As I watched this long-awaited production of August Wilson’s Fences from the Bowie Community Theatre (it was set to open in March 2020 before life got so much more… interesting), I couldn’t help recalling lines from Philip Larkin’s “This Be the Verse”:
They f*ck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
A little scratch gives you character, unless you’re a 45-vinyl, in which case it just causes you to skip a lot. The Strand Theatre has a whole lot of character and more importantly they have the message. They have the message of love with their production of Dominique Morisseau’s Detroit ’67, directed by Erin Riley. Powerful, evocative, visceral— this stunning drama set in the heart of the “colored district in downtown Detroit in the midst of the race riots” is poignant and disturbing in its relevance to the modern day.
You got love and you got death; it’s all you got. And death will find you, but you’ve gotta find love. And believe you me, you’re going to find it when you fall in love with this stellar production of August Wilson’s Two Trains Running at The Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre this fall. Kicking off their 56th season— A Place Where We Belong— this 7th play of the 10-play Pittsburgh Cycle by the renowned and award-winning playwright,