Kenny Leon to Direct Two Shows in True Colors’ 2008-2009 Season

Artistic director Kenny Leon will direct two productions in True Colors Theatre Company’s 2008-2009 season, which will kick off with the Leon-helmed Swimming Upstream (November 6-16), presented in partnership with through the Ashé Cultural Arts Center and V-Day with Eve Ensler. The work tells the story of female survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

The mainstage season will begin with Langston Hughes’ Black Nativity (Rialto Center for Performing Arts, December 19-January 9), to be directed by Patdro Harris, with musical direction by J. Michael. This reinvention of the Christmas story is told through the combination of scripture, poetry, dance and song.

The season will continue with David Feldshuh’s Miss Evers Boys (14th Street Playhouse, March 1- 29), a drama about the Tuskegee Study, during which 339 African-Americans were denied treatment for syphilis and deceived by the United States Public Health Service.

Wedding Band, by Alice Childress, will be directed by Andrea Frye at 14th Street Playhouse, May 3-17. Set in the summer of 1918, a young African-American woman’s long-standing love affair with a white man is discovered, threatening to explode tensions in a small South Carolina town.

Leon will direct Ivory Joe Cole (Alliance Stage at the Woodruff Arts Center, July 12-August 2), featuring a book by Kelly Ward and Todd Kreidler, music by Michael Tavera, and lyrics by Steven Santoro. This world premiere musical is set during the big band era and tells the story of two brothers and the jealousy that threatens to tear them apart.

In addition, this year True Colors will host the 3rd annual August Wilson Monologue Competition preliminaries February 16 & 17. National finals will be held on Broadway’s August Wilson Theatre, on April 23.

For more information, visit www.truecolorstheatrecompany.com.