The theater adaptation of Outkast’s Andre 3000 will begin this weekend at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta.

“Class of 3000” is as Atlanta-centric as Benjamin, whose childhood at one point straddled the rough Bankhead neighborhood where he lived and the Buckhead middle school he attended.

It centers on two characters. Sunny Bridges is a superstar musician who returns to his hometown after his passion for performing has been beaten down by the business. Lil’ D is a short, talented, overconfident, trouble-finding 12-year-old.

“Both of them are just younger and older versions of me,” the 33-year-old Benjamin said.

Other characters — a diverse, artistic bunch whose backgrounds range from East Indian to white Buckhead rich — mirrors Benjamin’s wide circle of friends while at Sutton Middle School, near Chastain Park. He went there in the late ’80s through a program that bused kids from predominantly black neighborhoods to schools in mostly white parts of town. The result was an almost textbook diversity that’s re-created for “Class.”

The play which is adapted from 3000’s cartoon on the Cartoon Network will run every Saturday and Sunday (2 shows per day) until March 29. For more information on the play, go to www.alliancetheatre.org.

(Source)