Flyin' West at the Cloverdale Playhouse

Come and experience Montgomery's community theater, the Cloverdale Playhouse. The second performance of 2019 is Pearl Cleage's play, Flyin' West. Performances are May 2, May 3, and May 4 at 7:30 PM and May 5 at 2:00 PM.

Following the end of the Civil War, many former slaves, anxious to leave the South and the increasing disappointments and dangers of Reconstruction, took advantage of The Homestead Act and went West to build new lives for themselves and their families. Many of these homesteaders were black women who overcame tremendous odds to work their own land and make a place for themselves in an often harsh and forbidding environment.

Set in 1898, Flyin’ West is the story of some of these female pioneers who settled, together, in the all-black town of Nicodemus, Kansas. Spanning generations, these women exemplify a living oral history of the past and a determination to protect the future. Facing problems ranging from the inevitability of long, cold winters, to the possibility of domestic violence, to the continuing spectra of racial conflict, the women of Flyin’ West challenge archetypes in this powerful story of the strength of the female spirit.