Octavia E. Butler's PARABLE OF THE SOWER Returns To ArtsEmerson As A Fully Realized Stage Production

ArtsEmerson, Boston's leading presenter of contemporary world theater and film and the professional presenting and producing organization of Emerson College, is thrilled to welcome back Toshi Reagon and Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower. This masterful adaptation of Octavia E. Butler's award-winning masterpiece will play a very limited engagement with four performances only from April 21- 24, 2022 at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre.

Parable of the Sower is returning to ArtsEmerson as a fully realized staged production after its sold-out 2017 Concert Experience presentation. As Reagon describes, "In 2017, we were still in our workshops so we had not finished the piece. Now we are finished with the show...we now have our set, costumes, lighting design, music, all in service to the great story by Octavia E. Butler."

With music and lyrics composed by Toshi Reagon in collaboration with her mother, Bernice Johnson Reagon (Sweet Honey in the Rock), Parable of the Sower, which may best be described in its singular form as a congregational opera, is a triumphant, mesmerizing theatrical work of rare power and beauty that illuminates deep insights on gender, race and the future of human civilization.

Parable of the Sower brings together over 30 original musical anthems and requiems drawn from 200 years of Black music to bring the acknowledged Afrofuturist masterpiece to the stage. It tells the story of Lauren Olamina, a young woman who lives in a not-so-distant America where climate change has driven society to violence and the brink of extinction. When she loses both family and home, she ventures out into the unknown. What begins as a desperate fight for survival leads to something much more profound: a startling vision of human destiny that births the seeds of a new faith.

"We are so excited at last to bring Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower to the stage after having to cancel the production in March 2020 during the COVID-19 shutdown," says ArtsEmerson Executive Director David C. Howse. "The piece is urgent, its music is gorgeous, the event is exhilarating, and Octavia E. Butler's prescient voice just seems to keep gaining in clarity and wisdom. Toshi Reagon is a dear friend of ours here at ArtsEmerson. We're glad to welcome the company, and Butler's vision, back to Boston."

Tickets for Parable of the Sower may be purchased 24/7 at ArtsEmerson.org, or by calling 617-824-8400 (Tue-Sat from 12:00PM ET - 6:00PM ET). The ArtsEmerson central ticketing office at the Paramount Center (559 Washington Street, Boston) is open for walk-up service Thu-Sat from Noon - 6:00 PM ET. (Please note that the Cutler Majestic Theatre Box Office is only open on performance days beginning two hours prior to curtain time.) Groups of 10+ attending any performance may save up to 30%.

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