Online Sunday, September 27 at 3:00 pm (CDT)
We continue our “Essential” 13th performance season on Sunday, September 27 with a celebration of the author of The Color Purple in our Dr. Greta McCormick Coger Literary Salon Series.
In a Purple Mood: Alice Walker will be presented online beginning at 3:00 pm (CDT). The Salon will run approximately 45 minutes.
Curated and directed by TSC’s Carmen-maria Mandley and featuring TSC’s core company actors, including Darius Wallace, In a Purple Mood will include Ms. Walker’s poetry (Taking the Arrow out of the Heart), material from her interviews, and excerpts read from The Color Purple.
At a very young age, Ms. Walker began writing poetry. She remains prolific. She said: “Write your own stories, out of your own lives, hopes, disasters. and dreams. They will resonate with others around the world.”
“Ms. Walker writes with daring and tenacity,” says Mandley. “She has a deep belief that anything we do is in service of our ancestors and our elders; that we are all storytellers. And in order to continue as a species, we must, with diligence, continue to tell the truths we have, be they celebratory, dangerous, romantic, or grief- stricken.”
Ms. Walker said, “I always feel like if you can see it, maybe you can change it. You can’t make people change if they’re not moved to do it, but that’s why we have writers, poets, fighters, and dancers.”
One of the main focuses of the Salon is The Color Purple, published in 1982.
“It is one of the most important books in the world to me,” says Mandley, “since I read it in middle school so many years ago. The book was banned in schools, but we circulated a copy around our group of friends and we were all amazed by the voice of Celie. My group of friends was diverse, and it started many conversations for us that we could not have in front of any adult. Conversations about race, gender, abuse, and sexuality. More than that, it allowed us to tell our own stories to each other, just like Celie, Shug, Sofia, and Nettie.”
Alice Walker is an internationally celebrated writer, poet, and activist whose books include seven novels, four collections of short stories, four children’s books, and volumes of essays and poetry. She won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction in 1983 and the National Book Award. She has written many bestsellers, among them The Temple of My Familiar, By the Light of My Father’s Smile, and Possessing the Secret of Joy. Her other novels are: The Third Life of Grange Copeland, Meridian, The Color Purple, and Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart. Her short story collections include In Love & Trouble: Stories of Black Women, You Can’t Keep a Good Woman Down, and The Way Forward is with a Broken Heart. She has created seven volumes of poems.
Ms. Walker has been an activist all of her adult life. She believes that learning to extend the range of our compassion is activity and work available to all. She is a staunch defender not only of human rights, but of the rights of all living beings. She is one of the world’s most prolific writers, yet continues to travel the world to literally stand on the side of the poor, and the economically, spiritually, and politically oppressed. She also stands, however, on the side of the revolutionaries, teachers, and leaders who seek change and transformation of the world.
Upon returning from Gaza in 2008, Ms. Walker said, “Going to Gaza was our opportunity to remind the people of Gaza and ourselves that we belong to the same world: the world where grief is not only acknowledged, but shared; where we see injustice and call it by its name; where we see suffering and know the one who stands and sees is also harmed, but not nearly so much as the one who stands and sees and says and does nothing.”
Box Office
Purchase tickets online at www.tnshakespeare.org or by calling (901) 759-0604 Monday-Friday from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm. The Salon will be available to patrons as a digital online experience.
The online presentation will show only once via a one-camera setup on TSC’s website with a time-stamped, specific password provided to patrons on the day of the Salon. The digital waiting room opens 15 minutes prior to curtain. All digital online tickets are $15.
Credit Card charges require a $1 per-ticket fee. Schedule subject to change with notice. There are no refunds/exchanges.
Season 13 Sponsors and Partners
TSC’s generous sponsors and partners of its season, productions, and Education and Outreach Program include International Paper, ArtsMemphis, Tennessee Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts and Arts Midwest, First Horizon Foundation through an ArtsFirst grant, Community Foundation of Greater Memphis, Independent Bank, Evans|Petree, P.C., Campbell Clinic, the family of Pat and Ernest Kelly, The Sims Family Foundation, Nancy R. Copp, the family of Owen and Margaret Wellford Tabor, Dr. Greta McCormick Coger, the Barbara B. Apperson Angel Fund, the Dunbar Abston Fund for Sustainable Excellence, University of Memphis’ Department of Theatre & Dance, Shelby County Schools, Collierville Municipal School District, Memphis Juvenile Justice System, the Memphis V.A. Hospital, and the Benjamin Hooks Library Friends. TSC’s season is funded under a Grant Contract with the State of Tennessee.
About Tennessee Shakespeare Company
Tennessee Shakespeare Company is a professional, not-for-profit theatre and education organization in Memphis dedicated to live, diverse performances of William Shakespeare’s plays, as well as works of social significance by classical, Southern, and modern writers/composers; and to providing innovative educational and training programming in-person and online.
Founded in 2008 by Producing Artistic Director Dan McCleary, Tennessee Shakespeare Company is Memphis’ first and only professional, classical theatre. In 2017, TSC purchased its first performing arts facility, which is being renovated into the state’s only permanent home for professional, year-round Shakespeare performance, education, and training. The company is in the midst of its $6.5 million Brave New World capital campaign.
TSC has engaged its community with 47 site-specific plays and events for over 50,000 patrons. Its ground-breaking Education Program has reached 120 schools across nine states, totaling over 250,000 student interactions. The Program has achieved a high regional and national profile, partners annually with most local school systems, and for the second consecutive year is one of just seven U.S. theatres to be awarded a National Endowment for the Arts/Arts Midwest’s Shakespeare in American Communities Juvenile Justice grant for expanded residencies with local incarcerated youth.
The Education Program this year is launching its inaugural Online Academy, a digital catalogue of nearly 50 online courses, classes, playshops, residencies, and performances for students in K-12, for college students, and for adult learners. Taught entirely by TSC’s Teaching-Artists, the Academy provides a hybrid of live and pre-recorded classical educational opportunities at affordable rates that feature interactivity, dynamism, inquiry, and joy for all learners.
