LOUISVILLE, Ky. – “My Secret Language of Wishes,” a new play by Cori Thomas about tension between two women over adopting a disabled teenager, will open the 2007 spring season for the University of Louisville’s African American Theatre Program.
The play will be performed from Feb. 28 to March 4 at Thrust Theater at Floyd and Warnock streets at 8 p.m. nightly with an additional 3 p.m. Sunday matinee. The playwright will be on campus for the production and will have a special ‘talkback’ session with the audience after the performance on March 1.
Jo, a lawyer and the play’s main character, learns the meaning of love without boundaries as she engages in a legal dispute between a young white woman and a black business woman over the custody of a disabled black teenager.
“The play touches on the meaning of unconditional love without distinctions such as black or white, rich or poor, gay or straight,” said Lundeana Thomas, the play’s director. “We’re excited to bring this drama to life for the first time and to honor a rising playwright.”
Cori Thomas is a lifetime member of New York City’s Ensemble Studio Theatre. Her play, “My Secret Language of Wishes,” was a finalist for the 2006 Christopher Brian Wolk Award. Another play she wrote, “Our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor,” took second place in the 2004 Theodore Ward Prize for African American Playwrights competition.
Lundeana Thomas, who directs U of L’s African American Theatre Program, was honored for excellence in theater arts last fall by The Theatre Museum in New York. A past president of the Black Theatre Network, she founded the Black Theatre Association in the Association for Theatre in Higher Education.
Ticket prices are $10 for the general public, $9 for U of L employees and senior citizens and $7 for students. Call the box office at 502-852-6814 for reservations or group ticket prices.
For more information, call 502-852-8442.