- This event has passed.
“Driving Miss Daisy” presented by New Harmony Theatre
August 4, 2019 @ 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
“Driving Miss Daisy”
By Alfred Uhry
Directed by Elliot Wasserman
The place is the Deep South, the time 1948, just prior to the civil rights movement. Having recently demolished another car, Daisy Werthan, a rich, sharp-tongued Jewish widow of seventy-two, is informed by her son, Boolie, that henceforth she must rely on the services of a chauffeur. The person he hires for the job is a thoughtful, unemployed black man, Hoke, whom Miss Daisy immediately regards with disdain and who, in turn, is not impressed with his employer’s patronizing tone and, he believes, her latent prejudice. But, in a series of absorbing scenes spanning twenty-five years, the two, despite their mutual differences, grow ever closer to, and more dependent on, each other, until, eventually, they become almost a couple. Slowly and steadily the dignified, good-natured Hoke breaks down the stern defenses of the ornery old lady, as she teaches him to read and write and, in a gesture of good will and shared concern, invites him to join her at a banquet in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. As the play ends Hoke has a final visit with Miss Daisy, now ninety-seven and confined to a nursing home, and while it is evident that a vestige of her fierce independence and sense of position still remain, it is also movingly clear that they have both come to realize they have more in common than they ever believed possible—and that times and circumstances would ever allow them to publicly admit.
New Harmony Theatre is a professional Equity stage featuring actors from the Actors’ Equity Union on a LOA to LORT-D contract. Our designers and crew come from across the United States to create breathtaking sets, costumes, and lighting effects.
Group rates: $20 per ticket in groups of 12 or more adults and/or seniors.
Tickets can be purchased on our website or by calling 812-682-3115 Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
