The Color Purple is an inspiring family saga that tells the unforgettable story of a woman who, through love, finds the strength to triumph over adversity and discover her unique voice in the world. This musical adaptation of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel (and the popular 1985 Steven Spielberg film) spotlights Celie, a downtrodden young woman whose personal awakening over the course of 40 years forms the arc of this epic story. With a joyous score featuring jazz, ragtime, gospel, African music, and blues, The Color Purple is a story of hope, a testament to the healing power of love, and a celebration of life.
Based upon the novel written by Alice Walker and the
Warner Bros./Amblin Entertainment Motion PictureBook by Marsha Norman
Music and Lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray
The Color Purple was produced on Broadway at the Broadway Theater by Oprah Winfrey, Scott Sanders, Roy Furman, and Quincy Jones. The world premiere of The Color Purple was produced by the Alliance Theatre, Atlanta, Georgia.
The Color Purple is presented through special arrangement with and all authorized performance materials are supplied by Theatrical Rights Worldwide 1180 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 640, New York, NY 10036. www.theatricalrights.com
Welcome Director Dianne Shaw back to Fort Wayne!
DIANNE B. SHAW (Director) is extremely pleased to be returning to the Fort Wayne Civic Theatre for this production of The Color Purple. She has directed Dreamgirls and 9 to 5 in the past seasons, along with two winning pieces in the Northeast Indiana Playwright Festival. Dianne holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Directing and Theater Arts from MacMurray College in Jacksonville IL., with continuing studies at Northwestern University, Indiana State, and Chicago’s Second City. As an actress, Dianne has been seen on the Civic stage along with other theaters in Fort Wayne. She has several films/TV credits including Chicago Med, Chasing Gold with Paul Sorvino, and The Women of Brewster Place with Oprah Winfrey along with roles in the beloved classics, Home Alone and Groundhog Day. Dianne has worked with Fort Wayne film director Steve Miller on several independent films.
DIRECTOR'S NOTES
The Color Purple, Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, inspired a blockbuster film and now, by some accounts, a landmark musical. Perhaps a musical version of Walker’s original epistolary novel was inevitable. The musical hints at the little-known history of Black letters written in search of family members lost during 300+ years of enslavement. However, the musical does powerful work that the novel could not do. It engages the language and history of Black music--gospel and jazz performances undergirded by the Negro spiritual, the blues, and the work song. This music provides the soundtrack of the Black American experience.
Celebrate with us tonight the journey of Celie, a young girl born into rural Georgia of the early 1900s. Her life is restricted by cultures and rituals of dominance coded by colors, white and black; by sex and gender, male and female; by wealth and poverty; by dictates of law, the language of power. What power does a poor, illiterate Black girl summon that she might navigate a world embedded in histories and practices of cruelty, abuse, denial, and silence? Alice Walker gives Celie fortitude, sisterhood, love, and imagination. Composer par excellence, Quincy Jones, gives her music.
The Color Purple is a uniquely American story situated in a larger history of women, men, and children around the world working to evolve toward a culture that honors a dream of community defined by love. Alice Walker has stated that Purple is a story about love. “Love is big. It can hold anger, hatred, and pain." Love must also make room for forgiveness and redemption.
Celie’s story, for me, is one of simple grace, an enduring faith in our capacity to love others and more importantly, ourselves.
