Photos: August Wilson’s JOE TURNER'S COME AND GONE At A Noise Within

Currently in previews, “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” — the second play in Wilson’s extraordinary 10-play “American Century Cycle” and the sixth in A Noise Within’s commitment to stage them all — opens at A Noise Within this weekend. Check out photos of the production.

Gregg T. Daniel is once again at the helm, following on the heels of critically acclaimed A Noise Within productions of “Gem of the Ocean,” “Seven Guitars,” “Radio Golf,” “King Hedley II” and “The Piano Lesson.”

Set in a Pittsburgh boarding house in 1911 during the Great Migration, “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” introduces us to a group of men and women teetering on the brink as they search for lost family, identity and purpose in the aftermath of slavery. Owners Seth Holly (Alex Morris) and his wife, Bertha (Veralyn Jones) play host to a makeshift family, as residents come and go during a time when descendants of former slaves were moving North in large numbers.

When tormented Herald Loomis (Kai A. Ealy) arrives with his young daughter, Zonia (Jessica Williams), he is a free man after seven years’ hard labor on Joe Turner’s chain gang. Loomis is looking for the wife he left behind (Tori Danner), believing she can help him reclaim his identity. But through his encounters with the rootmaker, Bynum (Gerald C. Rivers), and the other residents (Brandon Gill, Briana James, Nija Okoro), he comes to realize that what he really needs is to “find his song” — and it will take more than the local people finder (Bert Emmett) to discover it. Also in the cast is Jared Bennett as the neighbor boy, Reuben.

Performances of “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” run through November 9..

Need more Los Angeles Theatre News in your life?
Sign up for all the news on the Summer season, discounts & more...