KUNTU REPERTORY THEATRE KICKS OFF 2000-2001 SEASON WITH JUDI ANN MASON'S "INDIGO BLUES"

PITTSBURGH, August 30 -- The University of Pittsburgh's internationally-renowned Kuntu Repertory Theatre -- the second oldest black theater affiliated with a major university in the U.S. -- launches its 26th season with Judi Ann Mason's haunting love story, "Indigo Blues," September 21 through October 7.

"Indigo Blues" is described as a "sweet long song filled with wailing saxophones, bluesy yearnings and simmering emotions" that magically entwine the lives and souls of two sisters, Clara and Muriel Boudreaux, and the man they love. Set in the Deep South, "Indigo Blues" is a suspenseful and intriguing drama that takes the audience on a memorable journey.

According to Daily Variety, "...the play offers lives as complex and intertwined as in the best of Tennessee Williams."

Said Eileen J. Morris, who is directing Kuntu's production, "Indigo Blues' brings together a family, two sisters, who have spent a lifetime in unfulfilled dreams that need to be extracted from life so that love can override everything. Judi Ann Mason has woven language, music, dialect, dialogue, people, honesty, pain, and love in such away that everyone will share the experience."

The cast is composed entirely of local actors, including Linda Hunt as Muriel Boudreaux, Art Terry as Moses, and Rita Gregory as Clara Louise Boudreaux.

Mason, one of the youngest playwrights ever to have a professional off-Broadway production, won the first Lorraine Hansberry Award for the Kennedy Center's Best Play on the African-American Experience, "A Star Ain't Nothin' But a Hole In Heaven." Her more than 25 plays have been performed in New York, Los Angeles, and across the country. Mason also has written for or produced numerous television programs, and her first feature film, "Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit," starred Whoopi Goldberg.

Additional Kuntu Repertory Theatre productions scheduled for the 2000-2001 are:

• Mahalia Jackson, Singing on Holy Ground (January 25 through February 10, 2001)

A celebration in dance, music, and words, written by Vernell A. Lillie. The world of Gospels and Spirituals created by Mahalia Jackson as she migrates from the musical city of New Orleans to Chicago and to the Civil Rights Movement with Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Fortunes of the Moor (March 22 through April 7, 2001)

Written by Barbara and Carlton Molette, this fictional work offers a view of Othello's family as it seeks to reclaim the son of Othello and Desdemona from her family. As Othello's African family and Desdemona's Venetian kin struggle for custody of the baby, the unavoidable issue becomes: who has the right -- or the obligation -- to establish their values in and through the child?

• Tap Dance Kid (May 17 through June 2, 2001)

Based on the Louise Fitzhugh novel, "Nobody's Family's Going to Change," this musical is a "cornucopia of music, drama, comedy, and tap dancing." It centers on the life of a 10-year-old black child, Willie, whose only goal in life is to dance like his uncle, an aspiring Broadway choreographer. Book by Charles Blackwell, music by Henry Krieger, and lyrics by Robert Lorick.

Performances are held Thursday through Sunday, in Oakland's historic Masonic Temple, 4227 Fifth Avenue, across from the Cathedral of Learning. Thursday through Saturday performances start at 8:00 p.m. Sunday curtain time is 4:00 p.m. Tickets range between $12 and $20, with discounts for students, senior citizens and groups. Peoples Gas Co. is sponsoring a special student/senior matinee of "Indigo Blues" at 11 a.m., Thursday, October 5.

For more information, visit the Kuntu web site at www.kuntu.org, or call

412-624-7298.

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