The University of Louisville’s The African American Theatre Program will stage several opportunities to observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Black History Month this year.
The program’s annual MLK Celebration is 1 p.m., Jan 15, and features a staged reading of “Free Lunch,” a piece written by Troy Johnson, a participant in the 2017 workshops “Telling our Tales: Plays from West Louisville.” This free, public presentation will include music, theater and dance at The Playhouse, 1911 S. Third St.
The African American Theatre Program also presents “Fabulation or the Re-education of Undine,” Feb. 23 through March 4, in celebration of Black History Month.
Directed by Jacqueline Thompson, “Fabulation” is a social satire about an ambitious, haughty African American woman, Undine Barnes Calles, whose husband suddenly disappears after embezzling all of her money. Pregnant and on the brink of social and financial ruin, Undine retreats to her childhood home in Brooklyn’s Walt Whitman projects, only to discover that she must cope with a crude new reality. Undine faces the challenge of transforming her setbacks into small victories in a battle for self-affirmation. Written by Lynn Nottage, “Fabulation” is a comeuppance tale with a comic twist.
The play starts at 8 p.m. Feb. 23 and 24 and at 3 p.m. Feb. 25. It resumes at 8 p.m. March 1-3 and at 3 p.m. March 4 in the Thrust Theatre Studio Arts Building, 2314 S. Floyd St. Tickets are $8 for UofL students, $12 for other students and alumni, faculty, staff and seniors and $15 for general admission.
