About the Play:

The Sty of the Blind Pig is a full-length drama by Phillip Hayes Dean. Alberta lives on the South Side of Chicago with her old-fashioned mother, Weedy. Their relationship is tested when a mysterious street singer comes searching for a woman he used to know, and Alberta must confront the feelings she's long been suppressing. An award-winning drama, The Sty of the Blind Pig captures the sense of black consciousness in America on the cusp of the civil rights movement.

The Sty of the Blind Pig is set in the 1950s, in a simple South Side of Chicago apartment, just before the civil rights movement begins in earnest. Back in the day, "blind pig" was often used to refer to a house of ill repute, where women, whiskey and food were sold. Alberta, unmarried and in her thirties, shares an apartment with her subtly domineering mother, Weedy, an old-fashioned black woman who finds solace for her troubles in religion. Their constant visitor is Uncle Doc, a sporty, down-on-his-luck gambling man who is the despair of his strait-laced sister, Weedy. Then, unexpectedly, a wandering street singer, Blind Jordan, comes to their door, searching for a woman he once knew. The others are puzzled and even frightened by their visitor, but Alberta offers to help him in his quest, and when they are alone, all the emotional and sexual frustration struggling within her bursts forth in a scene of tremendous eloquence and power. Out of the unsettling nature of their encounter comes estrangement between mother and daughter, which subsides to an uneasy truce when Blind Jordan departs – leaving behind a disturbing awareness of much that has been lost or changed, and of much greater change still to come. The Sty of the Blind Pig is a vivid and deeply affecting drama that combines humour and power in capturing the sense of black consciousness in America during a time of transition from old to new.

The Sty of the Blind Pig premiered in 1971 off-Broadway by the prestigious Negro Ensemble Company at the St. Marks Playhouse, winning the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Playwright and the Hull-Wariner Award. Also named by Time Magazine as one of the year's ten best plays of 1971.

Cast: 2 female, 2 male

"It is eloquent, powerful, moving and beautiful…a consecrated act of theater." — Time Magazine

"Dean has written a powerful play, deeply felt and profoundly moving." — Women's Wear Daily

"He has a gift of writing dialogue that has humor, veracity and power." — Newsday (NY)

About the Playwright:

Phillip Hayes Dean (1931-2014) was an African American playwright and stage actor who wrote a number of issue-based plays that play out the struggle for racial equality during much of the Twentieth Century: Sty of the Blind Pig (Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner award, and Drama Desk award, 1972) and Paul Robeson (Christopher Award, 1980). He also worked extensively as a director and taught acting and playwriting at the University of Michigan.