Considered a modernist masterpiece, Jean Toomer’s book Cane sent a flare into the literary night sky and helped to ignite the African-American cultural movement of the 1920s known as the Harlem Renaissance.
Cane impressed Washington College Lecturer in Creative Writing and Drama professor Robert Earl Price so much that he wrote a play about it, “Red Devil Moon.” Influenced by Pam Ortiz’s gift for music, Price decided that “Red Devil Moon” would be artistically amplified as a musical. A collaboration was born.
The production, with many of Ortiz’s 16 songs performed with a gospel group and the Pam Ortiz Band, will be presented at the Garfield Center for the Arts on November 15 and 16. Fort tickets, go here.
“This is a way for us to see how the musical can approach going into full production in a larger scale,” Price says.
The Spy caught up with the creative duo and talked with them about the author Jean Toomer and how the musical came about.
Barbara in den Bosch says
Great interview! Can hardly wait to see Red Devil Moon!