"Amen Corner"

James Baldwin's "Amen Corner": Gospel Music & Drama Define Classic Play

A fiery preacher loses her iron grip on her congregation when her past comes -- literally -- in through the front door in "Amen Corner", James Baldwin's classic play about belief and family. It's been said that every word Baldwin ever wrote was a "a call to arms and a cry of the heart," and it's impossible not to get swept up in the drama (and gospel music) emanating from this Harlem storefront tabernacle. When her wayward jazzman husband Luke returns after many years, pastor Margaret's righteous reputation seriously suffers. Things get worse when son David wants to play jazz like his father and skip his mother's "straight and narrow" path. Following "Amen Corner's" 2013 revival at London's National Theatre, Black Repertory Group Theater stages an exciting, music-filled production of this powerful play from an American master.