PUTNEY — Next Stage Arts Project, 15 Kimball Hill, presents a staged reading of the critically acclaimed one-man play Pierce to the Soul on Saturday, June 7, at 7:30 p.m.
Pierce to the Soul tells the story of Elijah Pierce, a barber, preacher, and folk artist of no small significance.
Playwright Chiquita Mullins Lee also performs the piece at Next Stage presentation.
Says Mullins Lee, “What I wanted to capture about Pierce, the son of a former Mississippi slave who migrated north and settled in Columbus, [Ohio], though, was his 'wholeness as a person.'”
Pierce to the Soul premiered at the Contemporary American Theatre Company in 2010, and focuses on Pierce's roots as an artist and the challenges he faced in the decades before he became famous. [“Celebrating an artist of color,” Arts, Feb. 12, 2014.]
Born in 1892, this son of a former Mississippi slave didn't become nationally known until the early 1970s, when Boris Gruenwald, an Ohio State University graduate student and sculptor, discovered his art and began championing it.
These days, more than 300 Pierce woodcarvings are contained in the collection of the Columbus Museum of Art, and his work is shown in exhibits worldwide.
Lee is a writer and performer living in Columbus, Ohio.