JIMMY AND LORRAINE: A MUSING
October 10-19, 2024
The Austin Arts Center presents a six-performance encore engagement of HartBeat Ensemble's acclaimed production of Jimmy & Lorraine: A Musing. Talvin Wilk's poetic and political play focuses on the friendship between two groundbreaking Black American writers and activists, Lorraine Hansberry and James Baldwin. The production kicks off HartBeat Ensemble's James Baldwin Centennial Season and will continue with Kyle Bass' Citizen James in early 2025.
Jimmy and Lorraine: A Musing is a meditation on the American political climate of the late 50s and early 60s through the lens of two significant artists of the time, James Baldwin and Lorraine Hansberry. Following their impactful careers as artists, their call to social activism, and the challenges of wrestling with the balance of an artistic career and politics, their lives give us an opportunity to look at this rich period of political and social upheaval. Inspired by text from biographies, journals, personal correspondences, plays, novels, interviews, essays, and media clips, a picture of this significant period in American history is revealed with Baldwin and Hansberry front and center. Significant speeches, television interviews, and political debates all serve as fodder for this meditation. Hansberry and Baldwin were at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement. Still, both had arrived, through their art, efforts to depict and grapple with the complex lives of African Americans in American society. Together, the lives of these two artists and social activists give a profound perspective on the artist's quandary in political struggle and the challenges of a radical life.
Jimmy and Lorraine: A Musing is supported in part by Austin Arts Center and Trinity College, J. Walton Bissell Foundation, Department of Economic and Community Development, Office of the Arts, Greater Hartford Council for the Arts, The Roberts Foundation, and Travelers. Jimmy and Lorraine: A Musing was originally produced by HartBeat Ensemble in 2016 at the Carriage House Theater in Hartford, CT, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, CT Humanities, the Greater Hartford Arts Council, and the Amistad Center for Arts & Culture.
ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM:
Talvin Wilks (Playwright)
Brian Jennings (Director)
Lynne Porter (Scenic Designer)
Margo Caddell (Lighting Designer)
Kristen L. Kingsley (Production Stage Manager)
Jon-Michael Reese* (as James Baldwin)
Vanessa R Butler* (as Lorraine Hansberry)
Nick Roesler* (in varying roles)
*Appears courtesy of Actors Equity Association
ABOUT HARTBEAT ENSEMBLE:
HartBeat Ensemble creates provocative theater that connects the people and communities of Greater Hartford across traditional barriers of race, gender, class, and geography. HartBeat Ensemble is one of the few arts institutions in Greater Hartford using theater and storytelling to build the Beloved Community. As an ensemble of Citizen Artists, we create and present innovative theatrical experiences based on critical civic issues that directly affect our constituents in their neighborhoods, their jobs, their schools, and their institutions. HartBeat not only offers audiences the opportunity to witness world-class theater, but through storytelling and facilitation, we engage them in telling their own stories in a variety of settings. At the same time, HartBeat is preparing the next generation of Citizen Artists and Civic Leaders through our Youth Play Institute. To learn more, please visit HartBeatEnsemble.org.
LOGISTICS:
Jimmy and Lorraine: A Musing is 90 minutes with no intermission.
The production will run in the Goodwin Theater in Trinity College's Austin Arts Center (300 Summit Street, Hartford) from October 10 through October 19.
Tickets are FREE, but advance reservations are required.
Goodwin Theater will open for seating at 7:00PM.
Reserved tickets not used by 7:25pm will be released.
No food or drink is allowed inside Goodwin Theater, except water in closed containers.
The use of cameras or recording equipment is strictly prohibited.
We strongly encourage audience members to stay for the duration of each performance.
