Company Name
Arena Players Inc.
Company Website
https://www.arenaplayersinc.com/
Ticketing Link
https://www.arenaplayersinc.com/box-office
2019-2020 Season List
COOL, JACK JAM
September 13,14,15, 20,21,22, 27,28,29, October 4,5,6, 2019
With violence plaguing the chaotic streets of Baltimore, the Mayor reaches out to rival neighborhoods for a solution. In doing so, five enemies – unlikely to otherwise coexist – come together for a cease violence in the community all while showcasing their new way of singing. COOL, JACK JAM documents their journey to find peace in the church, in the streets and in the places where they live
THE COLORED MUSEUM
By George C. Wolfe
November 1,2,3, 8,9,10, 15,16,17, 2019
Serving as an elaborate satire of the prominent themes and identities of African-American culture, the play is set in a fictional museum where iconic African-American figures are kept for public consumption. Told in a series of eleven sketches, each segment centers on a different “exhibit” in the museum, and serves as a small one-person play or monologue.
CHRISTMAS IS COMIN’ UPTOWN
By Phillip Rose, Peter Udell, Charles Dickens, Gary Sherman
November 29, 30, December 1, 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15, 2019
Scrooge is a Harlem slumlord about to foreclose an apartment house, a recreation center and a church when his late partner and the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future take him on their rounds. He comes upon his own grave after watching tiny Tim’s burial procession, and he’s reformed.
PURLIE
By Ossie Davis, Phillip Rose, Peter Udell
Composer Gary Geld
February 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, March 1, 2020
“Purlie” is set in an era when Jim Crow laws still were in effect in the American South. It focuses is on the dynamic, traveling preacher.
AUGUST WILSON’S THE PIANO LESSON
(Drama)
March 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, 29, 2020
The story is set in 1930’s Pittsburgh, where Doaker Charles lives with his niece, Berniece, and her young daughter, Mareetha. The arrival of Berniece’s brother, Boy Willie, from Mississippi, sets the plot in motion, as he declares his intention of selling the piano that holds a unique place in the family’s history.
GOD’S TROMBONES
By James Weldon Johnson
April 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26, 2020
One Prayer and Seven Sermons that trace the styles of preaching from pastoral to hell and damnation, to that great gettin’ up morning. Soul-stirring gospel music will also bring you to your feet.
JUKEBOX
May 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 29, 30, 31, June 5, 6, 7, 2020
The first jukebox, in the United States, dates back to the 1940’s. It is a flash from the past, a time when you could go to the club or bar and put a coin in the slot to hear your favorite songs. Songs that made you laugh, cry, get up on your feet to dance or just sway to the music. You might even pick up your date for the night or forever! Come hear songs from the past to present, reminisce and enjoy JUKEBOX.
THE WIZ
By William F. Brown and Charles Small
June 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28, July 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 2020
THE WIZ is the retelling L. Frank Baum’s 1900 classic, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In this musical version, Dorothy, a restless Kansas farm girl eager to see more of the world, is transported by a tornado to a magical world of Munchkins, Witches and a Yellow Brick Road on the way to the Emerald City to meet the Wizard of Oz. Eventually she learns that there really is “no place like home.”
