“Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” at A Noise Within Theater
On the heels of critically acclaimed productions of Gem of the Ocean, Seven Guitars, Radio Golf, King Hedley II, and The Piano Lesson, director Gregg T. Daniel returns to A Noise Within to direct August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, the second play in Wilson’s extraordinary 10-play “American Century Cycle” and the sixth in A Noise Within’s commitment to stage them all.
By News Desk
Performances begin October 18 and continue through November 9 at the company’s Pasadena home. Previews begin October 12.
Set in a Pittsburgh boarding house in 1911 during the Great Migration, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone introduces audiences to a community of men and women searching for lost family, identity, and purpose in the aftermath of slavery. Boardinghouse owners Seth Holly (Alex Morris) and his wife, Bertha (Veralyn Jones), host a revolving cast of residents during a time when descendants of former slaves were migrating north in large numbers.
When the tormented Herald Loomis (Kai A. Ealy) arrives with his young daughter, Zonia (Jessica Williams), he is a free man—newly released after seven years on Joe Turner’s notorious chain gang. Loomis is searching for the wife he left behind (Tori Danner), convinced she holds the key to reclaiming his identity. But through encounters with the rootworker Bynum (James T. Alfred) and other boarders (Brandon Gill, Briana James, Nija Okoro), he learns that what he truly seeks is to “find his song”, a discovery that will require more than the help of the local people finder (Bert Emmett). Jared Bennett rounds out the cast as Reuben, the neighbor boy.
“Seth and Bertha’s boarding house is a way station where souls come on their way to find redemption,” explains Daniel. “Thousands of former slaves and their descendants moved from the South into the jungles of the northern cities after the end of the Civil War. They needed to find each other, to reconnect with their heritage, their ancestry, and their culture.
As in all of Wilson’s plays, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone explores the tension between Christianity and African mysticism—a recurring motif in his work.
“I would like [audiences] to leave the theater with the understanding that the Black characters they see in the play are African people,” Wilson once said in an interview. “And that as African people, they have a different cultural response to the world than do white people. In fact, that is the source of their strength. So, if white or Black audiences are seeing the play, if it dawns on them at some time during the play that these are African people, then they begin to see the commonalities of different cultures. And they understand, even though these are African people, they wrestle with the same questions that all of humanity wrestles with. Why God got to be so big?”
Kai A. Ealy (Photo – Daniel Reichert)
The creative team for Joe Turner’s Come and Gone includes scenic designer Tesshi Nakagawa; lighting designer Karyn D. Lawrence; sound designer Jeff Gardner; costume designer Kate Bergh; wig and makeup designer Shelia Dorn; properties designer Stephen Taylor; dialect coach Andrea Odinov; choreographer Joyce Guy; fight choreographer Kenneth R. Merckx, Jr.; and dramaturg Dr. Miranda Johnson-Haddad. The production stage manager is Sami Hansen, with Jenny Nwene assisting.
Performance Schedule
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone runs October 18–November 9:
- Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30 pm
- Matinees at 2:00 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday (no matinee on Saturday, Oct. 19)
For more information and to purchase tickets, call (626) 356-3100 or go to www.anoisewithin.org.
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone October 12 - November 9, 2025 Location A Noise Within 3352 E Foothill Blvd. Pasadena, CA 91107 To purchase tickets, click here.
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