those affiliated with Seattle Rep will align with this code of conduct and we reserve the right to relocate or remove any person from our theater who disregards this expectation.

Land Acknowledgment 

Seattle Rep acknowledges that we are on the traditional land of the Coast Salish people. We honor with gratitude the land itself and its innumerable stewards, past and present. We recognize Washington’s tribal nations, all of the Tribal signatories of the Treaty of Point Elliott, and the urban Native communities who continue to live and thrive in this space. This acknowledgment does not take the place of authentic relationships with Indigenous communities, but serves as a first step in honoring the land we are on and the people and cultures it has nurtured.

Learn more about how Seattle Rep is working to support and build relationships with Native communities.

Emergencies 

In an evacuation, wait for an announcement for further instructions. Ushers will be available for assistance. Familiarize yourself with the exit route nearest your seat.   

Accessibility 

Seattle Rep is committed to accessibility for all and will work with patrons to accommodate requests. We offer a variety of options to help make our performances accessible.

ACCESSIBLE PERFORMANCES: We offer select English and Spanish Open Captioned, Audio Described, ASL-Interpreted, Sensory-Friendly, and mask-required  performances. Find dates here or contact the Box Office for more information.

HEARING LOOP: Seattle Rep is equipped with hearing loops that transmit sound directly to t-coil enabled hearing devices. There are also receivers and headphones available to borrow at Coat Check. Look for the Hearing Loop signs which indicate coverage at performances, ticket windows, concierge, and concessions.  

WHEELCHAIR SPACES, WIDER SEATS (BAGLEY), TRANSFER SEATS, AND ADDITIONAL SEATING OPTIONS: Please see an Usher or House Manager to see what accessible seating options are available for your performance.  

SENSORY GUIDES & KITS: Scene-by-scene guides of the sensory impact of this show and kits containing headphones, fidgets, sunglasses, and communication cards are available at Coat Check.  

LARGE PRINT & BRAILLE PROGRAMS: Available at Coat Check. 

ALL GENDER RESTROOMS are located on the second floor of the Leo K. Theater and a single-stall restroom is located near the Bagley Wright Theater restrooms on the first floor.  

WELLNESS ROOM is located near the Bagley Wright Theater restrooms on the first floor.  

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Ayanna Bria Bakari

Angel

Recent theater credits: The Colored Museum (Studio Theatre), Purpose and Last Night and the Night Before (Steppenwolf Theatre), The Rainmaker (Peninsula Players), Sunflowered (Northern Sky Theater), Relentless (TimeLine Theatre/Goodman Theatre). TV and film: "Wu-Tang: An American Saga," "The CHI," "Chicago P.D.," "Chicago Fire," "Empire," "61st Street," Holiday Heist. Education: B.F.A. Acting, The Theatre School at DePaul University. Ayanna Bria is a Governing Ensemble Member of The Story Theatre in Chicago, IL and is represented by Stewart Talent. Thank you, Val. @ayannabakari_ #BLACKLIVESMATTER

Nathan Breedlove

Musician

Nathan Breedlove is a twice Grammy-nominated trumpeter, composer, and member of the Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame. Breedlove is known for his originality, creativity, and soulful sound. His career includes years with legendary ensembles such as the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and David Murray Octet, and as musical director for the Skatalites. Breedlove was the featured trumpeter in Seattle Rep's critically acclaimed 2019 production of Shout Sister Shout! Currently a member of the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, Breedlove is also a dedicated educator at the Jazz Night School.

Ajax Dontavius

Leland

Ajax Dontavius is a Haitian American actor and proud to be joining Seattle Rep in this amazing show. Recent: Blues for an Alabama Sky (Remy Bumppo Theatre Company), Last Night and The Night Before (Steppenwolf Theatre), Measure for Measure (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), Fences (American Blues Theater), Middle Passage (Lifeline Theatre). TV: “NCIS: Origins,” “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago P.D.,” “61st Street.” Film: Rebranded. Education: B.F.A. Acting, Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. Love and gratitude to God, my Wife, my Mom, and the Seattle Rep team. Colossians 3:17.

