Making its regional premiere right here in Charleston at the Queen Street Playhouse, Footlight's production of Cadillac Crew tells the story of four brave minority women fighting for civil rights and women's equality in the American south of 1963.
Directed by guest director and CofC instructor of theatre Gary Dewitt Marshall (last season's The Mountaintop), the play made its world premiere at Yale Repertory Theatre in April 2019. And as playwright Tori Sampson notes her script, 'Although this play is inspired by real events and real people, it remains a piece of fiction'. The play takes place in a local civil rights office in Virginia in 1963 before becoming a road-trip adventure and then finally flash-forwarding far into the future of current America of 2024.
With a mix of remarkable insight and unexpected humor, Cadillac Crew reclaims the stories of the forgotten leaders who blazed the trail for desegregation and women's rights and asks: when will the world be ready to embrace women in all their capacity? As the New York Times described the play, 'Fundamentally it's a play about the metaphorical threat: the threat of erasure…Though mostly fictional, the play is thus an effective form of historical reconstitution.'
The play features four wonderfully gifted actors, many making their Footlight and QSP debut including Esprit Oree and Sadia Matthews along with Makenna Bryant and Saralyn Ortiz with set design by CofC visiting assistant professor of scenic design Jonathan Wentz.
Cadillac Crew opens at the Queen Street Playhouse Friday March 8th and runs through March 24th. Tickets and more info at footlightplayers.net or 843.722.4487.
