The Green Book Wine Club Train Trip

by Michelle Tyrene Johnson

Five contemporary black women friends from Kansas City, Missouri take a weekend train trip as part of their book/wine club. Marie, a librarian, in addition to arranging the trip, is also doing research for her grandmother’s 80th birthday which involves looking through “The Negro Motorist Green Book,” the guidebook used by African-Americans in pre-integration America to know the safe places to stay and patronize...

Five contemporary black women friends from Kansas City, Missouri take a weekend train trip as part of their book/wine club. Marie, a librarian, in addition to arranging the trip, is also doing research for her grandmother’s 80th birthday which involves looking through “The Negro Motorist Green Book,” the guidebook used by African-Americans in pre-integration America to know the safe places to stay and patronize while traveling. Marie accidentally time travels to the 1940s, where she stays in a boarding house mentioned in the Green Book. But not only has she traveled to Jim Crow Missouri, she finds herself staying in a boarding house that is actually a bordello, and where one of the “working girls” may be her great-grandmother. (The four women in the past that Marie meets are double cast with her friends on the train trip.)

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The Green Book Wine Club Train Trip

Recommended by

  • Vidalia Unwin: The Green Book Wine Club Train Trip

    This play feels like you’re catching up with an old friend for the entire time you’re with it. There’s a universal warmth in its tone. Rich with engaging characters and deep with familial themes. Certainly worth a read, and if there was any Justice in the universe it would be a great play to watch as well.

    This play feels like you’re catching up with an old friend for the entire time you’re with it. There’s a universal warmth in its tone. Rich with engaging characters and deep with familial themes. Certainly worth a read, and if there was any Justice in the universe it would be a great play to watch as well.

  • Cheryl Bear: The Green Book Wine Club Train Trip

    A beautiful, moving play of understanding identity and the history that shapes these women. Well done.

    A beautiful, moving play of understanding identity and the history that shapes these women. Well done.

  • Troels Kjær: The Green Book Wine Club Train Trip

    A beautiful play. Like a good book I felt compelled to read it again. A rich story about identity, race, gender and history. The play is filled with fantastic dialogue, well defined characters and moments of truth and tenderness that resonate on an emotional level.

    A beautiful play. Like a good book I felt compelled to read it again. A rich story about identity, race, gender and history. The play is filled with fantastic dialogue, well defined characters and moments of truth and tenderness that resonate on an emotional level.

View all 14 recommendations

Development History

  • Type Reading, Organization National Black Theatre (NYC), Year 2017
  • Type Reading, Organization Olathe (Ks) Civic Theatre Association, Year 2017

Production History

  • Type Community Theater, Organization New Grove African Theatre Company, Year 2022
  • Type Community Theater, Organization Talking Horse Productions, Year 2020
  • Type Workshop, Organization KC Melting Pot Theatre, Year 2019

Awards

  • New Works Play Competition
    Olathe Civic Theatre Association
    Winner
    2017