Driving Miss Daisy

Directed by Scott Fryer

San Francisco’s African-American Shakespeare Company opens its 2013-14 season with Diablo Actors’ Ensemble’s 2011 production of Alfred Uhry’s DRIVING MISS DAISY. Winner of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize, DRIVING MISS DAISY is a timeless meditation on race relations in America told through the complex relationship between an elderly Southern Jewish woman and her black chauffeur. Having recently demolished another car, Daisy Werthan is informed by her son that she must rely on the services of a chauffeur, a proud, soft-spoken black man named Hoke whom she immediately regards with disdain and who, in turn, is equally unimpressed with her. In a series of absorbing scenes spanning 25 years, the two develop an unlikely bond despite their mutual differences, growing closer to, and more dependent upon, one another.

DRIVING MISS DAISY originally opened Off Broadway in 1987 at Playwrights Horizons starring Dana Ivey and Morgan Freeman; the play was made into a film starring Jessica Tandy, who won a Best Actress Oscar, and Morgan Freeman, and was recently revived on Broadway in 2010 starring Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones, marking its Broadway debut.

Scott Fryer directs this warm-hearted, humorous, and affecting study, featuring DAE’s original cast, L. Peter Callender, Ann Kendrick, and Tim Beagley, in this reprisal for African-American Shakespeare Company.

Director’s Notes

It’s an honor to be asked to bring Diablo Actors Ensemble’s production of this wonderful play to the African-American Shakespeare Company to kick off the AASC season. It’s a pleasure to again work with this very talented group of actors as we bring to life Alfred Uhry’s beloved characters. It is also a pleasure to work with the very talented people here at the African American Shakespeare Company, and to share this story with you, the audiences of AASC. Driving Miss Daisy is a very simple story played out against the backdrop of an extremely complex time period. It is a simple story about the lives of two people who share similar beliefs and yet who are very different. It is a simple story about a journey. On behalf of the cast and crew, Diablo Actors Ensemble, and the African-American Shakespeare Company, please enjoy the journey with us.

– Director Scott Fryer

Cast

Production Team

^{* The Actor appears through the courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.}