“The Color Purple,” the Tony Award-winning musical and the subject of numerous film adaptations, is taking the stage for the next nearly three weeks at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival. As part of the festival’s summer season, the show will run through Aug. 4 at the Labuda Center for the Performing Arts at DeSales University in Center Valley.
The show, said director Amina Robinson, is “about the love of oneself, the love of God, the love of being human, the love of community.” Robinson is an award-winning director who leads this show for the second time in her career. She won a Barrymore Award in 2019 for her work in directing “The Color Purple” in Philadelphia, making her the first Black woman to win the accolade.
The musical takes place in the American South in the early 20th century and follows Celie — played by actress Jessica Johnson — as she faces challenging life conditions, including abuse, racism and separation, and ends up “discovering the strength to break free and find her own voice in the world,” according to the festival. “When we meet Celie, she is trying her best to be invisible and small,” said Johnson. “And we watch her through years and years of life experience, understand who she is in the world and make a choice to love herself.
” Making her PSF debut this summer, Johnson played the role of Celie in the same production that Robinson directed in 2018. “It was life-changing. I mean, I learned so much about my artistry,”.
