By Marcus Gardley | Directed by Jennifer L. Nelson
About
A hymn-and-hip-hop-tinged elegy, set on the South Side of Chicago in a time of rising gun violence in a cosmopolitan, yet divided city, the play tells the story of Manny, a 17-year-old who sings for President Obama at the White House only to be held up weeks later for his Air Jordan sneakers. Manny's mother retraces the trajectory of her son's fateful encounter with Noel, a fellow teenager with heartbreaking setbacks of his own, as she conjures the ghost of Ida B. Wells, the Civil Rights activist now 153 years old, who offers a challenging perspective for the family and our community. Staged by Mosaic Theater Resident Director Jennifer L. Nelson (Founding Artistic Director, African Continuum Theatre Company).
December 9–January 3, 2016
Runtime: 1 hour, 45 minutes
Creative Team
Press
“Beautifully written… playwright Marcus Gardley has Toni Morrison’s ear for making poetry of slang, of giving the vernacular the lilt of eloquence… if the task of theater is to make you feel— and to think, to witness, and to grow— this is theater at its finest.”
David K. Shipler, Pulitzer Prize Winner
“Director Jennifer Nelson has transformed this compact, four-actor play into expansive statement-making territory.”
“DC needs this play”
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