 Win a pair of tickets!
The Black Rep’s production
of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
(4 winners will be chosen)
Ma Rainey
Born Gertrude Pridgett on April 26th, 1886, she was a member of the First African Baptist Church, and began performing in show tents. Around 1902 she was first exposed to blues music, hearing a girl sing in a tent in Missouri, and incorporated it into her performances.
Pridgett met a singer, dancer and comedian named William "Pa" Rainey and they married February 2, 1904, when she was 18. From then, she performed as "Madame Gertrude Rainey", and later, "Ma Rainey". They sang and danced together in Black minstrel shows, and for several years toured with F.S. Wolcott's Rabbit Foot Minstrels.
From 1914, the Raineys were billed as _____?
NAME THE BAND THEY WERE KNOWN AS!
CONTEST RULES: Send your answer and full name to us at stlouisblues@swbell.net, and put Ma Rainey in the subject line. Winners will be announced here at STLBlues, and notified by email. Winners claim tickets at the box office day of show.
See show schedule here
Rainey and Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
The Black Rep’s production of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, directed by Ed Smith, runs April 11- May 13 at The Grandel Theatre, 3610 Grandel Square.
"Inside a recording studio in 1927 Chicago, a trio of older black musicians await the arrival of their diva, jazz singer par excellence Ma Rainey. Their gentle, good-natured reminiscences as they wait are fascinating and entertaining as they discuss everything from how to play the songs on their play list to memories of other times and other gigs. The conversation is altered abruptly by the late arrival of the fourth member of their band, young Levee, played by exceptional actor Ronald Connor. Derisive, aggressive, ambitious, and emotionally unstable, Levee takes hold of the action and drives it relentlessly to its shocking conclusion." |
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