New Horizon Theater’s ‘Black Angels Over Tuskegee’ at The Public (10/23/24)

BLACK ANGELS OVER TUSKEGEE (drama) by Layon Gray. Pittsburgh Public Theater and New Horizon Theater. Helen Wayne Rauh Rehearsal Hall at the O’Reilly Theater. Through October 27.

Even before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Army sought every means of preparation before entering the European theaters of 1941. As an experiment to determine if blacks could pilot airplanes successfully, the Army Air Corps recruited academically qualified African-Americans from many of the more populated college campuses to create what would be called the 99th Pursuit Squadron, an all-black corps of cadet pilots, engineers, and mechanics.  Better known today as the Tuskegee Airmen, this elite squad, eventually numbering as many as 1,500, included only a handful of pilots who earned their wings. Layon Gray’s Black Angels Over Tuskegee examines the fears, frustrations, and hopes of six men recruited to fly, despite insurmountable odds that prevailing Jim Crow prejudices would ever condone the opportunity. Their struggles at Tuskegee documented some of the first American victories in a much larger and longer battle, the civil rights movement. New Horizon will stage the play at Pittsburgh Public Theater’s Helen Wayne Rauh Rehearsal Hall. 7:30 p.m. 621 Penn Ave., Cultural District. (C.P.O.)

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