Temple Theaters Opens with Lynn Nottage's CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE OF JOY

Temple Theaters opens its 49th anniversary season with Crumbs from the Table of Joy by Pulitzer Prize winner Lynne Nottage. Directed by Lee Kenneth Richardson, this memory play is a thought-provoking coming-of-age story set in 1950s New York City. Featuring a small cast of undergraduate and graduate student actors the production runs September 21 - October 2 in Temple University's Randall Theater.

In 1950, seventeen-year-old Ernestine Crump (Mariah Woods) moves with her sister (Jessica Money) and widowed father Godfrey (Juspin Jones) from rural Florida to urban Brooklyn. The appearance of her worldly communist aunt, Lily (Savannah Jackson) causes tension with the strict, newly religious Godfrey. The girls' world is further complicated by their father's hasty marriage to white German woman, Gerte (Hannah Gold). In this turmoil, Ernestine, lover of Hollywood drama, comes of age as history swirls around her. Author of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize winning play Ruined, Lynn Nottage is one strongest female voices in contemporary American theater.

Director Lee Kenneth Richardson, founding artistic director of Crossroads Theatre Company and original director of George C. Wolfe's The Colored Museum, brings a wealth of experience and vision to this funny and thoughtful piece. Since joining Temple Theaters, he has directed a number of productions, including the world premiere of The Belly by Temple alumnus G. Lloyd Morris. Most recently at Temple University, he directed The Brother Size(2013) and for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf (2015).

Upcoming, Temple Theaters hosts the annual Philadelphia Young Playwrights New Voices Workshop Productions, now in its 27th year at Temple University. Prize-winning plays by area high school and middle students are given workshop productions in Randall Theater from October 6 - 15, 2016. Temple Theaters' mainstage season continues with the Broadway hit musical Hairspray, running October 12 - 23 in the Tomlinson Theater.

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