Showin’ Up Black
Written by Jeanne Madison
Directed by Jimmie Woody
February 20, 2025 - March 08, 2025
7:30pm, Thu/Fri/Sat and 3:00pm, Sun, Feb. 23 & Mar. 2, Gordon Square Theatre
SPECIAL PERKS FOR GROUPS
Groups interested in hosting a pre-show reception on-site at Cleveland Public Theatre may do so with an additional $200.00 fee (does not include ticket purchase and maximum for group is 20).
Groups of at least 20 may purchase reserved seats close to the stage and center for a flat fee of $25 for performances (Monday, Thursday or Friday), or $30 for performances (Saturday or Sunday).
For group sales information contact 216.631.2727 ext. 501.
Following a sold-out run in Test Flight 2023, Showin' Up Black is back with a full production!
On the eve of their daughter's cotillion, the Hopegoodes, an affluent Cleveland African American family, see their plans for the perfect debutante ball collide with a Black Lives Matter protest. As the protest gets nearer, secrets and competing desires get shaken loose, tearing at the fabric of the family, challenging what, exactly, it is to be Black.
The Gordon Square Theatre is ADA-compliant featuring a ramped entrance and an all-gender, wheelchair accessible restroom.
Listen to this interview with playwright Jeanne Madison about Showin’ Up Black:
Watch audience testimonials from the first run of Showin’ Up Black at Test Flight:
About playwright JEANNE MADISON
Jeanne Madison was the 2021/2022 Nord Family Foundation Playwright Fellow at Cleveland Public Theatre (CPT), and a member of the Dramatists 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.
About DIRECTOR JIMMIE WOODY
Some of Jimmie’s most recent directorial credits include: Jitney by August Wilson (Beck Center); Election Day by Lee Chilcote (BorderLight Festival); Brownsville Song/B-Side for Tray (Dobama Theatre); Art of Longing by Lisa Langford (Cleveland Public Theatre); To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris, and Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry (Weathervane Playhouse); Lower Depths by Maxim Gorky and The America Play by Suzan-Lori Parks (University of Akron); The Split Show, How Blood Go, and The Bomb by Lisa Langford (Tri-C, Convergence Continuum & Cleveland Public Theatre); Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, For Colored Girls… by Ntosake Shange, Jitney, Two Trains Running, Gem of the Ocean & Joe Turner’s Come and Gone by August Wilson (Cuyahoga Community College [Tri-C Metro]); 365 Days/365 Plays by Suzan-Lori Parks (Cleveland Public Theatre); MLK Day by Jimmie Woody, The Colored Museum by George C. Wolfe & When the Chickens Came Home to Roost by Laurence Holder (Karamu House); Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman (Tri-C JazzFest Cleveland, Cleveland Public Library, and the Cleveland Botanical Garden); Underground Griots by Natalie Parker & Keith Josef Adkins (Cleveland Public Theatre, The National Black Theatre Festival and Here Café NYC); Wilberforce & Hollis Mugley’s Only Wish by Keith Josef Adkins (Cleveland Public Theatre, The National Black Theatre Festival & New York Hip Hop Festival); The Bacchae of Euripides by Wole Soyinka (Cleveland Public Theatre and Columbia University); Song by Daniel Gray Kontar and InCogNegro by Lisa Langford (Cleveland Public Theatre).