The Peccadillo Theater Company will present an industry reading of Lonne Elder III's Ceremonies in Dark Old Men November 16 at 2 PM at the Theatre at St. Clement's.

Directed by Sheldon Epps, the cast will be led by Tony and Olivier nominee Wendell Pierce (Death of a Salesman, Clybourne Park, HBO’s The Wire).

Pierce will be joined by Jon Michael Hill (Elementary), Jeremiah Packer (Salt/City/Blues), Esau Pritchett (Thoughts of a Colored Man), Nedra Snipes (Clyde's), Daniel J. Watts (Tina: The Tina Turner Musical), and Kara Young (Purlie Victorious, Clyde's).

The play concerns Russell Parker, a barber and widowed father of three adult children, who spends his days playing checkers and reminiscing about his life in vaudeville as an old-style song and dance man. His two sons, Theo and Bobby, are dreamers of a different sort, two petty criminals looking for a "big score" in the form of a bootlegging and numbers scheme. Meanwhile, Russell's daughter, Adele, the only gainfully employed member of the family, threatens to walk out, refusing to work herself into an early grave like her mother. 

Casting is by Robin Carus.

Ceremonies in Dark Old Men was presented as a dramatic reading in 1965 and then produced for the stage by the Negro Ensemble Company in 1969. The work was subsequently produced for TV in 1975. Playwright Elder also wrote the screenplay for the film Sounder (1973; Academy Award nominee for Best Screenplay) and for the TV miniseries A Woman Called Moses, based on the life of abolitionist Harriet Tubman.

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