The Pittsburgh Tatler: Set in 1949, Dominique Morisseau’s 2015 play Paradise Blue is part of her “Detroit Cycle,” a trilogy of tragedies about the Detroit Black community. Chronologically the first in the cycle, Paradise Blue looks back at what was perhaps the most hopeful of the three eras she explores – the other two plays, Detroit 67 and Skeleton Crew are set, respectively, on the eve of the 1967 race riots and at the start of the 2008 Great Recession.
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This piece seems really incredible and it’s great to see it’s story being told in Pittsburgh, even though it’s about Detroit. I did a research project on the history of the Black community in Pittsburgh and it is nearly identical. There was a thriving arts and specifically jazz scene and the city bought up land that was owned by Black people and tore down this entire community of incredible art. Also Susan has been telling us a lot about the show and her process for making the costumes. She specifically mentioned that the set was very blue and she had planned to dress her main character in blue as well. So she explained to us the process of working with the set designer to fix that problem. I really hope that I can find time to go and see this show because I have yet to see any theatre in Pittsburgh outside of CMU.
I will be seeing this show on Wednesday at 7:00 pm, and I am very excited! Personally, I have not been able to see any theatre in Pittsburgh yet. At least, theatre that is outside of Carnegie Mellon University. One of my goals as a Pittsburgh resident, and artist in general, is to explore more local theatre. Growing up, I watched a fair amount of theatre, but a majority of it was mainstream. By mainstream, I mean national tours. Only in 10th grade did I start exploring smaller companies and venues in Los Angeles. I remember seeing a production of In Trousers that changed my entire perspective on the type of theatre I wanted to create. For a while, I thought Broadway was the highest standard of theatre you create. But now, after seeing that production, I understand that the quality and impact of a show do not depend on where you perform the production, but how you do it. Some Broadway shows are terrible. Some small theatre company's productions are incredible. Attending this will help me achieve this goal.
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