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But Oz Scott, who is directing 's production that opens in 蜜柚直播 on Saturday, Jan. 20, says the story is much more universal.

鈥淚t is not just a play about Black people, it鈥檚 a play that anybody will really come to see themselves in. 鈥� It speaks to everybody,鈥� said Scott, who is making his ATC debut after decades of directing for stage, film and television.

Scott said 鈥淚ntimate Apparel鈥� reminds him of when he directed Nitozake Shange鈥檚 鈥淔or colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf鈥� in 1976. During the Off-Broadway run, he said, 鈥淚 remember going to a class at NYU that was full of Jewish and Italian women, older women, and they all said, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 my story.鈥欌��

鈥淲hen you see 鈥業ntimate Apparel,鈥� I think everybody will say, 鈥業 know that鈥檚 my story, that鈥檚 my grandmother鈥檚 story,鈥欌�� he said. 鈥淟ynn Nottage has written a wonderful play that emotionally anybody can get into. Anybody can feel. I think that鈥檚 what鈥檚 wonderful about this story.鈥�

鈥淚ntimate Apparel,鈥� which the Pulitzer Prize-winning Nottage wrote in 2003, is the story of Esther, a seamstress who sews intimate apparel for rich white women and Black prostitutes alike.

She lives in a New York boarding house and saves every penny so she can one day open a beauty salon where Black women will be pampered like the white socialites for whom she works.

And while Esther is smitten over the Hasidic shopkeeper who sells her fabric, both realize their relationship would never pass society鈥檚 muster in early 1900s New York City.

With the help of a fellow resident in the boarding house, the illiterate Esther strikes up a pen-pal relationship with George Armstrong, a lonesome Caribbean man working on the Panama Canal. He writes her romantic letters describing an ideal happily-ever-after life and when he pops the marriage question, Esther agrees.

But the real George and the George from those letters prove to be two different people when he moves to New York. He absconds with Esther鈥檚 nest egg not long after the I Dos.

Undeterred, Esther returns to her sewing machine and starts all over.

Scott鈥檚 vision of Esther is that of a woman under the thumb of all those around her. She鈥檚 a victim who doesn鈥檛 know how to play the role of victim; she鈥檚 more comfortable just letting life happen around her without speaking out.

鈥淪he finds that she鈥檚 got to push out, but it鈥檚 very scary for people to push out because they never have,鈥� Scott said during a day off from rehearsing last week. 鈥淒o I stay with the status quo or do I move on? And the status quo was very safe.鈥�

That idea of stepping outside of your comfort zone resonates with what鈥檚 happening in the world today, Scott said, recalling a visit to Russia in the years after the fall of communism. A Russian official told Scott that if the people of Russia back then had a choice, they would return to communism because it was what they knew, what they were comfortable with.

Americans today also are stuck in the status quo, especially on issues such as immigration and the economy, said Scott, whose credits over the past 25-plus years have included dozens of TV series (鈥淐hicago P.D.,鈥� 鈥淏lack-ish,鈥� 鈥淐riminal Minds,鈥� 鈥淭he Jeffersons鈥�) and several films (鈥淐rash Course鈥� in 1988 and 2003鈥檚 鈥淭he Cheetah Girls鈥�).

鈥淚ntimate Apparel鈥� opens in previews Saturday, Jan. 20-Thursday, Jan. 25, and continues through Feb. 10 at the Temple of Music and Art.

Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@tucson.com. On Twitter @Starburch