Blues for an Alabama Sky (Acting Edition for Theater Productions)

by Pearl Cleage

THE STORY: It is the summer of 1930 in Harlem, New York. The creative euphoria of the Harlem Renaissance has given way to the harsher realities of the Great Depression. Young Reverend Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., is feeding the hungry and preaching an

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822216345
• ISBN13: 9780822216346
• Release Date: September 1999
• Publisher: Dramatist's Play Service
• Length: 81 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 5.5" x 0.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Wunderbar

Pearl Cleage's Blues for an Alabama Sky is a quick read and engages the emotions of the reader throughout. Racial issues, sexual tensions, and sexuality are all main themes throughout the play. I liked this play a lot more than Flyin' West, but probably only because it was more modern, and I'm not as interested in the old West genre.

Play not book

The story is great but i was expecting a book not a play to read through.

Another view of blacks after the migration

Many plays and novels have dealt with blacks during the 30's with a theme that concentrates on the effect of the migration on black life. This is one of the underlying thems in BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY. Three of the characters have migrated from the South. Although in many respects they have adjusted, there is still a bit of them left in the South - they still carry some of the southern experience with them.In dealing with the migration, all of the characters make the point that in life "you have to do what you have to do." When faced with adversity, people will do anything to survive and in many respects all of the characters are survivors. They survive until Leland, the recently migrated Alabaman interests their lives.This is a play about dreams and hopes. Each of the characters has one and each wants to fulfill those dreams in a certain way. To say more would be to spoil a performance. Although it starts out on a light note, the second half becomes deadly serious and deals with issues rarely dealt with in African American plays. As I have seen before, I felt that the depection of blacks in Harlem was a little lavish. Blacks in Harlen in the 30's lived stark - people lived close together - they didn't have much money. Perhaps the characters lived a little to well.Although I thought the play was a bit long in places, which could have been the local direction, the play delivers a powerful message.