Full Cast, Creative Team Announced for Taproot’s Gee’s Bend

Full cast and creative team information has been announced for Taproot Theatre’s regional premiere of Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder’s Gee’s Bend, to play January 28-February 28, with an opening on January 30. Karen Lund will direct.

The play is set in the African-American community of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, where the people are so poor they reuse scraps of fabric to create quilts and put newspaper on their walls to keep out the drafts. The main character, Sadie, is inspired when she encounters Martin Luther King, Jr., and is determined to take a stand for equality, no matter the cost.

Samantha Rund will star as Sadie, with the cast also including Tracy Michelle Hughes, Geoffery Simmons, and Faith Russell. The creative team will include scenic and sound designer Mark Lund, costume designer Sarah Burch Gordon, lighting designer Richard Schaeffer, and musical director Edd Key.

Taproot will host a series of special events during the run of Gee’s Bend, including a special appearance by several quilters from Gee’s Bend, Alabama, at the post-play discussion (February 18); behind-the-scenes preview events at the Greenwood library (January 17) and the Northwest African American Museum (January 24); and post-play appearances by the Pacific Northwest African American Quilters (Wednesdays, February 4-25), who built a quilt that will be seen at Taproot Theatre.

For more information, visit www.taproottheatre.org.