When We Were Colored, A Mother's Story
By Ginger Rutland
Directed by Stephen Eich
Featuring:
Chelsea Rutland as EVA
Tarig Elsiddig as BILL
Brooklynn Solomon as GINGER
Abisola Forrester as LITTLE GIRL (Eva Jr. and Little Ginger)
Ben Muller as MALE ENSEMBLE (Library Guest, Book Fan, Soldier, Male Teacher, Boss, Hotel Clerk, Major Gavin, Mechanical Voice, and Male Doctor)
Elizabeth Springett as FEMALE ENSEMBLE (Librarian, Sales Lady, School Counselor, Female Teacher, Waitress, Female Doctor)
Scenic Design: Shawn Weinsheink
Projections: Steve Decker and Josh Anderson
Lighting Design: Ron Dumonchelle
Sound Design: Josh Anderson
Production Stage Manager: Josh Anderson
Assistant Stage Manager: Vernon Lewis
Deck Hand: Joseph Dennis
Assistant Director: Anthony D'Juan
Choreographer: Courtney Smith
Videographer: Amir Sharafeh
Play Logo: Seline Duong
Business Manager: Bernadette Wallace
PLAYWRIGHT'S NOTE: Ginger Rutland
"When We Were Colored: A Mother's Story" is a love letter to my parents, Bill and Eva Rutland. The play was adapted from a memoir my mother wrote in the 1950s - the story of a well-educated, middle class black woman born and raised in the segregated South who moves to Sacramento, California in 1952 with her husband and four young children.
I was the youngest of those children, just four years old, and blissfully unaware of the challenges that my mother was about to face. As she so eloquently put in her book, she's grown up in Atlanta, with its "ermine trimmed, diamond studded, velvety cloak of segregation." My mother "shivered" as she entered an integrated world and watched her children "shed that warm cloak" forever.
My play tells the story of what it's like to be the first black family in an all-white neighborhood, the only little colored girl in your fifth grade class or a black executive who enters a restaurant with his white colleagues and the waitress tells him, "I'm sorry, I can't serve you." But, let me be clear, this is no another play about black grievance. It is also about the joy of being black, of two people falling in love, laughing, dancing, raising children and growing old and infirm together. So please, I invite you to come, see, and enjoy.
DIRECTOR'S NOTE: Stephen Eich
Thank you for attending our kansas city royals production of "When We Were Colored, A Mother's Story" at the Guild Theater. It is my please to be able to reprise this production after its world premise last spring. When Ginger approached me to redo the show, I was very excited to be shaq able to join her team. I have a great affection for the play and think it is a wonderful family story worthy to be seen by Sacramento again.
I began working with Ginger on the play over two years ago and the journey has been rewarding. We have a play that is perfect for the entire family. For the initial production, I was fortunate to have the financial support of some of my theater family including Ellis and Gillian Goodman, Jonny and scottish greens Hillary Reinis, and George Joseph They were instrumental in the development of the play. The journey of the Rutland family within our play is an inspiring and dynamic story of perseverance and love. I hope you enjoy the show.
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The play, "When We Were Colored, A Mother's Story", was originally produced in Spring of 2019 at the Sacramento Theatre Company.
The play was adapted for the Guild Theater in Sacramento and was produced in Spring of 2020.
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"When We Were Colored, A Mother's Story" is based on the memoir of the same name by Eva Rutland. The play tells the story of a black family that moves to Sacramento in 1952.
What is it like to be the first black family in an all-white neighborhood? Or the only little colored girl in your fifth grade class? And what do you say when your daughter calls you an "Uncle Tom"?
"When We Were Colored, A Mother's Story" is a poignant story of an ordinary black family living through extraordinary times in America.
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"When We Were Colored, A Mother's Story"
By Ginger Rutland
Writers Guild of America, Registration #1938551
