The Sty of the Blind Pig Plays TheaterWorks in Downtown Hartford

The Sty of the Blind Pig by Philip Hayes Dean is set in South Side Chicago in the late 1950's just as the Civil Rights Movement begins. This rich African American family drama looks back at a changing world and forward to a future suffused with new understandings.

Tazewell Thompson, who staged TheaterWorks’ celebrated productions of Broke-ology, God of Carnage, RACE and The Mother----- With the Hat, directs Royce Johnson (Blind Jordan), Krystel Lucas (Alberta), Jonathan Earl Peck (Doc), and Brenda Thomas (Weedy) in The Sty of the Blind Pig, the second play of the company’s 26th Season.

The production’s design team includes Donald Eastman (Sets), Harry Nadal (Costumes), Scott Bolman (Lights), and J Hagenbuckle (Sound). Production Manager is Michael Lenaghan.

By turns a rollicking domestic comedy and a mysterious, devastating tragedy, The Sty of the Blind Pig is an intriguing, finely wrought story that explores the relationship between a headstrong matriarch and her sensitive daughter.

On the cusp of the Civil Rights Movement in Chicago’s South Side, Alberta, unmarried and in her thirties, shares an apartment with her mother, Weedy, an old-fashioned Southern transplant who cloaks her troubles in the hats and dresses of her church-going life. Weedy is not an easy woman and she never misses a chance to berate her daughter or brother, Doc. Doc is a dapper, down-on-his-luck gambling man and the despair of his strait-laced sister. Nonetheless, he is a strong presence in the women’s lives.

The arrival of a stranger propels the family to confront their traditional values and expectations. When Blind Jordan comes to their door searching for a woman he once knew, the family is puzzled and even frightened. But Alberta offers to help and finds herself surprisingly taken by the blind musician. Out of the unsettling nature of their encounter comes a growing estrangement between mother and daughter, and a disturbing awareness of loneliness, despair, things lost and the relentless march of time.

A play that presaged the dramas of August Wilson, The Sty of the Blind Pig was honored by Time magazine as one of the year’s ten best plays in 1971 and was winner of the New York Drama Desk and Hull-Warriner Awards.

WHEN:
January 20 through February 26, 2012

Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays: 7:30 p.m.

Fridays and Saturdays:
8:00 p.m.

Weekend Matinees:
2:30 p.m.

Lobby and Gallery of American Art, sponsored by The Hartford Financial Services Group, opens 90 minutes prior to curtain; seating starts 60 minutes prior.

A free matinee for college students & faculty is offered Saturday, February 4th at 2:30 p.m. sponsored by Bank of America.

TheaterWorks is located at City Arts on Pearl- 233 Pearl Street in Downtown Hartford

ADMISSION: All Seat - General Admission $50

Center Reserved Service Charge $13

College-age Student Rush w/ID $17 (subject to availability)

Discounts are available for groups of 15 or more.

For seats call (860) 527-7838.

Free seats for select performances of The Sty of the Blind Pig are available for young people ages 12 - 17 thanks to Lincoln Financial Foundation.

The Sty of the Blind Pig is the second play of TheaterWorks’ 2011-2012 Season.

Four-play subscriptions for TheaterWorks' 2011-2012 Season are only $100 through December 30, 2011. With TheaterWorks' unique subscription system patrons may attend a play any time they wish during its run, and are credited with free seats if they ever miss a play.

For more information, please visit www.theaterworkshartford.org

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