Le Petit Theatre in association with HEC Communications LLC
presents
Ganking Mr. Guidry
By Harold Ellis Clark
with generous support provided by Whitney Plantation and the Carol Sutton Memorial Grant
The world premiere of local playwright Harold Ellis Clark’s Ganking Mr. Guidry plays at Le Petit Theatre from August 13-16. This special limited engagement runs for only five performances.
John Grimsley will direct the production and design the set. The cast includes Al Aubry, Martin Bats Bradford, Kenneth Brown, Jr., Nicole Collins, and Rahim Glaspy.
Ganking Mr. Guidry, set during the 1878 Louisiana sugarcane harvesting season, surrounds five workers who band together to stand against injustice. Clark began writing the play after a reluctant visit to the Whitney Plantation (Wallace, LA) in 2018. The museum highlights the history and legacies of slavery in the United States. Part of Whitney’s programming focuses on the 1811 Louisiana Slave Revolt, the largest slave insurrection in U.S. history.
“I thought I’d feel sad during and after my visit, so I didn’t want to go. I knew about the 1811 slave uprising, but the intricate details about it that I discovered there left me feeling empowered and motivated to write about the experience,” said Clark. “I completed a rough draft a month later and wrote numerous drafts through late 2024.”
Clark made additional changes after a staged reading of the play at Dillard University’s Cook Theater last year. In writing the play, he fictionalized elements of both the slave uprising and his longtime fascination with Isaiah Dorman, the only Black man who died with General George A. Custer during the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. Dorman served the U.S. Army as an interpreter and spoke several Native American languages. He befriended the Sioux, including Chief Sitting Bull, and married a Hunkpapa woman.
A.J. Allegra, LPT’s artistic director, looks forward to presenting this world premiere production.
“I am inspired and excited to bring a work like Ganking Mr. Guidry to the Le Petit stage,” said Allegra. “This is an exciting and thought-provoking new play by a Louisiana playwright with a clear love of history and a masterful skill for storytelling. Works like these allow us to revisit fascinating portions of our region’s past that are too often forgotten.”
Dr. Ashley Rogers, executive director of Whitney Plantation, attended the staged reading of the play at Dillard and subsequently read the script. Her doctoral dissertation focused on the Post-Reconstruction Era, which began roughly in 1877.
“Whitney Plantation is proud to partner with Le Petit Theatre to support this world premiere. The lives of sugar plantation workers in the Post-Reconstruction era are central to our work,” said Rogers. “This history is not discussed enough, and we are grateful to these New Orleans artists for bringing these vital stories to our community.”
Tickets for the limited run of Ganking Mr. Guidry range from $35 to $55 and are available here. Groups of 10 or more receive a discount here with code GROUP. Call (504) 522-2081 ext. 1 or email boxoffice@lepetittheatre.com for assistance with ticket purchases or more information. Discounted parking is available for ticket-holders.
Ganking Mr. Guidry runs August 13 – 16, 2026: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7:30 PM; Saturday matinee at 2:00 PM; Sunday matinee at 3:00 PM
MEET THE AUTHOR | Harold Ellis Clark
Harold Ellis Clark
Since he began writing plays in 2010 after nearly two decades of penning several unpublished novels and screenplays, Harold Ellis Clark, a native of New Orleans (Algiers, LA), has garnered numerous honors for his work, including Ganking Mr. Guidry (2026 Carol Sutton Memorial Grant – New Orleans, LA); Back in the Day (2023 Sherri Marina Memorial Grant – New Orleans, LA and a 2023 Finalist, Trustus Playwrights’ Festival – Columbia, SC); Indoctrination (2019 Finalist, Todd McNerney Playwriting Award – Columbia, SC); Run No More (2018 Featured Finalist, Blue Ink Playwriting Award – Chicago, IL); Madame Thames’ Spirit Bar (2016 Finalist, Stanley Drama Award – New York, NY); Uncle Bobby ‘63 (2015 Finalist, Stanley Drama Award – New York, NY); Tour Detour (2013 Finalist, Stanley Drama Award – New York, NY); Fishers of Men (2013 Winner, UpStage Theatre’s Emerging Playwright Project Award – Baton Rouge, LA); and We Live Here (2013 Winner, New Works@The Works National Playwriting Competition Award – Memphis, TN). He served from August 2002 to January 2020 as host/producer of WYLD-FM’s Sunday Journal with Hal Clark, five-time winner of the Best Radio Talk Show Award at the annual Press Club of New Orleans’ Excellence in Journalism Galas.
About Whitney Plantation
Whitney Plantation is a museum and memorial site in Wallace, La., dedicated to educating the public about the history and legacies of slavery in the United States. Located on a former indigo, rice, and sugar plantation, Whitney centers the voices of enslaved people and preserves the memory of their lives and labor. For tickets and to learn more about Whitney Plantation, visit whitneyplantation.org and follow on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
Support for Le Petit Theatre Provided by Joy and Boysie Bollinger, The Adelaide Wisdom Benjamin Foundation, The Rosemary B. and Brunswick G. Deutsch Foundation for Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre, The Favrot-Van Horn Fund, The Eugenie and Joseph Jones Family Foundation, The Le Petit Theatre Endowment Fund from the Greater New Orleans Foundation, The Harold W. Newman Endowment Fund, The New Orleans Recreation and Culture Fund, The New Orleans Theatre Association (NOTA), The Elizabeth Porch Schwartz Endowment Fund, The Selley Foundation, and The Shubert Foundation. Sponsored in part by WWNO 89.9 FM, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, Inc., and Entergy New Orleans.
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