Cleveland Public Theatre Explores Cleveland's Black Upper Class And Cotillion Life In SHOWIN' UP BLACK

Cleveland Public Theatre has announced the world premiere of local playwright Jeanne Madison's play Showin' Up Black, running February 20 through March 8, 2025.

Having had a sold-out run in the theatre's popular annual new play development series Test Flight in 2023 and receiving a recent gift of $15,000 from NEA, the theater is elated to bring this rarely told story of Cleveland's Black affluent community to life. 

On the eve of their daughter's cotillion, the Hopegoodes, an affluent African American family in Cleveland, see their plans for the perfect debutante ball collide with a Black Lives Matter protest. As the protest gets nearer, secrets and competing desires get shaken loose, tearing at the fabric of the family, challenging what, exactly, it is to be Black. 

The ensemble includes Ashley Aquilla, Drew Pope, Tamicka Scruggs, Makayla Smith, and Darryl Tatum.

Tickets for Showin' Up Black can be purchased at www.cptonline.org through the theater's Choose-What-You-Pay option which allows patrons to pay what they'd like with no handling fees.

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