Mixed Magic Theatre to Stage DAY OF ABSENCE, 9/18-10/3

Mixed Magic Theatre will present DAY OF ABSENCE, directed by Ricardo Pitts-Wiley, running September 18-October 3, 2015.

Douglas Turner Ward's controversial satire Day of Absence premiered at the St. Mark's Playhouse in Manhattan on November 15,1965 and ran for 504 performances. It was the winner of the coveted Vernon Rice and Obie Awards. This clever and enormously amusing satire is described by the author as "A Reverse Minstrel Show."

Here the all-black cast, made up in white face, recount the uproarious emergencies which occur when a Southern town is faced with the sudden and inexplicable disappearance of all its black citizens. Day of Absence was to show what life of the whites, post antebellum, would be like WITHOUT blacks for one day.

Day of Absence is set in a timeless, no-name Southern town with an African-American cast impersonating all the town's white folk, from the bumpkins to the Mayor.

It starts with two storefront yokels, Luke and Clem, who painstakingly drawl their way through an otherwise uneventful, hot morning, when it dawns on them that "somp'ums outta kilter" - namely, that the town's black population, has mysteriously vanished, panic swiftly sets in.

The popularity (and controversy) of Day of Absence helped pave the way for Ward to win the 1966 Drama Desk Award for writing, and to co-found the revolutionary Negro Ensemble Company. Its themes have been reproduced in many other plays, parodies, and satires involving other marginalized groups, including Mexicans, women, and gays.

For tickets and information, call 401-305-7333 or visit mmtri.com.

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