PERSONAL HISTORY
By Dominic Taylor
Directed by Stanley Coleman
View Production Photos on Flickr

“Blacks in America want to forget slavery–the stigma, the shame,” August Wilson told the New York Times in 1987. “That’s the wrong move. If you can’t be who you are, who can you be?” Wilson’s theatrical mission–unique in his time–was, he said, “about reclaiming those things which were lost during slavery.” This is one of the major themes of Personal History, a drama by Dominic Taylor.

Personal History follows an African-American couple as they navigate three moments in American life, stretched out over a century in the city of Chicago. The highly educated pharmacist Eugene enters the world of the play in 1903, outraged that he is overqualified and underemployed. At an elegant parlor party hosted by his white business associate, Eugene scandalizes the other guests by challenging their comfortable liberalism. He also meets his future bride, Bethany, herself an accomplished business owner. As the action shifts from 1903 to the 1950s and eventually, to the 1990s, their relationship changes. The play is a snapshot of the history of African Americans and their struggles in this country.

Produced by special arrangement with Playscripts, Inc. (www.playscripts.com)

ONCE
Book by Enda Walsh
Music & Lyrics by Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová
Based on the Motion Picture Written and Directed by John Carney
Directed by John Schmor
View Production Photos on Flickr
Feature in the Daily Emerald

Set in a Dublin pub, a young Irish musician learns to trust his heart again as he is challenged and inspired by a young Czech immigrant.  This musical, based on the 2007 film by John Carney, traces a magical week of unexpected friendship, musical collaboration and buoyant community through passionate music and dance.

 A hit on Broadway and in London, ONCE offers a different kind of musical theatre experience, as the songs are inflected with Irish folk tradition and current pop emotion.  In a world just coming out of a world-wide pandemic, ONCE reminds us of the value in time together, learning beyond ourselves through others, the cost and the rewards in taking passionate risks.

ONCE Is presented throuqh special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. www.mtishows.com

GOD SAID THIS
By Leah Nanako Winkler
Directed by Michael Malek Najjar
KLCC REVIEW- GOD SAID THIS
View Production Photos on Flickr

“God Said This by Leah Nanako Winkler was the winner of the 2018 Yale Drama Prize, and first produced off-Broadway in 2019. The New York Times wrote that Leah Nanako Winkler “sets out not only to bust stereotypes about submissive Japanese-American women but also to rescue hick Kentuckians, intolerant Christians, “tiger moms” and even the dying from the broad brush of caricature.” The play revolves around a Japanese-American family whose matriarch is battling cancer and whose daughters, Hiro and Sophie, are struggling with their place in the world. Their father, James, a recovering alcoholic, struggles with his estrangement from his daughters. Hiro’s friend John, who is a single father, becomes a grounding force for a woman who struggles with her mother’s illness and her family’s dysfunction.

This moving family drama explores the lives of Japanese-American women who are rarely depicted dimensionally in American dramas. This play presents us with a family at the cusp of change, and how they are going to move forward if their mother passes. Leah Nanako Winkler asks if redemption is possible when everyone in her play has serious flaws, but deep love as well. Winkler writes, “It’s a serious family drama about dealing with how we feel when a loved one becomes ill. It’s also about the strength that it takes to seek or grant forgiveness, with or without God.”

HAY FEVER 
by Noël Coward
Directed by Tricia Rodley
See Production Photos on Flickr
With Hay Fever, we ended the season with a classic comedy by Noël Coward. The Bliss family is fittingly named for its bohemian-seeming ways. Semi-retired actress Judith applies her stage talents to rural life. Her husband David writes novels. Their adult children, Simon and Sorel, dabble in art and poetry. Each has secretly invited an unsuspecting guest to their country home for the weekend. Let the games begin!

Coward’s play premiered in 1925, and it recalls the celebratory mid-1920s with a comical nod to theatre in its content. We get to explore the playwright’s well-known style of witty dialogue along with the play’s parallels to our own time, especially as we shift beyond the isolation and fear of pandemic.