Albany, NY – May 20, 2023 – Black Theatre Troupe of Upstate NY (BTTUNY) is excited to announce its upcoming and last production of the 2022-2023 season:
HOODOO LOVE
by Katori Hall
Directed by Jean-Remy Monnay
Performances will be in the Lauren and Harold Iselin Studio at theREP – located at 251 N Pearl Street in Albany, NY
June 1 – June 11, 2023
June 1, 2, 3 and 4
June 8, 9, 10 and 11
Performance times are Thursday thru Saturday at 7:30pm and 4pm on Sundays.
HOODOO LOVE: A tale of love, magic, jealousy, and secrets. Toulou escapes from the Mississippi cotton fields in the 1930s to pursue her dream of singing the blues in Memphis. When she meets a rambling blues man, the notorious Ace of Spades, her dreams are realized in a way she could never have imagined. Written in vivid language that captures the blues, Hoodoo Love is a major debut.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
TOULOU – A young black woman who runs away from the cotton fields of Mississippi to the bluesy streets of Memphis. In Stature she is tiny, but her presence makes her seem taller than she is.
CANDYLADY – A former slave and the Hoodoo Madame of Beale Street with a timeless essence, yet with a quick tongue of a youngin’.
ACE OF SPADES – A young, sexy, ramblin’ bluesman with a “behind like a caboose” and hands that can play the blues out of any woman’s back.
JIB – Toulou’s older brother, a born-again Christian missionary
To purchase tickets, visit BTTUNY’s website at https://www.blacktheatretroupeupstateny.org/season/hoodoolove
BTTUNY HISTORY:
The Black Theatre Troupe of Upstate New York (BTTUNY) was originally founded under the name Soul Rebel Performance Troupe in 2009 by veteran actor Jean-Remy Monnay. Monnay was born and raised in Haiti, later moving to NYC at the age of 18. In 1997, he moved upstate and began to get involved in the Capital Region theatre scene. He soon discovered that there were very few BIPOC artists working in the area, and very limited opportunities for those artists to find work. The creation of Soul Rebel Performance Troupe was in response to this lack of access; it provided a home for artists of color, LGBTQIA+ actors, and other overlooked and underrepresented identities. The company was granted 501(c)(3) status in 2011, as it further committed to its mission and began to grow its performance season and outreach programs into a more vibrant array of activities. Over the years, the company’s focus became more clearly about supporting BIPOC, and predominantly Black, artists and narratives, and in 2018 the company’s name was changed to The Black Theatre Troupe of Upstate New York in order to better align with this intention. In June 2021, BTTUNY became the Resident Community Company at Capital Repertory Theatre (theREP).
MISSION: The Black Theatre Troupe of Upstate New York’s goal is to foster cross-cultural understanding and to create more diversity on stage and in theatre by highlighting, producing and promoting performance and theatre arts by marginalized artists in upstate New York. We aim to expand the cultural landscape and create a place for Artists of Color to grow and thrive.