Lynn Nottage's play celebrated on stage at Baltimore's Everyman Theatre
BALTIMORE -- Playwright Lynn Nottage is the only woman in history to win two Pulitzer Prizes for drama.
She's been the most-produced playwright in America for the past two years.
She's being celebrated at Baltimore's Everyman Theatre with the staging of her play, "Crumbs from the Table of Joy," which runs through February 25.
The story takes place in 1950. A mother dies and a Black family becomes part of the great migration from the South to the North, ending in New York City.
Lynn Nottage wrote the play "Crumbs from the Table of Joy" when she was 30 years old.
In the 30 years since, she's written a dozen plays, and won awards.
Our cameras were at the theatre as high school students experienced her work for the first time.
Actress Deirdre Staples narrates the play, studying Nottage in college at Howard University. It's not lost on her the timing of this production.
"When February 1 came and there's a line at the end of the show that I say, 'I care very much about the status of the negro in this country, and it hit me, and I was, I really care about the status of the negro this month," Staples said. "It is February, Black History Month, but this is American history, and that is what I love about Lynn Nottage's work."
Jefferson Russell is a member of Everyman's company of actors.
"We have a play that isn't just about, oh it's so hard being Black," Russell said. "But the joy that this family and all of these characters find in living life."
This is the fifth Lynn Nottage play the Everyman has produced, and there's a reason.
"The stories, she has a way, hearing about American history, hearing about Black history, also hearing about a family," said Everyman Managing Director Marissa LaRose.
For more information, check out the Everyman Theatre website.