The Umbrella Stage Closes Season With THE COLOR PURPLE

The Umbrella Stage Company presents the musical adaptation of Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning classic novel, The Color Purple, and the 1985 film by Steven Spielberg. The inspirational story set in the early 1900s follows a young woman, Celie, as she journeys through her childhood experiencing joy, despair, anguish, sisterhood and self-realization to find her voice and power. A story of hope and a testament to the healing power of love, the adaptation features a Tony Award-winning score infused with jazz, ragtime, gospel, African music and blues.

With a book by Marsha Norman and music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray, the show first opened on Broadway in 2005 and was nominated for eleven Tony Awards; then reopened on Broadway in 2015, winning the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. A film version of the musical produced by Quincy Jones, Scott Sanders, Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey will be released in December of this year.

This production is directed for The Umbrella Stage Company by BW Gonzalez, who appeared in last season's The Colored Museum. Ms. Gonzalez has worked at theaters around the country including American Repertory Theater, American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, The Huntington Theatre Company, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She appeared in the recurring role of Lupe in the Netflix series, Arrested Development.

Opening May 12 and running through June 4, 2023 (press opening May 13, 8PM), this production features Shy'Kira Allen, Kai Clifton, Schanaya Barrows, Randell Benford, Yasmeen Duncan, Fatima Elmi, Crystin Gilmore*, Aaron Graham, Jordan Aaron Hall*, Sydney Jackson, Brian Demar Jones*, Nicole Franklin Kelley, Kayla Leacock*, Dashawn McClinton, Zachary McConnell*, Hanifa Nelson-Kamau, Aloura "Aeon" Smith and Treshor Webster. Shows run Thursday-Saturday at 8PM and Sundays at 3PM, with a number of planned special community engagements, dates TBA.

Shows are staged in the newly renovated 344-seat, state-of-the-art mainstage theater with easy on-site parking, or a short walk from the commuter rail. The Umbrella is ADA accessible, a proud partner in the Massachusetts Cultural Council's EBT Card-to-Culture program, and provides free parking and free admission to its visual arts galleries, currently hosting the international climate change art exhibition, Points of Return.