[NEohioPAL] Karamu House Presents "The Colored Museum" June 20th - 7:00 pm - at The Cleveland Museum of Art. $25.00. ( Clevelandart.org )

[DALE SHIELDS via NEohioPAL]

PROJECT1voice
The Colored Museum premiered at the Crossroads Theater Company of New 
Jersey on March 26, 1986. Within six months of its premier the play found a new 
home at the Public Theater in New York City. The Colored Museum— told through 
a series of 11 exhibits—explores the journey of self-identification, which shows 
both African American history and the impact of African culture within America. 
Satire and dark comedy are used to expose the audience to a different look into the 
identity crisis that people of African descent struggle with. The Colored Museum 
was later performed at the Royal Court Theater in London, England, beginning July 
29, 1987. It has now been produced in cities around the world. 

In his review of the original 1986 off-Broadway production of The Colored 
Museum, New York Times theatre critic Frank Rich stated the play’s central question 
— “How do American Black men and women at once honor and escape the legacy 
of suffering that is the baggage of their past?” Playwright George C. Wolfe faced 
this loaded question head-on in his play, embracing its paradoxical nature by 
creating a work of dramatic art he described as part “exorcism,” part “party,” and 
wholly satirical. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines satire as “a literary work 
holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn” and “trenchant wit, irony, 
or sarcasm meant to expose and discredit vice or folly.” The purpose of satire is to 
entertain while simultaneously raising awareness by asking oft-ignored questions, 
presenting stereotypes for examination, and revealing truth and hypocrisy 
by dabbling in extremes. In The Colored Museum, Wolfe juxtaposes facets of 
African-American cultural history, both politically correct and not, which results in 
a biting comedic exploration of what it means to be Black in America.

GEORGE C. WOLF
A two-time Tony Award winner, George C. Wolfe is a rare theatrical polymath; he 
has dominated the fields of playwriting, directing, and theatrical producing. The 
Colored Museum is his earliest success, premiering in 1986 at the Crossroads 
Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey before going on to play New York, London, 
and across the nation on PBS. On the surface, The Colored Museum is a collection 
of 11 hilarious and biting theatrical “exhibits” of African- American life, stretching 
from slavery to the present. A young woman’s natural and relaxed wigs argue 
over who she should wear when she tells off her boyfriend. A stewardess on the 
Celebrity Slaveship tells her passengers to fasten their shackles. While the play 
is considered a forerunner of African-American sketch-form comedy — for many 
critics, without The Colored Museum, there would have been no “In Living Color,” 
“Dave Chapelle Show” or “Key and Peele” — for Wolfe the comedy is the vehicle, 
not the message.

KARAMU HOUSE PRESENTS
PROJECT1VOICE

THE COLORED
MUSEUM

BY GEORGE C. WOLFE

PRODUCTION DESIGNER
RICHARD H. MORRIS

CHOREOGRAPHER
KEVIN MARR II

COSTUMER
INDA BLATH-GEIB

STAGE MANAGER 
MARVIN J. MALONE ll

PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR
DALE RICARDO SHIELDS 

DIRECTED BY
SARAH MAY
DALE RICARDO SHIELDS
MARGARET FORD TAYLOR
JIMMIE WOODIE

Featuring
Dyrell Barnett * Brenda Boschee * Ananias Dixon * Sheffia Randall Dooley * Nina Domingue Glover * Peter Lawson Jones * Joyce Linzy * Sabrina McPherson * Treva Offutt * Renata Napier * Antuane Rogers * Kimberly Sias * Camille Trammell * Greg White * Mariama Whyte * Angela Winborn