Welcome to Penumbra Theatre's thirty-second season of presenting artistically excellent, thought-provoking, and socially responsible art for your enjoyment and consideration. We have an exceptional lineup this year and I hope you’ll join us for all of it!

This season is made up of what I call "generational crossroads plays." These stories show younger generations struggling against the cultural mores and ethics of an older generation. The young ones stand at a crossroads; will they fall in step with their elders and carry on the family heritage with pride? Or do they blaze their own trail forward, risking everything to attain the American dream? I choose these plays to bring your attention to an increasingly more prevalent issue that I find profoundly unsettling. Too often in America, the promise of a bright future places our young people in a precarious position. Success frequently comes at the price of personal integrity and cultural responsibility.

The plays selected this season highlight this question with a special emphasis on legacy. Each of these playwrights deftly illustrates that the ethical fabric binding a culture together is made from the lessons learned by those who came before. Often these lessons have come at a price too severe to acknowledge directly, and younger generations cannot comprehend the logic of their elders’ decisions. But that is because these decisions are not made through rational reasoning. The elder generations in each of these plays have had to surrender more than their dreams. They have left behind pieces of themselves. They are haunted, broken, self-destructive forces that place both their hope for a better future and the burden of the past upon their children.

As we examine the African American interpretations of this experience, you will find a story relevant to many Americans – the choice between your dream and your family, the choice between wealth and integrity, the choice between your future and your past. Join us this season as we contemplate these choices, the reasons why African Americans have been forced to make them, and help us forge a path in which no man or woman should have to choose between the head and the heart.

Welcome.

 
Lou Bellamy
Founder and Artistic Director