WHAT: Black Like Us, by Rachel Atkins – Staged Reading and Celebration of Play Publication
WHO: BrownBox Theatre and Sound Theatre Company
WHERE: Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute
104 17th Ave S
Seattle, WA 98144
WHEN: Saturday, November 19, 2:00pm matinee and 7:00 evening , Reception with the playwright and artists from 4:30 – 6:30 between performances.
BrownBox Theatre joins forces with Sound Theatre Company Again to present a Staged Reading of Gregory Award Winning Play “Black Like Us”
Seattle, WA –October 30, 2016– BrownBox Theatre and Sound Theatre Company join together again, this time to present the staged reading of Gregory Award winning play “Black Like Us” at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, a performance venue that is blocks from the setting of this cross-generational play. Performances are Saturday, November 19 at 2:00pm and at 7:00 pm. There is a reception between the performances to celebrate the publication of this script and the work of playwright Rachel Atkins and the companies of artists who helped to develop this multi-award-winning play.
Black Like Us is a funny, poignant, and deeply relevant story about the bonds of family, the struggles of identity, and the far reaching effects of one woman’s decision.
In 1958, a young African-American woman makes the life-changing decision to start passing for white, creating a ripple effect through multiple generations. In 2013, her granddaughters accidentally discover her secret and seek out the family she left behind. Moving back and forth through time, what happens in between is a frank and funny look at the shifting boundaries of tolerance, as they are all faced with the many questions of what identity really means.
It is at its core the story of a family, and of the sweet, complex, and exasperating relationships that exist between sisters. It is also the story of a family that lives in Seattle, and the history of the Central District and the Civil rights movement in this city are woven into the narrative. With a diverse all-female cast, a dash of history, and a lot of humor, Black Like Us explores the effect one woman’s decision has to reverberate through the generations.