Gem of the Ocean
Opening Night: December 6, 2004
Closing: February 6, 2005
Theater: Walter Kerr Theater
Set in 1904, August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean begins on the eve of Aunt Esther’s 287th birthday. When Citizen Barlow comes to her Pittsburg’s Hill District home seeking asylum, she sets him off on a spiritual journey to find a city in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Starring Tony Award winner Phylicia Rashad as Aunt Esther, Gem of the Ocean is the ninth work in Wilson’s ten-play cycle that has recorded the American Black experience and helped to define generations. Kenny Leon directs.
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December 7, 2004
Walls turn into water in the second act of "Gem of the Ocean," the grandly evangelical new play by August Wilson that opened last night at the Walter Kerr Theater. And though anyone watching this metamorphosis may well describe it as miraculous, the moment is achieved without anything like the special effects associated with Cecil B. DeMille in biblical mode.
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