LAFPI

First run production commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Jonestown massacre: In 1978, People’s Temple, a progressive, Black multiracial church, self-destructed in a Guyana settlement named after its founder, the Reverend Jim Jones. A riveting story of complicity and resistance; loyalty and betrayal; black struggle and black sacrifice told through the voices of Black women.

Full stage play of White Nights, Black Paradise, based on the acclaimed 2015 novel by Sikivu Hutchinson, workshopped at the Robey Theatre Company.  Featuring Cydney Wayne Davis, Camille Lourde Wyatt, Ben Guillory, Darnell Rhea, Charlotte Williams, Elvinet Piard, Jazzmun Crayton, Darrell Philip, Scott St. Patrick, Erin Aubry Kaplan, Elise Robertson, Breeanna Judy and Philip McNair. Directed by William White. Stage managed by Pam Noles.

 “Sikivu Hutchinson’s “White Nights, Black Paradise” renders visibility to everyday black womens’ struggle with race, gender, religion, morality and poverty. The stories of Taryn and the other black members of the Peoples Temple that Hutchinson vividly brings to life makes it clear that while many blacks submitted to the ideal salvation of the racial utopia Jim Jones pushed, this submission of sorts represented black peoples epic struggle and fight with finding a voice and life in a racially hostile homeland. This is an important and beautifully written story that restores the humanity of the followers of the Peoples Temple.”  Kamela Heyward Rotimi, Duke Univ.