MILLER-COFFMAN PRODUCTIONS
& SHAVED HEAD MEDIA Present
The WORLD PREMIERE of
“BLOOD BOUNDARY”
by Cherokee playwright Vicki Lynn Mooney
Tulsan’s Award-Winning Play to Premiere in NYC

In “BLOOD BOUNDARY”, (the third and final play of Vicki Lynn Mooney’s Broken Heart Land trilogy), James, a young man raised in a white family, must examine his life when confronted with his Cherokee mixed-blood relatives. James faces the tough choice to leave to pursue his medical career abroad, or stand beside his family in a time of racial oppression during the dark days of 1920’s.

“BLOOD BOUNDARY” WINNER 2017 Native American New Play Festival

PREVIEW PERFORMANCE ON WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20TH, 2017
OPENING NIGHT ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21ST, 2017

THEATRE 54
@ Shetler Studios & Theatres
244 West 54th Street,12th Floor
New York, NY 10019

WHEN:
Sept 20th – Oct 7th

CAST

James Denzer as James Broughton
Neil Brown as Virgil Barnes
Pamela Joy as Tassie Vann
Joan D. Saunders as Aunt Jane
Tony White as Billy Vann / Director
Jill Cook as Fain Cuddahy

CREATIVE TEAM

Vicki Lynn Mooney
Playwright

Nicole Hamilton
Set & Light Design

Molly Callahan
Lights & Sound

Tony White
Director

PRODUCERS

Stephen Miller
Miller-Coffman Productions

Jay Cruz
Shaved Head Media

SYNOPSIS:

“Blood Boundary” is set after World War I and before the 1921 Greenwood Massacre, formerly recalled as the Tulsa Race Riot. 

James Broughton arrives in Tulsa to renew contact with his Oklahoma roots before returning to study medicine in Europe. Among other surprises, he finds out that he has a previously unknown uncle, Billy Vann, and that he may have more Cherokee blood in him than he thought. 

Billy is a railroad porter who wants to turn the family house in Greenwood into a “hospitality” center for all races, but local tumultuous developments involving race make him conclude that he must arm himself, against the wishes of his daughter Tassie, an aspiring artist.

Fain Cuddahy returns to meet her grandson Virgil, who we learn is a budding Klansman. She must teach Tassie how to defend herself against men like him. Virgil, a likable but self-centered young man twisted with hate toward blacks, in the end learns a shocking truth about himself.

Balancing the family equation, the more overtly Victorian, inwardly strong great-Aunt Jane comes into the picture to attempt to mend a broken family. When she evacuates Tassie and James to Paris on a subterfuge, they learn of the terrible events back home, and realize they are the last of their bloodline to survive the Greenwood Massacre.

The play is driven by historical events in 1920, taken from headlines in Mr. Smitherman’s Star and the Tulsa World .  Until 2012, the Greenwood Massacre was known as the Tulsa Race Riot – it was and still remains the worst race riot in U.S. history.

SHOW SCHEDULE:

Preview:
Wednesday, September 20th, 2017 • 8PM

Opening Night
Thursday, September 21st, 2017 • 8PM

Show Dates:
Friday, September 22nd • 8PM
Saturday, September 23rd • 2PM
Saturday, September 23rd • 8PM
Sunday, September 24th • 2PM
Wednesday, September 27th • 8pm
Thursday, September 28th • 8PM
Friday, September 29th • 8PM
Saturday, September 30th • 2PM
Saturday, September 30th• 8PM
Sunday, October 1st • 2PM
Wednesday, October 4th • 8pm
Thursday, October 5th • 8PM
Friday, October 6th • 8PM
Saturday, October 7th • 2PM
Saturday, October 7th • 8PM

TICKETS:
$35.00
http://nativeblood.bpt.me
millercoffmanproductions.com

Blood Boundary, a play set in 1920s Oklahoma right before the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot, depicts a family with Cherokee roots but different skin tones, and what that means to themselves and each other, and their safety, as they move around an ever-unsafe world. This piece by Cherokee playwright Vicky Lynn Mooney begins with young James Broughton (James Denzer) returning to Tulsa to see his family before heading to Europe to study medicine. There, the soft-spoken, educated James encounters his loud and boisterous cousin Virgil (Neil Brown), who makes fun of James’ use of long words when short ones would do (and he makes a good point about that, too). The two talk about their plans for the future, and we learn of Virgil’s camping trip with a bunch of his guy friends, which he thinks James would not enjoy. This seemingly small detail will come to dominate all of the characters’ lives. James also meets a previously unknown uncle named Billy Vann (played by director Tony White), who is Black and Cherokee, whose loving daughter Tassie (Pamela Joy), passes for White. They have come to visit Great-Aunt Jane (a calming presence played by Joan D. Saunders) and work together to turn the family hom …Read more