Congo Square Theatre’s
The Fall of Heaven

Written by Walter Mosley
Directed by Daniel Bryant
Featuring Anthony Irons 

Feb 25, 2013 – Mar 24, 2013

For tickets:
Congo Square Theatre Company
2936 North Southport Avenue
Chicago, IL 60657
773.296.1108

In the blink of an eye, Tempest is struck by the bullet of a police gun and finds himself at the pearly gates facing St. Peter and his judgment. Refusing to accept his eternal condition, he’s stripped of his identity and given a new body and a chance to change his fate. Alive, Tempest was no angel, but he was far from evil. The Accounting Angel, Joshua, is out to prove the scales tip toward the latter. Adapted from his book, Tempest Tales, and inspired by Langston Hughes’ colorful character, Jesse B. Semple, Walter Mosley takes us on a hip trip—an ethereal excursion into the metaphysical conundrum between right and wrong, good and evil. Which will you choose?

Enjoy a sneak peek from a staged reading of The Fall of Heaven:

Camera Q&A: Walter Mosley on adapting his novels for the screen, by Christian Niedan

Walter Mosley is a New York City-based author, whose 37+ book literary career goes back to 1990′s Devil in a Blue Dress. That novel kicked off a series revolving around detective Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins — a Black resident of the Watts section of Los Angeles, whose continuing story begins in 1948, and (with the May 2013 release of his 12th story,Little Green) has progressed to 1967. Mosley also created the character of ex-convict Socrates Fortlow, the modern-day protagonist of Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned, and two other novels. Both Rawlins and Fortlow were adapted for the screen in the 1990s. Denzel Washington portrayed Rawlins in 1995′s Devil in a Blue Dress, directed by Carl Franklin. Laurence Fishburne portrayed Fortlow in 1998′s Always Outnumbered, directed by Michael Apted for HBO. During production Mosley met producer Diane Houslin, and in 2012 they partnered to launch a new production company: Best of Brooklyn Filmhouse. Other Mosley creations include Fearless Jones, portrayed by Bill Nunn in the final episode of Showtime’s anthology series, Fallen Angels. He has also authored several science-fiction stories — the latest being The Gift of Fire andOn the Head of a Pin, which were released together by Tor Hardcover in May, 2012. Camera In The Sun interviewed Mosley in the summer of 2012, as he was editing Little Green, and discussed how his books have been adapted for the screen — including past and future versions of Easy Rawlins.

Read the rest of the interview here »

The dates have been announced for the Little Green National Author tour, May-June 2013 in the following cities; Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Seattle, Scottsdale, St. Louis, Austin, Houston, Philadelphia, Raleigh, Brooklyn, New York, Washington DC.

Browse the Events Calendar (to the right) or click “Appearances” to see a list of readings in your area.

Parishioner

Walter Mosley. Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, $9.99 e-book (279p) ISBN 978-0-345-80444-0

Many of Mosley’s heroes are men who are or have been brutal and are certainly still dangerous—men like Fearless Jones, Leonid McGill, Easy Rawlins, and Easy’s friend, Raymond “Mouse” Alexander—and all have their redeeming qualities. Xavier “Ecks” Rule may be the worst, having “beaten, raped, and murdered my brothers and sisters,” until he meets Father Frank, whose Seabreeze City, Calif., congregation consists of 96 similarly lost souls. Father Frank gives Ecks a mission to aid Benol Richards, who as a young woman 23 years earlier helped her lover, Brayton Starmon, kidnap and sell three babies. Now Benol wants to make amends, and Ecks reluctantly agrees to help. Sordid tales mingle with trials, redemptions, and philosophy grounded in gritty experiences as Ecks follows cold clues into hot action. Ecks’s world is populated with some of Mosley’s most colorful and memorable characters, from Father Frank, who never invokes God, to the edgy parishioners who make up his flock. No Mosley fan should risk missing this scintillating novel. Agent: Gloria Loomis, Watkins Loomis Agency. (Dec.)

Reviewed on 02/01/2013 | Details & Permalink