Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ An Octoroon is a whirlwind of images and dialogue that leaves no one out of the conversation and makes no apologies for asking the hard questions. OCTOROON — Synonyms and related words: Cape Colored, Eurasian, cattalo, citrange, cross, crossbreed, griffe, half blood, half-bred, half-breed, half.
by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Directed by Nicholas Newell.
November 8th-15th, Center for Art and Theatre’s Black Box
Curtain at 7:30pm, Sunday Matinee at 2:00pm
What happens when you are an African American playwright who wants to write a comedy about slavery by adapting the 19thcentury abolitionist melodrama The Octoroon, and most of your white actors bail on you because they “don’t feel comfortable”? What if the ghost of Irish playwright Dion Boucicault shows up drunk to help you put on the show? Why does a giant rabbit keep running around your scenes?
An Octoroon Prologue
MacArthur Genius Grant winner Brandon Jacob Jenkins answers all of these questions in his provocative post-modern comedy An Octoroon which won the Obie award for Best New American Play. Mature Themes and Language