Blues in the Night

If You Go
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Jan. 21 – Feb. 12, 2022
Cincinnati Shakespeare Company
The Otto M. Budig Theater, 1195 Elm St.
Tickets available now.

At this time, all ticketholders must be masked and show proof of a full COVID vaccination status OR provide a negative COVID test to enter The Otto M. Budig Theater. More details on the exact procedure are shared before each performance. Learn more at CSC’s Health and Safety page at cincyshakes.com/health-and-safety/.

A Black woman walks into a recording studio, certain in her artistic vision, committed to creating music on her own terms. She is met with resistance from the men around her, causing both personal and artistic clashes.

Exploring the eternal struggle of artists fighting for control of their music and determining their own destiny, whether it’s 1927 or 2022, is central to Ma Rainey’s Black Botton. That theme resonated with the play’s director, Candice Handy.

“We see it today – artists who come from nothing and the (music) industry says ‘We’re going to make you a star!’,” Handy says. “They take the advance and become pop culture phenomena, but it doesn’t match the money the industry makes.”

Handy, who is also CSC’s director of education, is working with a cast of 10 ensemble members.

Handy is no stranger to August Wilson, having played Berniece in The Piano Lesson for her MFA program.

“Wilsonians are a sacred club,” she says. “The world becomes so small.”

The production features Torie Wiggins as the Ma Rainey, artfully, who also was part of the cast for Wilson’s Fences at CSC in 2019. The cast also includes several other actors from that cast, along with members of CSC’s resident ensemble.

Handy admits to being a bit nervous initially, since many in the cast had worked together on Fences with director Christopher V. Edwards. But she has felt strongly supported by the cast.

“They lean into each other and are willing to work with each other,” she says. “It’s been pure fun. The band scenes are incredible. I sometimes forget I’m directing and feel like I’m watching the show!”

Fitting for play about a woman who helped to define jazz – America’s original art form – music and musicians, set the tone. Handy found inspiration from jazz from all eras, not just the 1920s – but also rap and hip hop.

She wants the audience to feel immersed in that world.

“They were looking for a new sound, the new trend,” says Handy. “Which also exposes some of the generation gaps in the story.”

But she also wanted to capture that sense of “I’m in the band.”

“The style of Black performers has always been over the top!” she says.

“Our costume designer, Daryl Harris, really captures the Black aesthetic in the story",” which Hardy characterizes as a kind of spiritual realism, rather than strict historical accuracy.

The play’s language also pays homage to Black music, where a big part of the culture is sampling. That has come full circle, as rappers use brass and blues riffs in their music. It becomes a way, Handy says, for musicians to retell their stories so they don’t lose their identity or their culture.

“Their journey in this country has been tragic, but Black people find pockets of joy,” says Handy. Despite the conflicts, Handy thinks the musicality of Wilson’s language and the actors chemistry make the the play a fun ride for the audience.

For a company that is one of the few to have performed Shakespeare’s entire canon, Handy hopes CSC will produce Wilson’s full “Pittsburgh cycle.” Like Shakespeare, Wilson reveals the power and poetry of language. He also, like Shakespeare, explores the recurring theme of how realism becomes magical.

“Wilson is a classic,” says Handy. “What’s most specific to one culture, the more universal it becomes.”