William Richert

Porgy and Bess 1927 William Richert

Hardly performed on any stage since the 1920's, the original story of Porgy and Bess has languished on bookshelves while the great "folk opera" by George and Ira Gerswhin has rightfully taken its place among the all time American Operas. But left behind is the work of Dorothy and DuBose Heyward and their Negro collaborators -- actors and poets of the time. Also forgotten is the Gullah language, with its richness and the spiritual songs of the period, post-emancipation, "Reconstruction" -- a time when black people were finding their own voices after hundreds of years in slavery and oppression. PORGY was a smash hit on Broadway, running from 1927-28, and the play and musical provided some of the great actors the depth and range to give great performances, with the attraction and love between a beauty with a flaw and a cripple without the use of his legs. Dorothy Heyward spent the latter part of her life making sure that her husband and collaborator DuBose Heyward would not be overshadowed by the fame of Ira Gershwin or the songs of the great George Gerswhin. These pages show how much remains in modern times of what trouble and poverty and injustice was like back then -- as well as how far we've come in many areas of understanding and acceptance . This screenplay may provide the opportunity to witness daily life -- including a monstrous hurricane -- in a Charleston tenement back almost a century ago -- with characters who make you laugh or cry or scared - and the luminous addition of one of the world's best loved love stories; a kind of fairy tale among the hurt and wounded, without a "happy" ending, but glorious with a beauty all its own.