Jamar Jones

Guy

Jamar Jones is overjoyed to make his Seattle Rep debut! Jamar is an award-winning actor, voice artist, and museum theater practitioner. Formerly a Resident Company Member of PlayMakers Repertory Company, his select regional credits include Fires in the Mirror, Much Ado About Nothing, Fat Ham, An Octoroon, Fences, Passing Strange, and The Legend of Georgia McBride. TV: “Law & Order” (NBC). Jamar collaborates with museums and historic sites to research, craft, and share the stories of enslaved and free Black people from the 18th century. M.F.A. from UNC at Chapel Hill. jamarjonesofficial.com

Esther Okech Lewis

Delia

Esther Okech Lewis is honored to be back after making her Seattle Rep debut last season in Lydia and the Troll. Esther is an actor and educator from Kenya. She is a graduate of Cornell University with a B.Sc. in Environmental Science and a recent graduate of the M.F.A. Acting program at the University of Washington School of Drama. Her stage credits include Father Comes Home from the Wars and The Oresteia (University of Washington School of Drama); Macbeth (Seattle Shakespeare Company); Last Drive to Dodge (Taproot Theatre Company); The Lower Depths and Black Nativity (Intiman Theatre).

Yusef Seevers

Sam

Yusef Seevers is new to Seattle and thrilled to be making his Seattle Rep debut with Blues! He is a Queer Detroit native who holds an M.F.A. in Acting from Southern Methodist and B.F.A. in Musical Theatre from Santa Fe University. Select credits: Sweeney Todd (title role) at The 5th Avenue Theatre, the world premiere of Last Drive to Dodge (Prophet), Shakespeare in Love (title role), The Agitators (Fredrick Douglass), Angels in America (Belize), Little Shop of Horrors (Audrey II), As You Like It (Orlando), The Little Mermaid (Sebastian), and Tartuffe (Orgon). @blackbassclef, yusefseevers.com

Pearl Cleage

Playwright

Pearl Cleage is an Atlanta-based playwright currently serving as Distinguished Artist in Residence at The Alliance Theatre. The recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Dramatists Guild, she is also Atlanta’s first Poet Laureate. Plays include Flyin’ West, Blues for an Alabama Sky, The Nacirema Society..., What I Learned in Paris, and Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous. Cleage is also a performance artist and, in collaboration with her husband, writer Zaron W. Burnett, Jr., co-authored “We Speak Your Names,” a praise poem commissioned by Oprah Winfrey.

Valerie Curtis-Newton

Director

Valerie teaches Directing and Playwriting at the University of Washington School of Drama and serves as Artistic Director for The Hansberry Project. Recent: Trouble in Mind (Guthrie Theater), Selling Kabul and Nina Simone: Four Women (Seattle Rep), Wedding Band and Black Nativity (Intiman Theatre), Last Night and The Night Before (Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Steppenwolf Theatre), Blues for an Alabama Sky (PlayMakers Repertory Company), Clyde’s and The Mountaintop (ArtsWest), among others. Valerie holds a B.A. from Holy Cross College and an M.F.A. from the University of Washington.

Matthew Smucker

Scenic Designer

At Seattle Rep: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Dry Powder, Three Tall Women, Circle Mirror Transformation, Speech & Debate, and The Tempest, among others. Local: The 5th Avenue Theatre, ACT, Intiman, Seattle Children’s Theatre, Seattle Opera, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Taproot Theatre Company, and Village Theatre. National: PlayMakers Repertory Company, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Paper Mill Playhouse, Arizona Theatre Company, Portland Center Stage, San Jose Repertory Theatre, KCRep, and Childsplay. Professor at Cornish College of the Arts and proud member of Local USA 829.

Melanie Taylor Burgess

Costume Designer

Melanie Taylor Burgess has designed costumes for over 200 productions at Seattle Opera, Seattle Rep, The 5th Avenue Theatre, ACT, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Village Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, and many others. Regional: Guthrie Theater, Pittsburgh Playhouse, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Arizona Theatre Company, and others. Recipient of the first Gregory Award for Outstanding Costume Design in 2010 and again in 2019. She is a professor of Costume Design at Cornish College of the Arts and married to the wacky and lovable actor Rob Burgess.

