Mixed Magic Theatre Produces Controversial Award-Winning Masterpieces In Repertory

Mixed Magic Theatre (MMT) is thrilled to open its season with Amiri Baraka's Dutchman and The Slave, two searing, timeless and timely dramas that will be performed in repertory in the company's two renovated performance spaces Nov 10 -26.

DUTCHMAN, which premiered in March 1964 and received an Obie Award for Best American Play, is considered a seminal work in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. This production, directed by MMT Artistic Director Jonathan Pitts-Wiley, follows Clay (Yakim Parker) and Lula (Kerry Giorgi), a Black man and White woman whose brief, tense encounter "in the flying underbelly" of a New York City subway car is a tangle of flirtation, ugly truths, and palpable rage that deftly grapples with the tempestuous intersections of race, sex, class, and gender. At turns amusing, vulnerable and dripping with an unrelenting fury, Dutchman has left audiences breathless for over five decades and continues to crackle in today's climate rife with passionate debate on the nature of truth, freedom, and identity.

Directed by MMT co-founder Ricardo Pitts-Wiley, THE SLAVE is a gripping companion piece to Dutchman, written in the same year. Set in a well-appointed apartment during a time of Black uprising and revolt, the action of the play revolves around the hostile encounter between the revolutionary leader Walker Vessels (Frederick Douglas), his ex-wife Grace Easley (Melanie Stone), and her husband Brad (Terry Shea). As explosions shake the building to its foundation and the victory of the revolution Vessels helped to foment seems imminent, the time has come to face the painful, complicated past and the uncertain future of race relations in America. The stakes couldn't be higher as they not only concern what remains of society outside but also the lives and identities of Walker's and Grace's young daughters as well.

Tickets $20 General $10 for Students & Military with ID
November 10-12: Students and Military (w/ID) are FREE.*
*Some restrictions apply. Please go to website for details. For more information, go to www.mmtri.com or call 401.305.7333.

ABOUT MIXED MAGIC THEATRE

Based in Pawtucket, Rhode Island's historic Lorraine Mills, Mixed Magic Theatre is a 501 (c) (3) acclaimed arts organization founded in 2000. For the past 17 years, the Company has strived to bring diverse stories and images to the stage through prose and song, tackling the well-known dramatics as well as original theatrical productions.

Mixed Magic Theatre continues to pursue excellence and remains committed to its mission : Weaving together a diversity of images and ideas on the stage from across America and around the world.

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