Blues for an Alabama Sky

Summer, 1930…the red-hot bullets of black art, music, and theatre that hit American culture smack between the eyes in the 20s, are little more than shots in the gathering dark of the Depression. As torch singer Angel Allen’s auditions shift from stage to couch, her dreams are fading as quickly as the bright lights of the Harlem Renaissance.

Tired of “Negro dreams,” she thinks safety lies on the broad back of the new stranger in town. But people are starting to get mean and the Harlem night is no place for an Alabama boy with romantic notions. Pearl Cleage’s comic drama, Blues for an Alabama Sky, explores the tragic landscape of poverty and the redeeming quality of hope.

Timothy Douglas directs for the Berkshire Theatre Festival, in a co-production with the Actors Theatre of Louisville.

Postscript performance June 28.