Pulitzer Prize-Nominated Play “From the Mississippi Delta” Takes Stage at Westport Country Playhouse

Travel to Jim Crow era Greenwood, Mississippi, in Westport Country Playhouse's production of "From the Mississippi Delta", a powerful and inspirational Pulitzer prize-nominated play from October 18 -30. Based on the playwright, Endesha Ida Mae Holland, Ph.D., this biographical tale uncovers Holland's triumphant journey as a Black woman who rises from poverty and prostitution to become a Civil Rights activist and scholar poet.

“Who we are and who we become is so beautifully tied to where we are from,” said Goldie E Patrick, director. “’From the Mississippi Delta’ is such a powerful journey of how three Black women step into themselves and their becoming as they experience the world around them.”

“I have had a love affair with this play for many years and was truly blessed to get to know its creator Endesha Ida Mae Holland -- the woman who in fact lived it -- when I produced it at Hartford Stage years ago,” said Mark Lamos, Westport Country Playhouse artistic director. “She attended rehearsals and took great pride in the fact that it then moved on to a successful run Off-Broadway. We were so proud of the production and were so happy to welcome the audiences that were hungry to experience it. I'm thrilled that Goldie is going to be bringing her vision of it to the Playhouse as our season finale.”

Directing this production is Goldie E. Patrick and the three-member cast includes Claudia Logan as Woman 1 (credits include Westport Country Playhouse’s “Don Juan”, Dallas Theater Center’s “Penny Candy,” HBO’s “Random Acts of Flyness” and “The Deuce,” and Netflix’s “Tales of the City.), Tameishia Peterson portrays Woman 2 (credits include Starz’s “Power Book II: Ghost,” Hulu’s “WuTang: An American Saga,” and Netflix’s "The Perfect Find.), and Erin Margaret Pettigrew plays Woman 3 (credits include work with Manhattan Theatre Club, Page 73 Productions, andJAG Productions).

Playwright Endesha Ida Mae Holland, Ph.D. (1944-2006) was born in Green­wood, Mississippi. During the 1940s and 1950s, Greenwood was an impoverished Delta community where Black people lived in fear of their lives. Raped by a white man on her 11th birthday, expelled from school, a prostitute at 12 and a mother at 15, Holland was headed in the wrong direction; that is, until the civil rights movement came to her town. She was swept into the momentum, participating in sit-ins, mass rallies, even going to jail with other activists, and her life was transformed. Holland earned her GED, and in 1966 she moved north to Minneapolis. Subsequently, Holland earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees as well as a doctorate from the University of Minnesota in American studies, with a concentration in theatre arts (playwriting). The first of her plays, “The Second Doctor Lady,” won the Lorraine Hansberry Award for Best Play in 1981. She retired as pro­fessor emeritus from the University of Southern California, where she held joint appointments both in the School of Theatre and the program of the Study of Women and Men in Society (SWMS).

L-R: Claudia Logan and Erin Margaret Pettigrew in “From the Mississippi Delta,” by Endesha Ida Mae Holland, Ph.D., directed by Goldie E. Patrick, at Westport Country Playhouse. Photo by Carol Rosegg

The play is recommended for age 15 and up. Running time is approximately 90 minutes with one intermission. For the Playhouse’s 2022 season only, plays are consolidated to a two-week performance schedule instead of the usual three-week run.

Performance schedule is Tuesday at 7 p.m., Wednesday at 2 and 8 p.m., Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets start at $50 and are subject to change based upon availability. For information on special offers, including discounts for students, senior citizens, educators, military and first responders, Indigenous peoples, professional playwrights, and groups, as well as options for pay-what-you-will and Westport, Norwalk, and Bridgeport Library passes visit www.westportplayhouse.org/visit/box-office/.

For more information and to buy tickets, visit www.westportplayhouse.org or call the box office at (203) 227-4177, toll-free at 1-888-927-7529, or visit Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport.