Event

It Don't Just....Shake Off

Open Door is honored to have playwright McKinley Johnson return to our stage with his new play "It Dont Just.Shake Off" as part of our 2016 2017 Season.

Set in the 1920s, "It Dont Just.Shake Off" is a musical based on the true partnership of bluesmen, Tampa Red (Hudson Whittaker) and Georgia Tom (Thomas A. Dorsey - the Father of Gospel, composer of Precious Lord, Take My Hand).

Using their original blues songs with new compositions to set the tempo, "It Don't Just...Shake Off" has a cast of three actors (two young men, one young woman) accompanied by piano and guitar.

The setting is a surreal 1920's juke joint caught somewhere between want and lost. Big D....the God of the Blues. finds these two lost souls Thomas and Hudson - and transports themto Georgia Tom and Tampa Redor to where the blues come fromor somewhere whereIt Don't Just...Shake Off.

Cast and Crew

Michael Neely(Thomas A. Dorsey), Marc Rogers (Hudson Whittaker), Fania Bourn (Big D)

McKinley Johnson (Playwright/Director), Eric Troy (Music Director), Mary Pat Sieck (Producer), Sonita Suratt (Stage Manager), Stevan Saliny (Technical Director),
Josh Prisching (Set/Lighting Design), Austin Pettinger (Costume Design), April Shipp (Choreography),
Ethan Kwas (Assistant Technical Director), Andrea Kerwin (Graphic Arts)