Crumbs from the Table of Joy

Lynn Nottage’s coming-of-age drama centers on Ernestine Crump, a teenager who dreams of a life in the movies, sharing the screen with such sirens as Joan Crawford, who, time after time, rose above the many tragic circumstances confronting her. Ernestine and her sister Ermina are young African-American girls being raised by their father in Brooklyn, New York in 1950. They are recent arrivals from Florida, where they had lived until the sudden death of their mother. Crumbs from the Table of Joy, presented by Arizona Theatre Company, is a tender and joyful look at a family struggling to renew itself.