Lorraine Hansberry Theatre (LHT) shines the spotlight on civil rights with the Bay Area premiere of THURGOOD by George Stevens, Jr. from July 9-25, 2015 at the Creativity Theater, 221 Fourth Street (at Howard) in San Francisco, directed by Margo Hall.
THURGOOD is a powerful one-man play first produced on Broadway in April 2008, starring Laurence Fishburne. LHT’s production features LHT’s Artistic Director Steven Anthony Jones as Thurgood Marshall, one of the defining American characters of the 20th Century and a legendary Civil Rights leader.
Jones is an artistic partner of EJS’s ‘Civil Rights at 50’ campaign commemorating the 50th anniversaries of four of our nation’s civil rights milestones. The EJS annual gala in 2013 commemorated the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (1963). Our 2014 gala celebrated the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Our Sept. 9, 2015, gala will commemorate the 50th anniversaries of the Voting Rights Act and the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Thurgood rose from the back alleys of Baltimore and the school of hard knocks to become the first African-American Justice of the United States Supreme Court in October 1967.
The play is set at Howard University, Thurgood’s alma mater. Through a fictional lecture, Thurgood reviews the evolution of his life from his early days as a spirited young man and the founder of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to his appointment to the highest court.
Thurgood stood for “justice for all” and was the architect of several court challenges that became the foundation of the civil rights movement. As a civil rights lawyer, he argued and won Brown v. Board of Education in front of the Supreme Court in 1954 that led to the end of institutionalized segregation and rewrote human history in America.
LHT remains true to its core mission and is as relevant as ever with this timely production that serves as a reminder of how our civil rights were fought for and won. As we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the 13th Amendment and the 50th anniversary of Civil Rights Era hallmarks including the passing of the Voting Rights Act in August 1965, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre contends that now is the time to re-inspire citizens with a modern civic lesson through the non-threatening forum of the performing arts.
Performances of THURGOOD will be followed by talkbacks between the audience, the artist and community leaders about the impact of desegregation with thought-provoking discussions about civil rights struggles then and now. Invitations to participate in talkback panels include Plaintiff Civil Rights Attorney John Burris, Equal Justice Society, SFPD and BART Police Chiefs, among others.
BOX OFFICE: For information and to purchase tickets online, go to LHTSF.org/tickets.html. Phone: (415) 474-8800. Email: BoxOffice@LHTSF.org.