(PRINCETON, NJ) -- McCarter has added Blues For An Alabama Sky by Pearl Cleage to its 2022-2023 season. The bold, character drama is directed by Nicole A. Watson, McCarter Associate Artistic Director, in collaboration with the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. Performances at McCarter Theatre Center begin May 6-28.
Blues for an Alabama Sky brings to life the simmering streets of 1930s Harlem. This exciting new revival of Pearl Cleage's seminal 1995 play, follows the fortunes of four friends from the neighborhood who grapple with dreams and hopes curtailed by the waning cultural renaissance of Harlem in the face of the Great Depression. When a stranger arrives at their brownstone doorstep, their world is upended and the friends are each faced with life-changing choices and consequences.
“Pearl Cleage is a phenomenal artist and I am thrilled to be directing Blues for an Alabama Sky,” says Director Nicole A Watson. “Getting to take a deep dive into the world she has created for us both at the Guthrie and then again here at the McCarter is such a rare gift for me as an artist--to be granted such a long relationship with this significant play and the voices Pearl has created.” She adds, “As a director you want to share plays you love with as many people as possible, and I'm so excited to share it with our audiences here.”
Pearl Cleage is an Atlanta-based writer whose plays include Pointing at the Moon, What I learned in Paris, Flyin’ West, Blues For An Alabama Sky, and Bourbon at the Border, commissioned and directed by Kenny Leon at the Alliance Theatre. She is also the author of A Song For Coretta, written in 2007 during Cleage’s time as Cosby Professor in Women’s Studies at Spelman College. Her play, The Nacirema Society Requests the Honor of Your Presence at a Celebration of Their First One Hundred was commissioned by the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and premiered in 2010, in a joint production by the ASF and Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, directed by Susan Booth.
Her plays have also been performed at Arena Stage, Hartford Stage, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Huntington Theatre, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, the Long Wharf Theatre, Just US Theatre, True Colors Theatre, Bushfire Theatre, the Intiman Theatre, St. Louis Black Repertory Company, and Seven Stages. She is also an accomplished performance artist, often working in collaboration with her husband, writer Zaron W. Burnett, Jr. They have performed at the National Black Arts Festival, the National Black Theatre Festival, and colleges and universities across the country. Cleage and Burnett also collaborated with performance artists Idris Ackamoor and Rhodessa Jones on the script for The Love Project, which premiered at the National Black Theatre Festival in 2008, and is currently touring the country.
Cleage is also an accomplished novelist. Her novels include “What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day,” a New York Times bestseller and an Oprah Book Club selection, “I Wish I Had a Red Dress,” “Some Things I Never Thought I’d Do,” “Babylon Sisters,” “Baby Brother’s Blues,” “Seen It All and Done the Rest,” and “Till You Hear from Me.” She is also the author of “Mad at Miles: A Blackwoman’s Guide to Truth,” a groundbreaking work of race and gender, and “We Speak Your Names,” a praise poem commissioned by Oprah Winfrey for her 2005 celebration of legendary African American women and written in collaboration with Zaron Burnett. Cleage has also written for magazines, including “Essence,” “Vibe,” “Rap Pages,” and “Ms.” In addition to her work as the founding editor of “Catalyst” magazine, a literary journal, she was a regular columnist for the Atlanta Tribune for ten years, winning many awards for her thought-provoking columns. She has also written for TheDefendersOnLine.com. Cleage has been awarded grants in support of her work from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fulton County Arts Council, the Georgia Council on the Arts, the Atlanta Bureau of Cultural Affairs, and the Coca-Cola Foundation. Her work has earned her many awards and honors, including an NAACP Image Award for fiction in 2008.
Director Nicole A. Watson is the Associate Artistic Director at the McCarter Theatre Center. Prior to this appointment, she was the Associate Artistic Director at Round House Theatre. On behalf of both theaters, she created the Adrienne Kennedy Festival in which she directed a digital version of Kennedy’s He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box. As part of her work at McCarter, she co-curates Bard at the Gate with Paula Vogel. In addition to her work as an arts leader, Nicole continues to work as a freelance director and educator. Select credits include the world premieres of it’s not a trip it’s a journey by Charly Evon Simpson (Round House Theatre) The West End by Keith Josef Adkins (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park) Jacqueline Goldfinger's adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wind in the Door (The Kennedy Center’s TYA Program). A former history teacher, Nicole started directing in 2008 and has worked at theaters and universities across the country and has championed new plays and playwrights.
She has worked with New Dramatists, the Lark Play Development Center, the Fire this Time Festival, the New Black Fest, the Women's Project Theater, The 52nd Street Project, Cincinnati, Playhouse in the Park, Baltimore Center Stage, Signature Theater, Geva Theater, Playmakers Repertory Theatre, Center, A.C.T., Asolo Rep, Washington National Opera, Theater Latte Da, The Playwrights Center, The Kennedy Center, The Contemporary American Theater Festival, Working Theater, Smith College, UNCSA, NYU, and LIU. She is a New Georges Affiliated Artist and an alum of the Drama League, the Lincoln Center Directors Lab and the Women’s Project Directors Lab and a member of the SDC. BA: History, Yale. MA: NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study.
An independent not-for-profit performing arts center located between New York City and Philadelphia – and on the campus of Princeton University – McCarter is a multi-disciplinary creative and intellectual hub offering theater, music, dance, spoken word, and educational programs for all ages that inspires conversations, connections and collaborations in our communities. We lead with our values of justice and joy, and we seek beauty in belonging. Celebrated for developing new work and winner of the 1994 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre, world premieres include Christopher Durang's Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike (Tony, Best Play), Tarell Alvin McCarey's The Brother/Sister Plays, Emily Mann's Having Our Say. Renowned artists who have appeared at McCarter include: Alvin Ailey, Yo-Yo Ma, Audra McDonald, David Sedaris, The Moth, Terence Blanchard, Roseanne Cash, the rock band Lake Street Dive, Shawn Colvin, more. McCarter connects with the community year-round with a Shakespeare Reading Group, digital programming, on-site classes and in-school residencies. McCarter and Princeton University share a long history of unique partnerships and creative collaborations.
