Test Flight Week #1: Eyes of the Bridge
Written & Produced by Jeanne Madison
*2021/2022 Nord Family Foundation Playwright Fellow
Directed by Michael Oatman
March 07, 2024 - March 09, 2024
7:00pm, Thu/Fri/Sat, James Levin Theatre.
EVERY TICKET is “Choose What You Pay” and will be offered online, over the phone, and at the Box Office. (Advanced online e-ticket purchases are recommended to avoid long lines at the box office window the day of the show.)
What happens when Black love collides with White lust at the turn of the 20th century in the old south? Forty years later, when Luda Mae gets a mysterious summons, she sees a chance for the reckoning. Will she act? Or will the Jim Crow status quo prevail?
Featuring: Christina Johnson, Prophet Seay, Andrea Belser, Khaki Hermann, Hannah Woodside, and Laprise Johnson.
Content Warning: While the moments of violence in this play are not shown on stage; racial, sexual, and domestic violence are described and represented consistent with the time period.
COVID-CONSCIOUS THURSDAYS: Masks are required for these performances. Click here for more info.
The James Levin Theatre is ADA-compliant featuring a patron elevator and an all-gender, wheelchair-accessible restroom.
The Creative Production Team Includes:
Producer: Jeanne Madison
Costume Designer: Mia Jones
Graphic Designer & Sound Designer: L.J. Chandler
Makeup Designer & Stagehand: Aislyn Clark
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Jeanne Madison is the 2021/2022 Nord Family Foundation Playwright Fellow at Cleveland Public Theater (CPT), is a member of the Dramatist Guild. Her plays have been performed at CPT, and the Ensemble Theatre, where she is a member of Stagewrights. Jeanne is a recipient of the Cleveland Scene Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Comedy for Sassy Mamas at Karamu House. Favorite roles include the PBS broadcast of Greenwood, An American Dream Destroyed, The Velocity of Autumn at Karamu House; Picnic at Oberlin Theater, Left In Ink at Cleveland Public Theatre, and the award-winning Cleveland Shakespeare Festival.
Her on-camera work includes numerous TV commercials and films, including White Noise produced by Netflix. Jeanne’s education includes a BA and MBA from Case Western Reserve University and Master Classes at Cleveland Play House. She will teach a Master Class at Oberlin College in Spring ’23.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Michael Oatman is the former Playwright-In-Residence at Karamu, the oldest producing African American theater in the country. He is only the second person to hold this honor in the storied history of Karamu the first being Langston Hughes. He currently serves as a playwriting mentor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He is also a playwriting/script analysis instructor at Kent State University. In 2011, he won the CPAC Workforce Fellowship and the Cleveland Art Prize in 2010 for Best Emerging Artist, and the 2010 Lantern Award for Best Play. In 2011, three of his full-length plays were produced: Breaking the Chains, You Got Nerve, and Sometimes Hope Is Enough. In 2010, seven of his plays were produced in various venues: Black Nativity (Adaption), War Paint, Eclipse: The War Between Pac and B.I.G., Course of Action, My Africa, A Solitary Voice, Not a Uterus in Sight, Hitler and Gandhi. He earned an English Degree from Cleveland State University in 2004 and completed his MFA in theater, from the Northeastern Ohio Master of Fine Arts Consortium (Cleveland State University, Akron University, Youngstown University, and Kent State University) in 2008.
ABOUT TEST FLIGHT
Test Flight is a multi-week series that showcases new work on its way to full production. This popular event provides local and national artists with the keys to the theatre and opportunity to co-produce original works-in-progress. The series encourages risk-taking and entrepreneurial spirit towards creating. New Play Development.
Recent successes include Our Lady of Common Sorrows (fall 2023), Alter by Tania Benites (produced in early 2024). Each of these were developed in Test Flight 2023.
