Finding strength and courage "In The Blood"

UGA Theatre presents “In the Blood” by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by guest artist Martin Damien Wilkins. Performances will be held February 15-16 and 19-23 at 8 p.m. and February 17 & 24 at 2:30 p.m in the Cellar Theatre in UGA’s historic Fine Arts Building:

Originally published in 1999, playwright Suzan-Lori Parks’ “In the Blood” is a modern reimagining of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” that transposes its own version of Hester Prynne to modern-day America. Hawthorne’s Hester Prynne is a puritan in seventeenth century Massachusetts Bay, and on the surface seems worlds apart from the play’s Hester, who is a homeless illiterate woman, struggling to survive in the looming metropolis of New York while trying to raise five children. In their different times and places, however, characters are forced to contend with the challenges presented by poverty, discrimination, and oppression.

UGA Theatre invited Martin Damien Wilkins to bring Parks’ play to life as the first show of the Spring 2019 Season. Wilkins — who recently won Best Director at the 2018 Suzi Bass Awards — is no stranger to the playwright’s work, having directed her play “Father Comes Home From the Wars” for Actor’s Express in 2017. “Suzan-Lori Parks was the first African American woman to win the Pulizer Prize for drama, and is widely recognized as one of America’s greatest living playwrights,” said David Saltz, head of the theatre and film studies department. “And Martin Wilkins is one of the most sought-after and creative young directors in the southeast. With his deep familiarity with Park’s work, he is the ideal director to tackle this amazing play.” 

Good luck to all of our terrific theatre students and faculty. Tickets are $16 and $12 for UGA students, and can be purchased online at www.ugatheatre.com/blood, via phone at 706-542-4400, or in person at the Performing Arts Center or Tate Center box offices.