Porsche McGovern

Lighting Designer

Porsche McGovern (she/her) designed Sojourners (Round House Theatre), Fires in the Mirror (Baltimore Center Stage, Long Wharf Theatre), The West End (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park), Mothers (The Playwrights Realm), Skeleton Crew and We Are Proud to Present... (PlayMakers Repertory Company), and The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Oregon Shakespeare Festival). She is the author of “Who Designs and Directs in LORT Theatres by Pronoun” on Howlround. She is a facilitator for Nicole Brewer’s Anti-Racist Theatre and Creative Practice offerings. M.F.A. CalArts, B.A. St. Lawrence University.

Larry D. Fowler, Jr.

Sound Designer

Larry is a Philadelphia-based theater sound artist and is happy to be making his debut at Seattle Rep. Recent companies Larry has designed for include Interact Theatre Company, FringeArts, Lantern Theater Company, Arden Theatre Company, and Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival. He is a four-time Barrymore Award nominee (2018, 2019, 2024) and 2023 winner for Azuka Theatre's a hit dog will holler. @mrcisum

Tré Cotten

Dialect & Singing Coach

Tré Cotten (he/him) is grateful to return to Seattle Rep, where he appeared in A Raisin in the Sun (2016). His work as a Dialect Designer & Coach has been featured in The New York Times and Los Angeles Times. He has coached projects including the Broadway revival of Purlie Victorious, the Oscar-nominated One Night in Miami, Emmy-nominated "The Porter," and Universal’s The Exorcist: Believer. Represented by United Talent Agency (UTA), he is based in Seattle and on the Kwakwakaʼwakw Territory of North Vancouver Island, BC.

Devin E. Haqq

Irene Gandy Directing Assistant, The Drama League

Devin E. Haqq, a proud Drama League Directing Project Fellow, is also an Emmy-nominated producer, a member of the Roundabout Directors Group Cohort 4, a member of the Fiasco Theatre Acting Company, and a finalist for the 2020 HBOAccess Directing Fellowship. He has directed workshops and been on staff as an associate director on productions for organizations including The Public Theater, Roundabout Theatre Company, Folger Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Fiasco, and the National Black Theatre. @devin_e_haqq

Stina Lotti

Stage Manager

Select stage management credits include The Tempest, The Winter’s Tale, As You Like It, The Odyssey (Seattle Rep’s Public Works); The Servant of Two Masters (Seattle Rep, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Guthrie Theater, ArtsEmerson); Fat Ham, MAC BETH, Here Lies Love, A Raisin in the Sun, All the Way, The Great Society, The Piano Lesson, Boeing Boeing, Fences, Gem of the Ocean (Seattle Rep); Sweeney Todd, Beauty and the Beast (The 5th Avenue Theatre); Angels in America, A Doctor In Spite of Himself (Intiman Theatre); and A Raisin in the Sun (Pittsburgh Public Theater).

Shaina Pierce

Assistant Stage Manager

Shaina Pierce is thrilled to be back at Seattle Rep! She was last at Seattle Rep as the assistant stage manager for Fat Ham. Other select stage management credits include The Wiz (The 5th Avenue Theatre); Loving and Loving and Dracula (Actors Theatre of Louisville); Hot Wing King, Trading Places: the Musical, and A Christmas Carol (Alliance Theatre); Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and The Little Mermaid (Alabama Shakespeare Festival). Shaina received her M.F.A from The University of Alabama (Roll Tide). She thanks her friends and family for their support.

Special Thanks

The 5th Avenue Theatre
PlayMakers Repertory Company, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Meet our Presenting Partner

The Hansberry Project is a professional Black theater company dedicated to the artistic exploration of African American life, history, and culture. From initial sketches to fully-realized productions, The Hansberry Project promotes and supports Black theater artists of diverse interests and disciplines, centering them in the artistic process. The Project's goal is to create a space where the entire community can be enriched by the voices of professional Black artists, reflecting autonomous concerns, investigations, dreams, and artistic expression.

