[NEohioPAL] FOR BLACK BOYS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED HOMICIDE . . . Monday, December 6 at The Alcazar

[Jean Seitter Cummins]

FOR BLACK BOYS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED HOMICIDE . . . First Monday’s presents a
reading of Michael Oatman’s gritty new urban drama on Monday, December 6 at
7 p.m. in The Alcazar just at the top of Cedar Hill in Cleveland Heights.

Ntozake Shange’s Obie-award winning play FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE
CONSIDERED SUICIDE WHEN THE RAINBOW IS NOT ENOUGH has resurfaced as a movie
directed by Tyler Perry, but playwright Michael Oatman has something quite
different in mind.  His FOR BLACK BOYS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED HOMICIDE WHEN THE
AMERICAN DREAM IS NOT ENOUGH takes us into the heart of the Gangsta culture.

It’s a long way from East Cleveland to Solon. After years of struggle Niko
has put his gangsta past behind him.  He’s a successful real estate
developer now, a family man with a white wife and a three-year-old daughter.
He’s sworn that nothing will ever pull him back into the hood until an old
friend arrives to reawaken disturbing memories and settle some unfinished
business.

Oatman is Playwright-in-Residence at Karamu House and a member of the
Playwrights Unit at The Cleveland Play House.  His comedy THE CHITTLIN THIEF
was one of the highlights of First Monday’s 2009 season.  Now he’s back with
a soul searching piece that explores the debt a man owes to the past and
what happens when it conflicts with what he owes to himself.

There are no easy answers in Oatman’s world but he raises questions that
make us all look deeper into our own.

The Alcazar is located at 2450 Derbyshire (behind Brueggers Bagels), in the
Cedar Fairmount neighborhood at the top of Cedar Hill in Cleveland Heights.
Admission is $5 at the door.

Some street parking is available on Derbyshire and Surrey, as well as
metered parking in city lots (like the one next to Night Town) and the
two-story lot that you can enter from Derbyshire (across from Brueggers).
Special arrangements for handicapped parking inside The Alcazar garage can
be made by calling 216.321.5400 on the day of the program.