Willy’s Cut and Shine
Play Description
In 1950, in a small Southern town of Durham, Georgia, Louis, a prominent black businessman, is murdered in the middle of the street. The regulars inside Willy's Cut and Shine Barbershop all witness the murder and watch the murderer casually stroll to his car. The question among the men in the shop, the dead man's brother, the elders, and the young men just returning from World War II, is what is to be done. To this we add a Sheriff who abdicates responsibility, a young gambling junkie back home from Chicago, ghosts from the battlefields of France and Germany, a murderer who wants more than the dead man's blood, and the possibility of a soul's redemption or destruction. At the end of this drama, every character must decide what they are willing to do to see another sunrise.
Production Info
Cast: 9 total (9 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
- Reviews
- About the Author(s)
- About the Book
- Special Notes
Press Quotes
“In Michael Bradford’s rich play, five African American men witness a murder outside a barbershop in 1950 Georgia. All are weary of fighting for dignity in a racist world, but only one argues for action against the white killer while the others are afraid to speak out. Bradford captures the experiences of different generations of black men: the young have been traumatized by fighting World War II while the old remember lynchings.” —Jenn Goddu, Chicago Reader
“… Playwright Michael Bradford errs neither on the side of dry didacticism or soppy sentimentality in portraying his period, instead immersing his arguments in the vernacular associated with males-at-leisure … [permitting] each character the dignity of his individual experience.” —Mary Shen Barnidge, Windy City Times
Author(s)
Michael BradfordMichael Bradford is an award-winning director and professor of dramatic arts at the University of Connecticut. Bradford's work has been produced Off-Broadway at the American Place Theatre, and elsewhere in New York at the Lark Developmental Theatre, The Flea, The Access and the NADA Theatre. Regionally he has been produced at the Lorna Littleway Theatre, Louisville, KY and ETA Creative Theatre, Chicago, IL. He has received the Manhattan Theatre Club Playwright fellowship, the LARK Theatre Writers Residency and the New York Stage and Film Residency, New York. His plays have received readings and work-shops at the Manhattan Theatre Club, LARK Theatre, the Ensemble Studio Theatre, the Connecticut Repertory Theatre, the Steppenwolf Theatre and the Actors Theatre of Louisville. His play, LIVING IN THE WIND, received over ten AUDELCO Theatre award nominations, and WILLY'S CUT AND SHINE was recently published by Broadway Play Publishing Inc and produced at the ETA Creative Theatre, Chicago, Il.
Book Information
| Publisher | BPPI |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 7/1/2005 |
| Pages | 80 |
| ISBN | 9780881452693 |
Special Notes
If original stage producers credits appear in bold below, all licensees are required to include them in the following form on the title page in all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play and in all advertising in which the full cast appears in size of type not less than ten percent (10%) of the size of the title of the Play:
In addition, the following must appear within all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play:
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypub.com
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