Visit hansberryproject.org for upcoming events and updates, and learn about the Project’s partnership with The Drinking Gourd, a national cohort of Black Theaters focusing on the development and production of work by Black playwrights.

Playwright Pearl Cleage set Blues for an Alabama Sky at a specific time and place in history: the summer of 1930 in Harlem, New York, where “the creative euphoria of the Renaissance has given way to the harsher realities of the Great Depression.” 

What was the Harlem Renaissance?

“The Harlem Renaissance was a period of rich cross-disciplinary artistic and cultural activity among African Americans between the end of World War I (1917) and the onset of the Great Depression and lead up to World War II (the 1930s). Artists associated with the movement asserted pride in Black life and identity, a rising consciousness of inequality and discrimination, and interest in the rapidly changing modern world—many experiencing a freedom of expression through the arts for the first time.” (National Gallery of Art) 

Playwright Pearl Cleage

In the published script of Blues, Cleage sets the scene for the play with some happenings from this moment in time:

“Young Reverend Adam Clayton Powell is feeding the hungry and preaching an activist gospel at Abyssinian Baptist Church. Black Nationalist visionary Marcus Garvey has been discredited and deported. Birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger is opening a new family planning clinic on 126th Street and the doctors at Harlem Hospital are scrambling to care for a population whose most deadly disease is poverty. But, far from Harlem, African American expatriate extraordinaire, Josephine Baker, sips champagne in her dressing room at the Folies Bergère and laughs like a free woman.”

People, Places, and Things in the Play 

PEOPLE 

Josephine Baker (1906–1975) 

An American-born dancer, singer, actress, and activist. She emigrated to France in the 1920s and found great success with her jaw-dropping performances and skimpy costumes. During World War II, she assisted the French Resistance. In the 1960s, she was active in the American civil rights movement and refused to perform for segregated audiences. At the time of the play, Baker was one of Paris’ most popular and highly paid nightclub performers. 

Marcus Garvey (1887–1940) 

A Jamaican-born leader, political activist, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator who was the founder and first president of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League. Ideologically, the organization was a Black Nationalist/pan-African movement that was committed to the diaspora migrating back to Africa. Garvey and his followers, called Garveyites, believed that birth control was a form of genocide for the Black race and were passionately opposed to Margaret Sanger’s birth control clinic in Harlem.

Langston Hughes (1901–1967) 

A poet, novelist, and social activist who was considered the Poet Laureate of the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes moved to Harlem in 1921. It is believed that Hughes led the entirety of his life as a closeted gay man. 

Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (1908–1972) 

The influential pastor of Harlem’s famed Abyssinian Baptist Church who became an influential figure during the Depression. Powell began preaching at the church in 1930 and took over the church’s leadership after his father’s retirement in 1937. Powell was elected to Congress in 1945 and represented Harlem in that capacity until 1970.

Margaret Sanger (1879–1966)  

An American birth control activist, writer, and nurse. She opened the first birth control clinic in the U.S. and is considered the founder of Planned Parenthood. Sanger believed that in order for women to have more equal footing in society and to lead healthier lives, they needed to be able to determine when to bear children. With support from the Amsterdam News, Abyssinian Baptist Church, Urban League, W.E.B. Du Bois, and others, she opened the Harlem family planning clinic in 1930, which remained open until 1937. In more recent years, Sanger’s belief in eugenics based on class has been denounced.

PLACES 

The Cotton Club 

Harlem’s largest and nationally recognized nightclub where everyone who was anyone—movie stars, gangsters, Broadway performers—wanted to spend an evening. Featuring bootleg liquor and musical revues, the club launched the careers of many Black entertainers of the era, including Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith, and the Nicholas Brothers, among others. The Cotton Club was initially a whites-only establishment with the rare exception for Black celebrities like Ethel Waters and Bill Robinson. The original club closed in 1940. 

Folies Bergère 

A popular nightclub in Paris that opened in 1869 as a music hall. It reached the height of its fame from the 1890s until World War II. Productions included a series of sumptuous and grandiose musicals featuring beautiful young women scantily clad in gaudy costumes against exotic backdrops. It is still open for business. 

