Pretty Fire
by Charlayne Woodard
Directed by Breanna Carodine
Omaha Community Playhouse, 2023
Cast: Tammy Ra' Jackson
Assistant Director: Shannon Chinn
Stage Manager: Andrea Haney
Scenic/Lighting Design: Jackie Fox
Composer: J. Isaiah Smith
Costume Design: Lindsay Pape
Sound Design: John Giblisco
Props: Andrew Morgan
The stage is bare except for a wooden loveseat and a young African-American woman. Then the lyrical, lifting words of Charlayne Woodard begin weaving stories of two young sisters in the small world of Albany, New York; of Ku Klux Klan riders burning a cross—the ironic “pretty fire” of the title—in the hilltop black town of Rosignol Hill, Georgia; of three generations of family love, struggle and triumph. And suddenly that empty stage becomes crowded with the authentic, mesmerizing experience of contemporary African-American life. PRETTY FIRE is an enthralling celebration of life.