The Adventures of Fishy Waters: In Bed with the Blues
Written and Performed by Guy Davis
Directed by Ricardo Khan
WHEN: February 16-26; Evenings, 8 PM; Matinees, 3 PM; School Matinee: 10 AM, February 24
WHERE: Crossroads Theatre, 7 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick
TICKETS: $40 previews, $65 for opening night including a reception; $50 all others.
Purchase online at www.CrossroadsTheatreCompany.org or call 732.545.8100.
Acclaimed bluesman Guy Davis brings the tales and music of the fictional Fishy Waters to Crossroads Theatre Company in his original one-man show, The Adventures of Fishy Waters: In Bed with the Blues.
Created by Davis over the past 20 years, the spirited Fishy Waters is an itinerant bluesman, who recounts his adventures aboard a boxcar in 1930s America. “There is no tale so tall I cannot tell it, nor song so sweet I cannot sing it,” he presages as he invites the audience to join him on his journey.
Davis’ skillful guitar-picked blues coupled with his humorous, organic storytelling grounds audiences in the roots of the blues. His lively, soulful song transports them to 1930s Depression-era America when hoboes like Fishy swapped tales of their travels over a camp fire, while waiting to hop the next morning’s train in search of work.
Though that era’s hobo culture has become the stuff of legend, Davis’ character speaks to the present as a man who has left a stable, if static, life as a sharecropper to follow his heart while struggling to make ends meet.
“Story telling is the most ancient, most powerful magic of the universe,” says Davis, son of acclaimed actors Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis. “I grew up in a house full of story tellers. I met many more through the years but family members such as my grandpa Marshall (my mom’s dad) and my father were among the very best. My grandpa was famous for his rascally tales and jokes but every once in a while he’d tell about the time his mom killed and cooked his pet chicken and he didn’t realize it until after he had eaten it! My dad could tell a story over and over and make it fun every time. All these factors came together in my life and were helpful to me in writing The Adventures of Fishy Waters: In Bed With The Blues.”
Director Ricardo Khan, Crossroads’ co-founder and artistic advisor, has transformed Davis’ original musical storytelling into a dramatic stage production with period set design by Sarah Lambert. Lighting design is by Victor En Yu Tan and projections are by Rocco DiSanti.
Founded in 1978 by Ricardo Khan and L. Kenneth Richardson, Crossroads Theatre Company embraces the vision that African-American theater is intended for a broad-based, diverse audience. As a major force in the development of new ideas and the introduction of formerly marginalized writers, Crossroads produces works that enrich and diversify the representation of African American culture on the American stage. Crossroads has produced more than 40 world premieres and received the Tony Award® in 1999 for Outstanding Regional Theatre in the United States.
