A Free Man of Color

John Guare, the celebrated playwright of Six Degrees of Separation and The House of Blue Leaves, has written a new play that is by turns astonishing, raucous and panoramic. A comedy of grand scale, A Free Man of Color is set in boisterous New Orleans just prior to the historic Louisiana Purchase. Before law and order took hold, before class, racial and political lines were drawn, New Orleans was a carnival of beautiful women, good-looking men, flowing wine and pleasure for the taking. At the center of this Dionysian world is the mulatto Jacques Cornet, who commands the men, seduces the women, preens like a peacock and cuts a wide swath through the city and the province. But, it is 1801 and the map of New Orleans is about to be redrawn. The Louisiana Purchase will bring American rule and racial segregation to the chaotic, colorful world of Jacques Cornet and all that he represents, turning the tables on freedom and liberty.

John Guare is the Tony, Obie, and New York Drama Critics Circle Award-winning playwright of the plays House of Blue Leaves, Six Degrees of Separation, Landscape of the Body, and A Few Stout Individuals. He co-edits the Lincoln Center Theater Review, teaches playwriting at Yale School of Drama, is a council member of the Dramatists Guild, a trustee of PEN America and received the Gold Medal in Drama from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.