THINGS 

Amsterdam News

A weekly, Black-owned newspaper serving New York City that was founded in 1909. In the 1930s, the paper became a prominent voice for Black Americans. 

The Great Depression (1929-1939)

A period of worldwide economic downturn where people greatly suffered from both emotional and financial trauma. By December 1930, the Bank of United States (a private bank in New York City) collapsed. This moment was widely considered to be the event that started the Great Depression. 

Prohibition (1920–1933)

During this era in the U.S., the 18th Amendment enforced legal prevention of selling, manufacturing, and transporting alcoholic beverages. Authorities had difficulty enforcing Prohibition, giving rise to “bathtub gin” (amateur homemade spirits), bootleggers (someone who makes or sells illegal spirits), and gangsters.

Click here to explore more about the people, places, and things from this period on Inside Seattle Rep.

The Power of Community

Beyond the Stage

A Conversation with Blues for an Alabama Sky director Valerie Curtis-Newton 

Seattle Rep: Pearl Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky premiered in 1995 and has had a renaissance in recent years with productions at regional theaters across the U.S. and the National Theatre in London. Why do you think this play resonates so deeply with audiences today?   

Valerie Curtis-Newton: What does a play about the 1930s have to tell us today? Cleage has said about Blues, “The story is set in 1930, but it isn’t about 1930. It’s about truth and honor and love and fear and friendship, topics which don’t grow old. Writers are always writing about the complexities of being human. Time and place are merely the specific backdrops in which we chose to place our explorations. If we get it right about the people, the question of relevance is moot.” I believe this. I also believe that the specific background issues of this play are still relevant. Reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights, healthcare equity, and economic opportunity are all impacting our lives today. We need to build stronger communities to thrive. Better, more compassionate communities. The questions of how do we get free and what do we do with our freedom remain with us. 

SR: In 2022, you directed Blues at PlayMakers Repertory Company in North Carolina. As you return to the play here at Seattle Rep, has it changed for you? Does staging this play in Seattle impact your vision?   

VCN: I had hoped that the situation about reproductive rights might have shifted by now, but it has not. Neither has the landscape around any of the other issues that the play raises. So, the reason to do the play is still potent for me. It may be even more resonant for me given current events.   

Doing the play in Seattle is very exciting to me because I get to bring it home and have the conversation with my community. Growing community is foundational to my artistic mission.  

SR: Besides your recent productions of Blues, you will direct Cleage’s play The Nacirema Society at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis this spring. What brings you back to Cleage’s work again and again? What has it been like to be immersed in her writing so consistently over the last few years?  

VCN: Great question. I make theater in general to bring people together. I make Black theater specifically to present Black people in our full humanity. What I really love about Pearl Cleage is her interest in talking about how Black people treat each other within our community. About how characters navigate their relationships. The hard conversations that they must have in order to be in relationship with each other. I do not believe in safe space but in brave people in every space. This play does, too. That is, it's about how you get through struggle, who you lean on, how you lean on them, how you show up as your authentic self, without trying to turn yourself into what someone else wants you to be.  

I am lucky that I get to be in rooms with Black people sharing our joy. Sharing not just our pain, but also our love; our kindness and our courage as well as our hunger, desire, and desperation. All of these things are a part of who we are. Our full humanity. It is truly a blessing to be in those rooms. It fortifies me so that I can go out into the world and do my part to add something. Pearl’s plays do that, too. They all set out to tell stories of the humanity of Black people. Sometimes, they want to present it in a way that is light and fun like Nacirema Society and other times they want to present us in a way that provokes. Pearl and most of my favorite playwrights create stories that can break our hearts while they uplift and inspire us. Blues is such a story. All of Pearl’s works—plays, novels, poems, and essays—reveal powerful, poignant truths about the lives of Black women and the Black community. I’ve enjoyed hanging out with her. 

SR: What do you hope audiences take away from this show? Anything else you’d like the audience to know?  

VCN: I would like the audience to realize that the folks who lived during the Harlem Renaissance did more than dance and listen to jazz. They lived lives much like our lives, full of choices and consequences. Maybe there is something for us to take away from their experience, like the power of community to hold folks above the rising tide. 

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