This spring, The Human Race Theatre Company (HRTC) celebrates one of the 20th century's best-known jurists and civil rights icons when it presents George Stevens, Jr.'s Thurgood as the first full-length theatrical production in the 54-seat performance space at its Caryl D. Philips Creativity Center. The show opened Friday, April 28, and BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!
Based on the life and career of the Supreme Court's first African-American Justice, this powerful one-man play follows Thurgood Marshall's rise from his childhood in back-alley Baltimore, to Howard University law school, to his victorious challenges of segregation in the South, all the way to a seat on the highest court in the land in 1967. Humorous and inspiring milestones of Marshall's journey reveal the remarkable brilliance, perseverance and hope of one of the greatest American heroes of all time. Human Race Resident Artist Scott Stoney directs fellow Resident Artist Alan Bomar Jones as the title character.
Thurgood is the first play by television and film writer George Stevens, Jr., whose interest in Justice Marshall began with Separate But Equal, a miniseries he wrote and directed about the story of the Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation case on which Marshall was the lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
Alan Bomar Jones is a professional international actor, lecturer and director who has been performing with The Human Race Theatre Company for twenty years. He is also an Artist-in-Resident with the Ohio Arts Council. He is no stranger to one-man shows. His credits include "Elijah Pierce: Pierce to the Soul," "Nelson Mandela: His Journey" and "Lewis Clarke: My Brother Milton." Alan has appeared in over seventy professional theatrical shows and several independent films. A few of his credits include "Criminal Activities," "Blue Car," "The Movement" and "Missed It." When not acting and directing, Alan travels to colleges and universities offering Performing Arts Workshops. He currently has an independent business entitled Yes, I Remember That Too, recording family memories by way of one-on-one storytelling interviews. In conjunction with The Arts Partnership of Greater Hancock County, they have produced over a dozen storytelling segments for families which has involved over several hundred family members.
Preston D. McCarthy (HRTC's Sweeney Todd, The Full Monty, Mame and Play It by Heart) is the stage manager.
All performances are in The Human Race's Caryl D. Philips Creativity Center, located at 116 North Jefferson Street, 2nd floor, in downtown Dayton, Ohio. Tickets and performance information for Thurgood are available at www.humanracetheatre.org or by calling Ticket Center Stage at (937) 228-3630, and at the Schuster Center box office.
Photo Credit: Scott J. Kimmins
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