Aurora Theatre Company opens its 19th season with Alice Childress' vibrant, humorous, and heartbreaking look at racism through the lens of the theater, TROUBLE IN MIND. Set during the early years of the Civil Rights movement, this disconcerting yet disarmingly funny look at the inequalities of American life in the 1950's highlights the half-truths we tell ourselves about race relations and societal progress in America. More than 40 years after it was written, TROUBLE IN MIND, according to The New York Times, "still has the power to make one feel its anger and humor."
TROUBLE IN MIND follows a cast of black and white actors attempting to mount a production of a "progressive" new play. The play-within-the-play, entitled Chaos in Belleville, an anti-lynching drama set in the South, written by a white writer and directed by a white director, marks the first opportunity for Wiletta Mayer, a gifted African American actress, to play a leading lady on Broadway. But what compromises must she make to succeed? Robin Stanton (Speech & Debate, Betrayed, Permanent Collection) directs this play about race, identity, and opportunity, featuring Bay Area favorite Margo Hall in her Aurora Theatre Company debut.
DATES: Previews: August 20, 21, 24, and 25 at 8pm; August 22 at 2pm
Opens: August 26, 2010
Closes: September 26
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