Dominique Morisseau Cancels PARADISE BLUE at Geffen Playhouse Following Reports of Abuse

Playwright Dominique Morisseau has officially pulled her play, Paradise Blue, from performances at LA's Geffen Playhouse following reports of abuse towards Black women.

"In the experience of my play Paradise Blue, harm was allowed to fester. Grow. And go un-checked. I caught wind of it, as I was not involved in the process," she wrote in a recent Facebook post. "I then investigated it personally. And ultimately, refused to stand for it. I wrote email after email. Drew lines in the sand. And even gave grace and mercy that was not necessarily warranted."

She continues: "The Geffen Theatre is a necessary institution in our field. It needs support to continue to make space for LA Theatre artists, playwrights, storytellers and change makers. Even if I am no longer in that number. But it will not be in service to our field until it recognizes the root of what went wrong here. To blame anything but the culture of misogyny and abuse that has been allowed to run rampant in our field for generations, is to lie to themselves and the rest of us."

The Geffen has since released the following statement:

Paradise Blue officially opened on Thursday, November 18 in the Gil Cates Theater at Geffen Playhouse.

Welcome to the sultry, jazz-filled Paradise Club. It's 1949 in Detroit, and trumpet-playing club owner Blue has a tough decision to make. Should he sell his jazz joint as gentrification is banging on the door? The house band is desperate to stay, Blue's demons are tempting him to leave, and the arrival of a seductive stranger turns everything upside down. In Tony Award-nominated playwright Dominique Morisseau's (Ain't Too Proud, Skeleton Crew) powerful noir-inspired drama, a makeshift family and their troubled bandleader find themselves fighting for the future of Paradise.