The Color Purple
Raise your voice. Make a joyful noise.
“A miracle on Broadway; a glory to behold!” —The New York Times
From Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller comes a powerful, Tony Award-winning musical with a fresh, joyous score of jazz, ragtime, gospel and blues. This stirring family chronicle follows the inspirational Celie from the early to mid-20th century in the American south, as she journeys from childhood to womanhood, through joy and despair, anguish and hope to discover the true power of love and life. With a soul-rousing, Grammy-winning score, The Color Purple is an unforgettable and intensely moving American classic.
Tony Award, Best Revival of a Musical, 2016; Grammy Award, Best Musical Theater Album, 2017
Who's Who:
View the cast and creative team bios.
Playbill:
Explore the Playbill
Run Time:
Approximately 2 hours and 25 minutes, including one intermission.
Note:
Recommended for ages 14 and up. Contains strong language and adult themes. Children under 6 are not permitted at any production at The Armory.
Resource Guide:
Download resource guide (PDF)
The Color Purple
- Previews Sep. 15–20 | Opening night Sep. 21
- Based upon the novel by Alice Walker
- Book by Marsha Norman
- Music and Lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray
- Directed by Timothy Douglas
- Music Direction by Darius Smith
Current & Upcoming
Wine in the Wilderness
It's 1964. As race riots blaze on the streets outside his Harlem home, painter Bill Jameson works feverishly to complete a triptych depicting his vision of Black womanhood. While he struggles to find his final muse — the “messed up chick” — his friends discover the perfect model in Tommy, a woman they meet at a bar after she’s been burned out of her home in the riots. However, Tommy is more than she seems, and her presence changes everything. Celebrated writer Alice Childress offers an intimate and raw study of race, gender, and class that explores how the Black community perceives, defines, and affirms itself from within.
Listen Between the Lines: The Music Man with Amir Shirazi
Learn to listen between the lines, as we take a peek behind the curtain at Meredith Wilson's The Music Man! As a group, we'll analyze and respond to the musical by exploring song type, structure, style, musical motifs, rhyme scheme, and more.
Autobiographic Devising for Solo Performance with Katherine Murphy Lewis
This multi-session workshop for women (including trans women of course!) and femme-identified people uses physical exploration, research, writing, construction, and editing to develop new solo material and the tools to support the creation of future artistic visions. Ideal for theater makers and performers who want to reclaim agency over their creative lives — and anyone else who has a story to tell!
Drop-in Writing Workshops for BIPOC Writers with Anya Pearson
These workshops for BIPOC writers are designed to help generate new material, refine existing drafts, or simply discover the permission to call yourself a writer. We’ll gather on Zoom to write together, bounce ideas off each other, share our work in progress, and hold space for the fullness of who we are.
Portland Center Stage at The Armory is committed to identifying & interrupting instances of racism & all forms of oppression, through the principles of inclusion, diversity, equity, & accessibility (IDEA).
Show Sponsors
2018-2019 Season Superstars
2018-2019 Season Supporting Sponsors
