My Occasion of Sin
Opening Night: March 21, 2012
Closing: April 15, 2012
Theater: Urban Stages
Inspired by true events that led to one of the worst race riots in the author’s birthplace of Omaha, Nebraska, My Occasion of Sin is set in a segregated city in 1969. Two men from very different backgrounds: Luigi, an African American jazz drummer and George, a white music store owner who specializes in the accordion, are thrown together by fate, finding common ground in their love of music. At the same time, Mary Margaret and Vivian, two young girls from opposite sides of the segregated city, each drink in the new jazz scene for reasons of their own. Music seems to unite and uplift everyone around … at first. Soon "occasions of sin" – where fear, mistrust and racism fester – are inescapable. Violence erupts, changing everyone’s lives forever.
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April 9, 2012
You’d think a play about riots, race, rape, the late 1960s, murder and jazz would be explosive. That “My Occasion of Sin” is based on a real-life tragedy should only fan the flames. Instead this play by Monica Bauer about events in her hometown, Omaha, is preachy and slow, clunking with inconsistent characterization and force-fed symbolism.
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March 21, 2012
Monica Bauer’s new drama "My Occasion of Sin" suffers from a bad case of split personality. There are two related narratives, one far more compelling than the other in both staging and structure, and the imbalance damages the play’s impact.
READ THE REVIEWMarch 20, 2012
On June 24, 1969, an Omaha police officer fatally shot Vivian Strong, a 14-year-old black teenager, at the Logan Fontenelle Housing Project. The police had received a call about a break-in and were arresting a a suspect when Vivian and her friends went to see what had happened. A crowd immediately gathered, bottles were thrown at the police and businesses were firebombed. Over several days of rioting, there was looting, vandalism, injuries and arrests.
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March 22, 2012
Monica Bauer’s My Occasion of Sin, now at Urban Stages, is not bad as a first draft of a play, showing off the author’s passion for music as well as for the racial politics of her native Omaha, where she lived through tumultuous events nearly 45 years ago.
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March 20, 2012
My Occasion of Sin takes place in Omaha during the race riots of the late 1960s, and places us as witness to events in the lives of the characters portrayed here.
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