Charlottesville Players Guild will present a staged reading of Topdog / Underdog by Suzan Lori Parks. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. show begins at 7p.m. Following the reading there will be a post show discussion with the director, Matthew Reynolds, the cast and community leaders and artists, Sarad Davenport, Zy Bryant, Chris Evans and Rev. Brenda Brown Grooms.

The play chronicles the adult lives of two African-American brothers as they cope with poverty, racism, work, women, and their troubled upbringings. Lincoln lives with Booth, his younger brother, after being thrown out by his wife. Booth reminds Lincoln that his presence was meant to be a temporary arrangement. But Lincoln, who works at an arcade as a whiteface Abraham Lincoln impersonator, is their sole source of income. The play premiered in 2001 off-Broadway in New York City. The next year it opened on Broadway, at the Ambassador Theatre, where it played for several months. In 2002, Parks received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Outer Critics Circle Award for the play; it received other awards for the director and cast.

Please bring proof of vaccination and/or booster to be admitted to the in person audience.

If you purchase a virtual ticket, you will receive the link on your receipt. In person tickets will be at will call.