The production will feature:

• three-time Emmy Award-winner Uzo Aduba (In Treatment, Orange is the New Black), who made her Broadway debut in Coram Boy (’07) and was last seen on Broadway 10 years ago in the revival of Hair
• two-time Emmy Award-winner Ron Cephas Jones (This is Us, Truth Be Told, Between Riverside and Crazy), father of Jasmine Cephas Jones (Hamilton), was last seen on Broadway in Of Mice and Men (’14)
• Reza Salazar (Sweat)
• Lucille Lortel Award winner and Antonyo nominee Kara Young (All The Natalie Portmans, Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven) making her Broadway debut
• A fifth role remains to be cast

Directed by Kate Whoriskey, CLYDE’S will begin previews on Wednesday, November 3, 2021, and officially open on Monday, November 22, 2021, at Second Stage’s Broadway home, The Hayes Theater (240 West 44th street).

CLYDE’S, a stirring and funny new play, a truck stop sandwich shop offers its formerly incarcerated kitchen staff a shot at redemption. Even as the shop’s callous owner, Clyde (played by Aduba), tries to keep them under her thumb, the staff members are given purpose and permission to dream by their shared quest to create the perfect sandwich. You’ll want a seat at the table for this humorous, moving, and urgent play. It’s an example of Nottage’s “genius for bringing politically charged themes to life by embodying them in ordinary characters living ordinary lives” (The Wall Street Journal).

The full creative team for CLYDE’S includes scenic design by Takeshi Kata, costume design by Jennifer Moeller, lighting design by Christopher Akerlind, sound design by Justin Ellington, original compositions by Justin Hicks, and casting by The Telsey Office.

The post Uzo Aduba, Ron Cephas Jones + More Cast in Lynn Nottage’s <em>CLYDE’S</em> On Broadway appeared first on Broadway Black.

Which is why Broadway Black has no choice but to share the release of Contemporary Plays by African American Women: Ten Complete Works by Sandra Adell. If there is one voice that’s been undervalued on stage, it’s that of the Black woman. That’s what makes this anthology so great. It’s a combined work that includes prominent Black female playwrights and some up-and-coming writers.

It features works from contemporary Black female playwrights including Blue Door by Tanya Barfield; Levee James  by S. M. Shephard-Massat; Hoodoo Love  by Katori Hall; Carnaval  by Nikkole Salter; Single Black Female  by Lisa B. Thompson; Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine by Lynn Nottage; BlackTop Sky by Christina Anderson; Voyeurs de Venus by Lydia Diamond; Fedra by J. Nicole Brooks; and Uppa Creek: A Modern Anachronistic Parody in the Minstrel Tradition by Keli Garrett.

The description reads:

African American women have increasingly begun to see their plays performed from regional stages to Broadway. Yet many of these artists still struggle to gain attention. In this volume, Sandra Adell draws from the vital wellspring of works created by African American women in the twenty-first century to present ten plays by both prominent and up-and-coming writers. Taken together, the selections portray how these women engage with history as they delve into–and shake up–issues of gender and class to craft compelling stories of African American life. Gliding from gritty urbanism to rural landscapes, these works expand boundaries and boldly disrupt modes of theatrical representation.

Sandra Adell (Ph.D., UW–Madison) is a professor of Literature in the department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Comparative Literature. Her other works include Confessions of a Slot Machine Queen, Literary Masters: Toni Morrison, Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Culture: African American Culture, and Double Consciousness/Double Bind: Theoretical Issues in Twentieth-Century Black Literature.

Contemporary Plays by African American Women: Ten Complete Works was released December 15th and is available for purchase in hardcopy, paperback, and digital copy at Amazon here.

The post Sandra Adell Releases Ten Contemporary Plays by African American Women appeared first on Broadway Black.

With more than 40 film and television projects under her belt, and having shared the screen with the likes of Forest Whitaker, Bernie Mac, Don Cheadle, Robert Duvall, Salma Hayek, and Jenna Elfman, this Texas native and Yale School of Drama grad admits that theatre is her first love – embracing and reveling in the energy that’s shared with a live audience.

“It’s a sacred triangle between you, your fellow colleagues onstage, and the audience. There’s a synergy there that doesn’t exist with a camera,” Scott says.

Nottage’s Sweat is a timely and relevant piece that delves into the impact of corporate buyouts, outsourcing, and the disappearance of manufacturing jobs on human capital. Nottage set the play in a small town to “explore America’s industrial decline at the turn of the millennium by examining the inhabitants of one Pennsylvania town who still struggle to reclaim what’s lost, find redemption and redefine themselves in a new century.” Sweat premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in August and is now headed to the Arena Stage’s Kreeger Theater in Washington, DC, where it opens on January 15 and runs through February 21.

