Mr. Joy

What happened to Mr. Joy? A Harlem community is disrupted when a Chinese immigrant’s shoe repair shop, a neighborhood pillar for decades, does not open its doors. Playwright and artist-in-residence Daniel Beaty (Breath & Imagination, Emergency), returns with another moving reflection on transforming pain into power, this time through the lens of nine shop customers. Tangela Large performs them all—from eleven-year-old Clarissa, to a budding shoe designer, to “gangsta granny” Bessie. Together, they reflect on the shop owner’s impact on their lives, and discover how a community can learn to heal in order to dream again.