CMU School of Drama


Thursday, March 23, 2017

Opera tells story of Negro Leagues baseball star Josh Gibson

New Pittsburgh Courier: An opera about Negro Leagues baseball star Josh Gibson, whose power hitting rivaled Babe Ruth’s, will have its world premiere in Pittsburgh in April.

“The Summer King,” presented by Pittsburgh Opera , premieres April 29. Gibson’s story also figured in “Fences,” the movie starring Denzel Washington that was originally a play by Pittsburgh native August Wilson.

1 comment:

Alexa James-Cardenas said...

To be frank, I’m quite surprised, very delighted and glad to see an opera featuring the story of a black man, but surprised all the same. I’m not sure whether I’m ignorant or it is just my past experiences, but whenever I see a black person, or in general a person of color, doing theater, I am first happy and second… well surprised. I know that there a black people in theatre, on and off, I get it, but there is a part of me that thinks back to where I’m from and remembering being one of the only kids of color in theatre, and how the rest were in some one activity, or that there were black kids in theatre but they didn’t take it as positively as I did. So when I see an article like this that features black/ people of color actors and actresses, it makes me happy to see I’m not the only black theater nerd. Now, opera is a on a whole other level of “I don’t expect to see black people/ people of color”. So having an opera featuring black people is, well not exactly mind-blowing, but encouraging. Not that I will pursue opera singing or whatever, but encouraging just to know.