Overview
Synopsis
Lester Mason is twenty years old and the future is his -- until he is denied a scholarship because of the color of his skin. He cries out, “Seems like the world ain’t nothing but a big white fog, and we can’t see no light nowhere.” The year is 1922, and racism is rampant in the United States of America. Despite the challenges, Lester’s father, Victor, has a dream. He is a Garveyite, and he wants to move his family to Africa, where his forebearers originated. Not everyone in his family, however, wants to leave America. Nonetheless, Victor persists, pursuing his dream with a single mindedness that, combined with the Great Depression and the racism of the time, drives his family to a tragic fate. With drama and poignancy, Theodore Ward’s Big White Fog challenges our preconceptions of what it means to live the American Dream.
Show Information
Context
The Progamme note for a reading of Big White Fog in NYC in 1980. Theodore Ward
As a young man, travelling across the United States, hoboing on a westbound freight train through the Rocky Mountains, I found myself at the Great Horseshoe Bend. Seated in the open doorway of the boxcar in which I was riding, I was enthralled by the overpowering beauty and strength of the towering hills, and the vast declivity to the valley beneath with its shrubbery of gold and red and brown bathed in the light
to read the context for Big White Fog and to unlock other amazing theatre resources!Characters
Showing 8 of 19 characters
Character Portrayals
See StageAgent members who have performed roles in Big White Fog.
Want to be featured on this page? Update your credits.
Videos
Guide Written By:
