PARADISE BLUE by Dominique Morisseau, playing at True Colors Theatre

It’s 1949, and the new mayor of Detroit is working to get rid of the blight of the city—and to move African Americans out of Detroit’s Blackbottom neighborhood. Blue, a gifted trumpeter, considers selling his once thriving family jazz club, leaving his beloved Pumpkin and her dreams aside. As Blue fights personal demons to better his life and maintain his sanity, his fellow band members, Corn and P-Sam, are stuck wondering where they fit into the plan to benefit from the changes in their neighborhood. Silver, a mysterious woman with a history, enters the scene with her own plans, turning the lives of everyone upside down.

Set against a backdrop of gentrification and displacement, Paradise Blue encompasses the pain and suffering that accompany the erasure of Black history.