Header photo courtesy of Flint Institute of Music
As a play and story that relies on deep communication and interactions, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom works best in performance spaces that can capture that level of intimacy. Flint Repertory Theatre’s Elgood Theatre just so happens to be perfect for it.
“These characters all feel like genuine, three-dimensional characters, and the challenges and triumphs that they experience throughout the course of this story will resonate with the audiences,” said Rico Bruce Wade, who is directing the production at Flint Rep running from September 18-October 4 (tickets are available online). “I especially appreciate doing this work at Flint Rep because of the team that has been assembled to put it together, and also because of the physical footprint of the Elgood. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is an American classic, it’s an expansive piece of intimate theatre and the Elgood is an intimate space. You will have the feeling that you are there in this recording studio with these characters. We want to put everyone in the space together and make the audience part of the experience.”
This is Flint Repertory Theatre’s first production back in its home space. Both spaces were closed while renovations were made to Bower Theatre last year, so their entire 2025-26 season was performed at the larger UM-Flint theatre.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is one of 10 plays in legendary playwright August Wilson’s American Century Cycle. Each play focuses on a different element of the Black experience within each decade of the 20th century. Ma Rainey is the third play in the series, and is set in a Chicago recording studio in 1927. Legendary blues singer Ma Rainey arrives ready to create music true to her vision, but tensions rise between Ma, her band, and the white producers who all have influence and a desire to exert control as well. The play focuses on ambition, pride, and exploitation through race, art, and what it means to try and claim control of your voice and vision with surrounding influences intent on silencing it.
“Approaching a work like Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is challenging,” said Wade, who is also an associate artist at Flint Repertory Theatre. “The idea of presenting it in the Elgood was an added bonus to doing this. I’m very familiar with the space. I have great appreciation for the work that has been done there before. I think this is the perfect piece to reintroduce the community to the Elgood and to remind people just how vibrant the space is.”
Wade is a well-known presence on-stage as an actor in Flint Rep productions, but this is his first time directing at the theatre. In addition to the opportunity to help bring one of Wilson’s plays to life, he’s also loved working with a talented cast that includes X’ydee Alexander, Nathan Barlow, Henrí Franklin, Richard E. Harris, Kenn Hopkins Jr., Aaron Kottke, Conor McShane, Cassius Merriweather, Joel Mitchell, and Yewande Odetoyinbo.
“This is my first time directing at Flint Rep and, both on the stage and behind the scenes, everyone’s working diligently to create a fine piece of theatre,” Wade said. “I think they’ve hit the mark. Because I’m an actor, I bring an actor sensibility to the process of directing. I understand the challenges that actors face as they encounter work as rich and dense as Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. So I do all that I can to support their process and to help them create the best version of their characters. I’ve got a great cast and they are making powerful and insightful choices, which is so important in a piece like this.”
For one of the performers in the cast, the show also represents a homecoming. Hopkins Jr. grew up in Flint, and even performed on the Bower stage as a kid. He’s excited to perform in front of his home city audience.
“I was in this summer program, it was supposed to be for middle school, and I got snuck into it when I was in sixth grade,” Hopkins said. “I remember we did a theatre project where we built our own costumes, we worked on a script. It was at Bower Theatre. We did this play about clocks, and all the lines were just tick-tock. There was grandfather clock, wall clock, and I was the stopwatch. And that was my first role, and I still remember some of the memories vividly, man. I just loved the play. I loved being on stage, and loved the attention from the audience.”
Hopkins plays Slow Drag, and he actually has a Flint connection to that character as well. When he was a student at Mott Middle College, they read the play as part of a history class, and he read parts for Slow Drag back then.
“I remember reading for the scene then, so playing Slow Drag now is amazing,” Hopkins said. “There was so much I didn’t catch at the time, of course, because youth is wasted on the young, but I’m seeing it now and I understand why my teachers were so passionate about the story.”
Wade believes each character in the play has those unique elements that will allow audiences to form deep connections to them as actors bring them to life.
“What is compelling and enriching about this story is that we get to see these characters in this moment struggle with the challenges of the life that they face,” Wade said. “They do it with passion and at times anger, at times joy. There is so much humor in this piece. Ma Rainey was a historical character, but this is a fictionalized account of a recording session for Ma Rainey. We are introduced not only to the character of Ma Rainey, but the band members who support her recording process, members of her entourage, and her manager and the studio owner. All these people interact with one another. We get to see the various relationships unfold. It’s set in the ’20s, but there are so many aspects of this story that still resonate today. I hope that when people leave, the story will stay with them, and that they’ll have conversations that continue well after the curtain comes down.”
Wade said he has now been involved in productions of five of Wilson’s 10 American Century Series plays, and he’s grateful to be a part of Flint Repertory Theatre, which has a reputation for bringing powerful stories like this one to the community.
“The commitment to the hustle is something that always draws me back (to Flint Rep),” Wade said. “This is something that I’ve said a few times about Flint Rep in particular. It is a small regional theatre, but it consistently punches above its weight. The expectation is that the art that is presented here will be world-class, and one of the challenges for me (as a director) was to uphold that standard. Flint Rep has taken risks, has taken chances, and has succeeded. They have presented new works that are bold and challenging. They have presented classical works and placed their own spin on some of it, while still adhering to the artistic integrity of the source material. One of the things I tell my peers is it’s not just they’re doing great work. It’s that they don’t take shortcuts.”
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