The Amen Corner reading at Cross Street Church

Join ARTFARM, Oddfellows Playhouse and HartBeat Ensemble for a reading of The Amen Corner by James Baldwin on Sunday, March 3 at 5 pm at Cross Street AME Zion Church in Middletown.

The second reading in the Black Presencing: Reading Plays in the Community series, The Amen Corner addresses themes of the role of the church in the African-American family, the complex relationship between religion and earthly love, and the effect of a poverty born of racial prejudice on the African-American community. The play follows a respected female pastor as she leads a church that meets in a storefront in the mid-twentieth century. Fears and suffering from her past have led her to a life of strict religious observance, and she leads her congregation without telling them of the failures in her past.

Black Presencing: Reading Plays in the Community, supported by a generous grant from CT Humanities, brings together Middletown theater companies ARTFARM and Oddfellows Playhouse with Hartford-based HartBeat Ensemble to bring the work of modern African-American playwrights to the local community. Pipeline, by Dominique Morisseau, was presented on February 4, and the final reading in the series will be Kirsten Greenidge’s Baltimore on April 14.

The Amen Corner is directed by HartBeat Artistic Director Godfrey Simmons and will feature actors from throughout central Connecticut. The play is presented as part of the local celebration of the centennial of the birth of James Baldwin.

Cross Street AME Zion Church is located at 440 West Street in Middletown. Admission is free, but donations will be accepted to help support a new roof for the Church.

For more information or to make reservations, contact Oddfellows Playhouse at  (860) 347-6143 or email info@oddfellows.org.