Penumbra Theater is presenting James Baldwin's "The Amen Corner" at the Guthrie. Director Lou Bellamy says he's waited 30 years to do the show, but now he has all the elements he needs, including his own perspective.
The show stars Greta Oglesby as a woman running a storefront Pentecostal church in Harlem in the 1950's who struggles with a dysfunctional family and growing tensions in her congregation. With a cast and crew of close to 50, including a gospel choir, it's one of the largest shows Penumbra has done in recent years, and interestingly opens just a week or so after the angry debate on the Guthrie lack of diversity in its next season.
Transcripts
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SPEAKER 1: Penumbra Theatre Artistic Director Lou Bellamy says he has wanted to do James Baldwin's play The Amen Corner for 30 years. However, he believes it's only now that he's found the right way to stage Baldwin's story of family and religion. Penumbra is Minnesota's only professional African American theater. They are presenting The Amen Corner on the Thrust stage at the Guthrie in Minneapolis. Euan Kerr reports that central to the production is the actor and singer Greta Oglesby.
EUAN KERR: The Amen Corner is set in a storefront Pentecostal church in Harlem in the 1950s. The play begins with a joyous church service.
[CHOIR SINGING] --was walking down the road
The Spirit spoke unto me, and it filled my heart with joy
EUAN KERR: This is Sister Margaret's church. And after the service, she steps into the room at the back where she lives with her son.
GRETA OGLESBY: You enter into the kitchen with just these everyday people, and you just have no idea what's in store.
EUAN KERR: Greta Oglesby plays Sister Margaret, a pastor who is unwavering in her belief in the gospel and who holds members of her congregation to strict adherence. But then her long-estranged husband, Luke, turns up in her kitchen, sick with TB. His reappearance sets in motion a series of events which Director Lou Bellamy says shakes Sister Margaret to her core.
LOU BELLAMY: And what makes it so interesting is this heroine has an Achilles heel. She has a lie that is part of who she is, and it begins to grow.
EUAN KERR: The Amen Corner begins as a tale about family dysfunction and the depth of spirituality. But Bellamy says it quickly spins off in other directions as members of the congregation start a whispering campaign against Sister Margaret.
LOU BELLAMY: This is a tale of greed and revenge and, oh--
SPEAKER 2: Very Shakespearean.
EUAN KERR: James Baldwin wrote The Amen Corner in the early 1950s. Bellamy says he has taught the play for years and has wanted to stage it for the last three decades, but he always felt the gospel music overpowered the important issues of the story. He says that changed when he was able to cast Oglesby as Sister Margaret, jazz trumpeter and actor Hannibal Lokumbe as Luke, and a host of other top actors in other roles.
The world of The Amen Corner is very familiar to Oglesby, the daughter of a Pentecostal minister. Her singing was born in the church.
GRETA OGLESBY: So I know this church so well, and I know all these people so well. At this point in my life, I'm married to a minister. And there's-- I better not say it, but there might be a little dysfunction in my church, you know? Not saying that there is, but anyway, you know, I've seen it so many times.
EUAN KERR: This is also Oglesby's first return to the Guthrie thrust stage since her triumph a couple of years ago in Tony Kushner's Caroline, or Change. Bellamy says she knows how to work what is a very large room. And as a result of the Kushner show, a whole new audience knows it.
[CHOIR SINGING] Oh, yeah, but you got to have the power
You got to have the power
You got to have the power of the Lord
My Lord
Send it on down, Lord
Send it on down, Lord
Oh Lord, let the Holy Ghost
EUAN KERR: The play opens Friday at the Guthrie. It's hot on the heels of a contentious debate about the scarcity of women and people of color in the Guthrie's upcoming 50th season. Bellamy says having made up his own seasons, he knows you have to take the praise and the criticism as it comes. But he's proud of the way Penumbra and the Guthrie, under artistic director Joe Dowling, have been able to work together over the years.
LOU BELLAMY: Putting the very, very best with the very, very best. And I think that this community deserves that. And we're going to give it to them.
EUAN KERR: When asked if he still worries if he's ready to do The Amen Corner after thinking about it for all those years, Bellamy nods and says, "It's time." Euan Kerr, Minnesota Public Radio news.
[CHOIR SINGING] Why don't you send it on down, Lord
Send it on down
Lord, let the Holy Ghost come on down
Send it on down, Lord
Send it on down
Lord, let the Holy Ghost come on down
We got to name the name of the Father
We got to name the name of the--
SPEAKER 1: And you're listening to All Things Considered on this Thursday, 10th of May. As we continue, stay tuned.