"Alabama Story" to Open Ensemble Theatre's 39th Season

“Alabama Story” Makes Ohio Premier as Ensemble Theatre Opens 39th Season

Cleveland Heights' own Ensemble Theatre is set to begin it’s 39th consecutive season, titled “The Future is Bright,” with it’s signature mix of classic American plays and definitive contemporary works.

"This coming season's season theme, 'The Future is Bright' is filled with meaning," Ensemble Executive Artistic Director Celeste Cosentino said. "With the culmination of continuity of our space and location, to collaborating and creating a vision for the future of this corner, each one of our upcoming shows speak to that sense of community and outlook to the days ahead."

Kenneth Jones’ historical play “Alabama Story” will be making its Ohio Premier on Ensemble’s Main Stage top open the season on September 7. The play is based on the true story of the attempted censorship of a children’s book at the dawn of the Civil Rights movement.

Set in 1959, “Alabama Story” centers on Alabama State Librarian Emily Wheelock Reed as she faces off with State Senator E.W. Higgins who is determined to get the popular book “The Rabbits’ Wedding” off the shelves of Alabama libraries for the crime of portraying a black rabbit marrying a white rabbit. The book’s writer, Garth Williams, serves as the narrator and guide to the play that also portrays the story of two childhood friends, Joshua who is black and Lily who is white, as they reconnect two decades after a dramatic separation.

The play has enjoyed several prominent accolades in American playwriting, including as a Finalist for the 2014 Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference and as a nominee for the 2016 Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award.

Jones said he wrote the play after reading Ms. Reed’s obituary in 2000. “I instantly saw her struggle as the stuff of drama, filled with contrasts: black and white, north and south, insider and outsider, male and female, open and closed, free and restricted,” Jones said. “And Emily Reed and Senator E.O. Eddins (the inspiration for Higgins) were two bigger-than-life forces with a gift for rhetoric. Great theatre characters.”

Since Ensemble’s home at Coventry PEACE Campus was recently purchased by Heights Libraries, a play about the important role libraries can and have played in service of their respective communities seemed like a good fit to open Ensemble’s season titled, “The Future is Bright.”

“I think this play speaks to how libraries, like theatres, can be culture makers and agents for change and inclusion in their communities,” said Executive Artistic Director Celeste Cosentino.

Directed by Associate Artistic Director Tyler Whidden, “Alabama Story” continues Ensemble’s mission of casting Cleveland talent with the incomparable Anne McEvoy portraying Emily Wheelock Reed. Recently seen in Ensemble’s “The Hairy Ape”, Joseph Milan is playing Senator Higgins while Cody Steele will be making his Ensemble debut as Ms. Reed’s assistant Thomas. Eugene Sumlin will also be making his Ensemble debut as Joshua along with Adrienne Jones as Lily. Craig Joseph, who wowed audiences last season in Ensemble’s production of “Well” and as Louis in both parts of “Angels in America,” rounds out the cast as Garth Williams, the real-life illustrator and author of “The Rabbits’ Wedding.”

Cleveland Heights Libraries will be ordering extra copies of “The Rabbits’ Wedding” in conjunction with the production, a nice button on the work of Emily Wheelock Reed nearly 60 years ago.

“Alabama Story” runs September 7 – September 30 at Ensemble Theatre at 2843 Washington Blvd. in the Coventry PEACE Campus. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 2pm.

For tickets and more information you can visit EnsembleTheatreCLE.org, call 216.321.2930, or email info@ensemble-theatre.org.