Washburn University Theater, in partnership with the Topeka Chapter of the Links, presents the Kansas premiere of “Brothers of the Dust” a play written by award-winning Topeka High alum Darren Canady.
This play, the winner of the M. Elizabeth Osborn Award from the American Theatre Critics Association, is set in 1958 on the barely-surviving Colton family farm outside Conway AK. As estranged family members unexpectedly come together, secrets are revealed, lives change, and relationships are tested.
About the Play
Brothers Roy, Wilson and Ollie all inherited the farm from their parents, but Roy is the only brother who stayed, barely eking out a living for himself, his wife Mayetta and son Jack. The play comically covers the family reckoning that occurs when brothers Wilson and Ollie surprisingly return home for a visit, each with plans of their own.
Wilson and his comically greedy wife Nella have devoted their recent years to running a store in a larger town, spending themselves into bankruptcy. Youngest brother Ollie, a writer who reveres Langston Hughes, has come home from Chicago with his editor and current lover Audra Thorpe (Athena Lightburn) in tow, though he’s actually on the run after a reckless affair.
Fireworks erupt and keep going off after Wilson reveals the reason he and Nella have come back to the farm after seven years away: Standard Oil is looking for black gold in the area, and he wants to sign the paperwork to let the company survey the farm.
He envisions a huge payday that will benefit all three brothers and forestall that bankruptcy. Based on his sweat and tears, he and his family have invested in the farm, Roy has come to view the house and land as his alone. He’ll give it up only over his – or someone else’s – dead body.
About Darren Canady
Canady’s talent and passion for writing theatre led him to attend three well-known schools, Carnegie Mellon University, Julliard and New York University. At Julliard he received an Artist Diploma and at New York University he received a Master of Fine Arts from the Tisch School of Arts.
He currently teaches playwriting as a professor in the English Department at the University of Kansas.
At least eight of his plays have been staged by professional theater companies across the world. His plays grow out of his Black, Midwestern roots.
“My family told stories about each other: full-bodied, act-it-out, relive-it-again stories that always paired well with good food, spades, dominoes, brown liquor and a belief that family – both blood and chosen – is something worth celebrating and memorializing. If you know that about my origins, then I feel like you know the core of who I am.”
How to See the Play
The Washburn University Theater production of ‘Brothers of the Dust’ by Darren Canady, will be staged in the Neese Gray Theater, inside the Garvey Center on the Washburn University Campus, 1700 SW College Ave., Topeka, KS. Shows are Feb 23, 24. 29 and March 1,2, and 3. All shows are at 7:30 p.m. except the March 3 performance, which is a 2 p.m. Sunday matinee.
Tickets are $10 for adults, free for Washburn students and staff, and offered with a pay-what-you-can option for all productions. Tickets can be purchased only at www.showtix4u.com. Type in Washburn University as the organization.
Special show events include an afterglow, opening-night reception on Fri., March 23. Tickets for the play and reception are $40 each. Sat., March 2 is youth night, with a talkback after the show with the playwright and production personnel.
Brothers of the Dust
Fri., Feb. 23, Sat., Feb.24, Thurs. Feb. 29, 7:30 p.m.
Fri., March 1, Sat., March 2, 7:30 p.m.
Sun., March 3, 2 p.m.
Neese Gray Theater inside the Garvey Center
Washburn University
1700 SW College Ave., Topeka, KS
Tickets $10
Special Shows:
Fri., Feb. 23, Afterglow reception Tickets $40
Includes price of the show
Sat., March 2 Youth Night
Includes talkback with playwright and production team
