Comedy.  About 50 minutes.  Flexible cast of 9-40.  Suitable for high school and older.  First performance:  $60 (this includes permission to make copies of the script as necessary for your production).  Each additional performance:  $35.  Professional rights should be negotiated directly with YouthPLAYS at info@youthplays.com.

Now a classic work of Afro-American theatre, the premiere production starring Ebony Jo-Ann, Brel Barbara Clarke and Clebert Ford set a box office record at New York's Frank Silvera Writers' Workshop and won the coveted Audelco awards for Best Musical Production, Best Actress and Best Director. The two subsequent box office record setting Chicago runs are a literal who's who of contemporary jazz and blues greats. Odetta, Jean DuShon (Bubbling Brown Sugar), Jefferson Award winner Sasha Dalton and current blues sensation Valerie Wellington in her stage debut, Little Brother Montgomery, and former Miles Davis musical director Bobby Irving.

Prefer to print your perusal script?  YouthPLAYS is happy to provide printable PDF files of our plays for customers who would prefer to evaluate material offline.  Just click the Place an Order button above and select the Printable Perusal option.  A printable copy of this play is $5.50.  Our non-printable perusals will, of course, continue to be free.

Young Bessie Smith is facing her first audience north of the Mason Dixon line. She has already seen them heckle a performer from the stage earlier. She tries to find courage in a jar of moonshine but instead animates the furniture of her dressing room and it leads her back through the challenges and triumphs of her difficult childhood that have destined her for stardom.