She was afraid that history would white wash how painful it was for the children who grew up without anyone telling them they were as beautiful as they were.The title of the book comes from its central character Pecola’s desperate wish that she had blue eyes. She wrote “The Bluest Eye” because she wanted to make sure that in the wake of all the racially uplifting work being written by her colleagues, that nobody ever forgot what if felt like to believe you were ugly because of the color of your skin. Enthralling, gorgeously written, and incredibly emotional, The Bluest Eye asks powerful questions concerning racism, beauty, and identity with stunning.Toni Morrison began writing the book when she was teaching at Howard University and raising two sons as a single mother. In order fully to comprehend the duality. You must remember the time the book was written, she says.
MOXIE Theatre and Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company’s co-production begins at MOXIE Theatre and plays through Mar 3, 2013. In 2006 it premiered off-Broadway in New York and the adaptation is now being translated into French. Toni Morrison wanted the story to include the perspective of girls who were more like she was as a child, girls who possessed a greater sense of self worth, which is why Claudia and her sister play such pivotal roles in the storytelling.In 2005 Steppenwolf Theatre commissioned Lydia Diamond to adapt the novel into a full length play for the stage. Unlike Pecola, Claudia rejects the white racial standard in her community, perhaps because she grows up in a more stable home. Claudia Macteer, one of the daughters of the foster family Pecola stays with, is the narrator of the story. She has suffered through abuse and poverty and is now living with a foster family.
It tells the story of a year in the life of a young black girl living in 1940s Ohio. Smith (Costume Design), Angelica Ynfante (Properties Design/Technical Director), Missy Bradstreet (Wigs and Make-up), and Elizabeth Stephens (Stage Manager).“It is an honor to work with this talented ensemble and dynamic production team on Toni Morrison’s classic story adapted by one of America’s hottest contemporary playwrights, Lydia Diamond.” says MOXIE Artistic Director, Delicia Turner Sonnenberg.The Bluest Eye and its concurrent arts education program, Three Part Arts, are made possible with support from The City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture, The James Irvine Foundation, QUALCOMM Foundation, Nordson Foundation, Wells Fargo Foundation, and Dea and Osborn Hurston.We’ve been keeping the third show in our season under wraps but now we’re proud to finally reveal our co-production partners, the fabulous Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company, and the very exciting project we’ll be producing together, Lydia Diamond’s adaptation of Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winning Toni Morrison’s classic American novel, “The Bluest Eye” playing Feb 2 – at MOXIE Theatre.“The Bluest Eye” is Toni Morrison’s first novel, written in 1970 when she was teaching at Howard University. Breedlove, Kimberly King as Mama, and Chelsea Diggs-Smith as Maureen Peal.The creative team includes Brian Redfern (Scenic Design), Luke Olson (Lighting Design), George Yé(Sound Design), Emily N. Rounding out the cast are Melissa Coleman-Reed, a member of one of San Diego’s newest companies Circle Circle dot dot, as Mrs. Abner Genece,Chair of San Diego’s Actors’ Equity Association’s liaison committee, will portray the poignant Soaphead Church and Daddy.
Adapted by playwright Lydia Diamond in 2005, “The Bluest Eye” explores the legacy of racism and standards of beauty.The play was originally commissioned by Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago in 2005. She blames her dark skin and prays for blue eyes, sure that love will follow. Instead, she faces constant ridicule and abuse.
With the support from a grant from The James Irvine Foundation, Mo`olelo and MOXIE will build upon Mo`olelo’s strong relationships with San Diego’s diverse African American communities and explore how this production can serve a variety of community needs. “On our own, it would be too expensive to produce together, I know we can do the play justice, and Delicia is the right director for the project.” Central to Mo`olelo’s mission is its commitment to producing plays that include significant roles for actors of color and that allow the Company to engage communities that are traditionally underserved by mainstream American theater. We need to see this play now as much as we ever did, and it fulfills MOXIE’s mission to create more diverse and honest images of women for our culture on a number of levels.”“I approached Delicia about the possibility of a co-production of this play a few months ago,” shared Mo`olelo’s Executive Artistic Director, Seema Sueko. However smart and educated we are, many of us believe that if we don’t fit a certain standard of beauty, as it’s portrayed in the media, we’re less valuable to society and less deserving of love.
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