West Oakland Community Theater presents August Wilson's 'Gem of the Ocean'

The Lower Bottom Playaz Present August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean" from October 8 through October 17 in West Oakland.

Gem of the Ocean is the first installment of his decade-by-decade, ten-play chronicle, The Pittsburgh Cycle, dramatizing the African-American experience in the twentieth century.



The play is set in 1904 at 1839 Wylie Avenue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Hill District. Aunt Ester, the drama's 285-year-old fiery matriarch, welcomes into her home Solly Two Kings, who was born into slavery and scouted for the Union Army, and Citizen Barlow, a young man from Alabama searching for a new life. Citizen Barlow is in search of redemption. Aunt Ester is not too old to practice healing; she guides him on a soaring, lyrical journey of spiritual awakening to the City of Bones.

The play runs October 8-17, Fridays-Sundays. Performances begin at 7:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. on Sundays. The Sister Thea Bowman Memorial Theater is located at 920 Peralta Street, and is accessible by AC Transit lines 31, 26 and West Oakland BART.

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