Cast Is Set For 'Joe Turner's Come and Gone'

 

AT THE CTG/MARK TAPER FORUM

Previews Begin April 24, 2013

Casting has been announced for “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” which begins previews April 24 at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum at the Los Angeles Music Center.  Opening night is May 8 and performances run through June 9, 2013.

“Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” written by August Wilson and directed by Phylicia Rashad, features Skye Barrett, Gabriel Brown, Keith David, January LaVoy, Vivian Nixon, Nathaniel James Potvin, Raynor Scheine, Erica Tazel, John Douglas Thompson, Glynn Turman and Lillias White.

“Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” has set design by John Iacovelli, costume design by Karen Perry, lighting design by Allen Lee Hughes and sound design by Cricket S. Myers. The production features musical composition by Kathryn Bostic and the production stage manager is David Blackwell.

“Joe Turner” is set in 1911 in a Pittsburgh boarding house, where tenants come and go, forming a community that is altered time and time again. The daily routine of meals, conversation, gossip, arrivals and departures, and the changes that occur within this fluid grouping of people, is set against a great tide of Americans of African descent, only 50 years out of bondage, who are moving toward the industrial cities of the North in search of economic opportunity, lost family members and new beginnings.

 CTG maintained a long relationship with August Wilson, presenting seven of his plays. In addition to “Jitney,” “King Hedley II” (Tony Award nomination for Best Play), “Gem of the Ocean” and “Radio Golf” at the Mark Taper Forum, CTG presented the Tony Award-nominated “Seven Guitars” at the Ahmanson Theatre and “Two Trains Running” and “The Piano Lesson” (1990 Pulitzer Prize) at the Doolittle Theatre in Hollywood.  

Phylicia Rashad starred in the 2004 Broadway revival of “A Raisin in the Sun” and won the Tony Award for Best Actress (Play), which was the first time in Tony history that an African-American actress won in this category.  Her other Broadway credits include “August: Osage County,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Gem of the Ocean” (she also starred in the world premiere production at the CTG/Mark Taper Forum in 2003), “Jelly's Last Jam,” “Into the Woods,” “Dreamgirls” and “The Wiz.” She has appeared in numerous movies and is well known on television as Clair Huxtable in “The Cosby Show.” She made her Los Angeles directing debut with the Ebony Repertory Theatre production of “A Raisin in the Sun,” first at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center and then at the Douglas Theatre.

Ben Brantley of The New York Times said of the play, “‘Joe Turner’ seamlessly blends the ordinary with the extraordinary. . . This play disarms its audiences with folksy chitchat and homespun comedy before it dawns on them that what they’re watching — in its subliminal sweep and symmetry — is close to epic poetry.”

            Tickets for “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” are available at www.CenterTheatreGroup.org, the CTG box office located at the Ahmanson Theatre, or by calling (213) 628-2772.