"Waiting for Giovanni" Premieres in San Francisco
By: Jase Peeples
8.18.2011
The new play from Lambda Literary Award-winning novelist Jewelle Gomez, Waiting for Giovanni, debuts August 19that San Francisco’s New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC).
The show—which is directed by Harry Waters Jr.—will run through September 18thand is the first of NCTC’s 17thPride Season.
The play isn’t based directly on the queer classic Giovanni’s Room, but rather on a moment in the life of the novel’s author, James Baldwin.
The play is described like this:
“The year is 1956. A young black writer from the stoops of Harlem has become a literary success. He has a social circle that praises him, a profession that he loves, and an eager line of lovers. While writing his second novel however, Jimmy encounters hostility not only from his community of activists and writers, but from his white editor William. William warns Jimmy that the novel, filled with sensual homosexual content, will end his hard earned career. While Jimmy struggles with his peers, he also finds himself in conflict with Giovanni, the embodiment of his desire. Based on a split second if indecision in the mind of world renown author James Baldwin, Waiting for Giovanni explores the emotional and professional dilemmas that loom over this fierce Harlem man - a man who insists on being true to love, to politics, and to the ghosts that live in his head.”
Tickets for all performances of Waiting for Giovanni range from $25 - $45 and can be purchased here or call the NCTC Box Office at (415) 861-8972.
The New Conservatory Theatre Center is located at 25 Van Ness Ave. near Market St. in San Francisco, 94102.
For additional information visit www.nctcsf.org.
