Nina Simone's FOUR WOMEN Makes Its Atlanta Debut On True Colors' Stage

Artistic Director Kenny Leon and True Colors Theatre Company are thrilled to present Christina Ham's Nina Simone: Four Women beginning this September. In its Atlanta debut, Nina Simone: Four Women, directed by Michele Shay, brings to life the four women from the play's namesake song, giving voice to "Aunt Sarah", "Sephronia", "Sweet Thing", and "Peaches". The day after the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, these four women find themselves in search of solace in the ruins of the church, where Nina is struggling to compose a song that can capture the pain and protest that resides in her heart. This play with music includes some of Nina Simone's most popular civil rights anthems such as "Mississippi Goddam," "Go Limp," and "Young, Gifted, and Black."

"Nina Simone valued freedom as highly perhaps as she valued the power of her music to kindle her anger. She used her music to sweep away fear - her own fear as well as her people's fear- so we could stand up and take the necessary actions to claim it," remarked Director Michele Shay. "Christina Ham has given us Nina Simone: Four Women and hurled her passion in front of us in a most compelling, spellbinding, and intoxicating dramatic musical testimony celebrating the beauty and complexity of Black Women. The play is a forceful velvet-gloved wake-up call inviting each of us to activate our own personal Nina and move!"

Regina Marie Williams, who portrayed Nina Simone at Nina Simone: Four Women's premiere at Park Square Theatre in Minneapolis, will step into the role again for the play's Atlanta debut. She shared her excitement for the role, "Sometimes Nina's voice would be warm and soothing, other times angry and harsh, and then light and sweet. Her voice, her music, made me feel." She added, "Over the years I have performed in musicals and plays, comedy and tragedy, Shakespeare and Wilson. The variety has been a gift and will be an asset when working to access the brilliance, the vulnerability, the self-righteousness, the humanity, and the Goddess in Nina."

The cast for Nina Simone: Four Women will also include Wendy Fox-Williams as Sephronia, Jordan Frazier as Sweet Thing, and True Colors alumna Adrienne Reynolds as Aunt Sarah.

Nina Simone: Four Women will be in preview performances September 25 - 27 at 7:30 PM; Opening Night is Friday, September 28, 2018 at 7:30 PM. The show will run through October 21, 2018. Performances during the run are Wednesdays - Saturdays at 7:30 PM and Saturday - Sunday at 2:30 PM. There will be 11:00 AM matinees on Wednesday, October 3 and Wednesday, October 17. All performances will be presented at Fulton County's Southwest Arts Center, located at 915 New Hope Road, Atlanta, GA 30331.

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