Audio drama free to Aurora Theatre Company Members
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Adapted by Lydia R. Diamond
Directed by Dawn Monique Williams
April 9–May 21, 2021
Pulitzer Prize Winner Toni Morrison's debut novel, The Bluest Eye (which turns fifty this year), comes to Aurora in a stunning adaptation by playwright Lydia R. Diamond (Stick Fly, Smart People). Pecola Breedlove is obsessed with Shirley Temple and a desire to have blue eyes. Claudia, another young girl and one of Pecola’s only friends, guides us through this hauntingly lyrical memory play. Diamond expertly translates to the stage the emotional depths of Black girlhood, the poisonous effects of racism, and the heartbreak of shame in Morrison's work. Celebrated for a “profound and unrelenting vision,” (The New Yorker) Morrison sets The Bluest Eye in her hometown of Lorain, Ohio, and places three young Black girls—Claudia, Pecola, and Frieda—center stage as they strive to make sense of love, sisterhood, abuse, and hate.
"POIGNANT AND POETIC DRAMA"
— Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Content Advisory: The Bluest Eye contains subject matter that some viewers may find disturbing and/or triggering, including topics such as abuse, sexual violence, rape, and racial trauma.
Have any questions about listening to the audio drama? Please check out The Bluest Eye FAQ page here: members.auroratheatre.org/tbefaq
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Cast Michael J. Asberry* Sam Jackson* Cathleen Riddley* Jeunée Simon* Jasmine Milan Williams
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Creative Team Toni Morrison Lydia R. Diamond Dawn Monique Williams Elton Bradman Angela Don Eliza Mascoll Elizabeth Lada |
*Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers
Toni Morrison was a Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, essayist, book editor, and college professor. Morrison’s writing focuses on the lives of African Americans, and are often set in what was once the racially segregated South. Among her best-known novels are The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, Beloved, and A Mercy. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees, and was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012 by President Barack Obama.
Lydia R. Diamond is a nationally recognized award-winning playwright and assistant professor at Boston University. Her adaptation of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye won the Black Arts Alliance Image Award for Best New Play. Her other plays include The Gift Horse, Stick Fly, The Inside, and Voyeurs de Venus. Diamond holds a bachelor's degree in theater and performance studies from Northwestern University. She taught playwriting at Columbia College Chicago, DePaul University, Loyola University and currently at Boston University. Diamond is a board member of StageSource, Boston's resource for theatre artists.
Dawn Monique Williams (Director and Associate Artistic Director) joined the Aurora team in August 2019. A native of Oakland, CA, Dawn was previously the Artistic Associate at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival where she directed Merry Wives of Windsor in 2017. Her recent directing credits include Aurora’s Bull in a China Shop, Earthrise at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, TiJean and His Brothers, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, The Secretaries (Willamette Week’s Top 10 Portland Theatre Productions of 2018), Romeo & Juliet, August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, and Lynn Nottage’s By the Way, Meet Stark. She’s directed a range of plays including the English language premiere of Gracia Morales’ NN12, Othello, Twelfth Night, In the Blood, Steel Magnolias, Children of Eden, The 25th Annual Spelling Bee, Little Shop of Horrors, Burial at Thebes, Medea, Antigone Project, and La Ronde; international directing credits include Edinburgh Festival Fringe productions of Scapin the Cheat, Anna Bella Eema, and The Tempest. Dawn was a 2016 Princess Grace Theatre Fellowship recipient, was awarded a TCG Leadership U residency grant, funded by the Mellon Foundation, and was a former Killian Directing Fellow at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She is an alum of the Drama League Directors Project and holds an MA in Dramatic Literature and an MFA in Directing. Dawn is a proud member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.SDC.
Michael J. Asberry (Daddy/Soaphead/Cholly) returns to Aurora where he was last seen in 2019’s Exit Strategy and 2008’s Satellites. He most recently appeared in Las Meninas with Profile Theater. He's also performed with the San Francisco Mime Troupe; Best of Playground Festival - Zoomfest; Sacramento Theatre Company; Capital Stage Company; San Francisco Shakespeare Festival; Pacific Conservatory Theatre; TheatreWorks; Shotgun Players; and the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. Film and television credits include San Andreas (Warner Brothers); Chance (Hulu); Trauma (NBC); Nash Bridges (CBS) and voiceover for Pixar Animation, Clorox, Pine Sol, and the video game, Watchdogs 2.
Sam Jackson (Frieda/Darlene) is a San Francisco based actor, vocalist and teaching artist. She was last seen at Aurora in Exit Strategy (2019). Her most recent acting credits include: Shotgun Player's Vinegar Tom, Kings, and Kill The Debbie Downers! Kill Them! Kill Them! Kill Them Off!!. She is also a company member of Nice Tan Comedy, a queer WOC led sketch comedy group based in San Francisco.
Cathleen Riddley (Mama/Mrs. Breedlove) makes her Aurora debut. Bay Area credits include A.C.T., Marin Shakespeare, Shotgun Players, SF Playhouse, TheatreWorks, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, and Berkeley Playhouse. Film and television work include the feature film La Mission, the short film Two Plus One, and the television series Trauma. Riddley is an Associate Artist with Alter Theatre, and is an alumna of The Juilliard School Drama Division, a certified ASL Interpreter, and has an MA from the University of Pennsylvania.
Jeunée Simon (Claudia/White Girl) makes her Aurora debut. She was recently featured in Aurora’s virtual reading of Kait Kerrigan’s Father/Daughter. She is an actor and director in the Bay Area. Recent credits include: La Ronde (Cutting Ball Theater), Men On Boats u/s (American Conservatory Theater), HeLa (TheatreFIRST), and When My Mama Was A Hittite (Magic Theatre). Simon is a proud recipient of the 2017 RHE Artistic Fellowship and a 2019 Directing Apprentice with PlayGround.
Jasmine Milan Williams (Pecola/Maureen) returns to Aurora after appearing in Bull In A China Shop (2019). Her recent work includes: Utopia (Cutting Ball Theater), The New Normal ( By Ashley Smiley), Inked Baby by Christina Anderson (Crowded Fire Theater Company) and, The Last Sermon of Sister Imani ( Theater First). Companies she has shared space with include: Campo Santo (Family/Company Member), Theater First, Those Woman Production Company, African American Shakespeare Company, and New Conservatory Theater Company.
