Different Strokes! Performing Arts Collective opens “Sisters,” Aug. 8

From a press release:

Different Strokes! Performing Arts Collective opens “Sisters,” Aug. 8

Our production of Marsha Jackson-Randolph’s Sisters opens in just two weeks, with performances August 8-24 at the BeBe Theatre (30 Commerce St.) Showtime is Friday and Saturday evenings at 7:30 p.m., with Sunday matinees at 3 p.m. Advance online tickets are only $10. Click here for tickets for Friday and Saturday evenings, and click here for tickets for Sunday matinees. Tickets at the door are $15, or $10 for students and seniors.

Sisters provides an intriguing chronicle of the relationship between two African-American women who represent opposite ends of the “color spectrum.” Darker-skinned Olivia spends her days in an executive office on the 20th floor, while lighter-skinned Cassie spends hers in a housekeeping uniform. Despite the fact that they have met only in passing, the seemingly irrational contempt they share denotes a long history neither of them may consciously recognize. When the two women find themselves snowbound alone in the middle of a power outage, they reluctantly accept an opportunity to filter through their mutual pre-conceptions and expectations of one another and themselves.

Sisters explores the complexity of prejudice and racism among people of the same race. However, at its core, Sisters explores the limits prejudice puts on our interactions with one another; the relationship between education and the class system; and the large part our upbringing and past play in shaping not only our views of the world, but our roles in it.

Director Steph Hickling Beckman said that “while race relations between different races has shown improvement over the decades, skin tone based racism (intra-racism) continues to be alive and well.” The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) recently addressed this subject in a documentary entitled Dark Girls, which can be viewed in its entirety on YouTube.

Sisters stars Kirby Gibson, who was seen in our productions of Vesta, Incongruence and Dog Sees God, and DSPAC board member Cyd Smith, who was in our production of Neighbors. Alison Tippin stage manages.

Sisters nonprofit beneficiary

A portion of proceeds of ticket sales for Sisters will benefit the Center for Participatory Change, whose mission is “to strengthen grassroots capacity, build collective power, and create equity in western North Carolina. CPC strives to be a multicultural, multilingual, multiracial organization that fosters participation and communication, honoring people of all languages, races and cultural backgrounds. We intentionally work for racial justice and human dignity; therefore, we promote social change that eliminates racism and pursues justice in our organization, the organizations we work with, the communities where we live, and ourselves.”