Scott is cast in the role of “Cynthia” one of two friends for life who work at a local factory in Reading, Pa. Tracey (Johanna Day) is white; and Cynthia is black. Their friendship is tested when Cynthia is promoted to management, causing a painful rift with Tracey, who had also applied. Tracey attributes Cynthia’s selection to tokenism.

In an exclusive, wide-ranging interview with Broadway Black, Scott discussed her latest role, her thoughts on comparisons of Nottage and Wilson, and other topics.

What is it about the role of Cynthia that drew you to it?

I know Lynn’s work and she’s a beast, she’s amazing, and opens windows into people’s souls, her character’s souls that are just astonishing and lovely. I had not even read the play when I said “yes.” I knew it was going to be beautiful. I knew it was Lynn, and I went, “I’m in. Can I read it?” They said, “We only have the first act. We only have the first act.” I said, “Let me read it.” I was like, “Okay, if you think…” they’re like, “Yeah, we think.” Then, about a month before we started, I got to read the whole play, and it blew my mind.

Reviewers have sometimes compared Nottage to August Wilson, particularly as it relates to dialogue. Do you see any similarities between the two, having worked with both of them?

I think that the joy in the language is absolutely there. That joy, that familiarity, that humanity, is absolutely comparable and the same, and glorious. It’s glorious, the way she makes these people that are completely familiar. You know who they are. You know these people, you know their situation, and you know their feeling. She does not write things that are easy. They’re beautiful mountains, they are beautiful mountains that you have to climb. You can’t see it, when they call places you can’t see the top. Somehow, you have to take it one scene at a time, one moment at a time. I feel that way about Sweat. You take it one moment at a time, you take it one scene at a time, you keep breathing, and you keep going forward in the experience of these characters in the play.

That was the way it was with August. Very, very keen ear for his own work. That’s the thing they have in common, the keen ear and also the joy. She has a great joy in the room. August would lean back and laugh and enjoy it. She enjoys hearing your experience of what she’s written. She enjoys you turning on the lights in this rooms that she’s furnished. It’s beautiful; it’s really quite beautiful.

“Cynthia” faces some very real issues when she gets the promotion – allegations of tokenism. Some of us have felt that at some point in life. As an actress who’s played very diverse roles, have you ever encountered anything like that and what was your response? Did your response affect how you handled that in the role?

Doing the play, telling this story is so familiar for so many of us. It’s so familiar. I had so many women walk up to me and say, “Girl, girl let me tell you. Girl.” It’s having that experience of suffering and questioning the value of your own ambition.

It’s hard because ambition is hard enough; self-esteem is hard enough. Then, to become a tool, to have it all, to be used in the way that she gets used, is hard. It’s hard to tell the story because it’s familiar. I really think that if you have any ambition at all, if you have any sense of self-esteem or achievement as an African-American woman in America, you can understand what Cynthia goes through. It’s tough to lean into what it is that she goes through with her friends. It’s not simple, it’s class, it’s race; it’s all of that. Friendship on top of that, and camaraderie, and 20 years of experience, 30 years of experience, it’s tough. It doesn’t matter who you are, it’s close.

The play opens at Arena Stage DC on January 15. You’ve played there before in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, what will it be like to go back?

Every audience is different, but to do this play in Washington DC, so close to the area that this is talking about, so close. There will be exponentially more people who not only have had an experience like it, but will know exactly what we’re talking about. On top of that, possibly people in the audience who will have a possible way to affect the situation, policy wise, that’s very gratifying. I look forward to, possibly, the congressmen and senators, and people from the various departments of the U.S. Government who could come and see this play and understand, maybe, on a more fundamental level, what’s happening. I think that Lynn has written a play that is as illuminating to the deindustrialization of America and this moment in history that we’re at, as Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman was to that moment in American history – for the American working man.

For someone with such an impressive and enviable body of work, how have you been able to maintain longevity in a profession where people often get discouraged and give up, or they just can’t get the roles?

There came a moment when my dad died. It got real, as they say. I realized, life is finite, and daylight is burning. I was living in Los Angeles and when you live in Los Angeles, you do television and film, you tend to turn down a lot of theater to wait around for film work and television work. When my dad died I had just done a play and I realized how much I missed doing theater. I was doing theater over the years, but not as much as I could have been doing. I wasn’t doing everything that I was offered. I had this moment where I realized, “Wow, I need to follow my bliss. I need to do that. I need to trust that everything’s going to come out okay. I need to go ahead and do what’s offered to me because it’s coming to me for a reason.” I just decided, I’m not going to turn down nothing but my hat.

I’m Buddhist. My practice is so much about really attracting things and not chasing after my fortune. I’m not trying to chase after my fortune anymore. I’m really trusting that my fortune is coming to me. Ever since I’ve really tried to stand in that truth, it’s been great

What is it that inspires you?

My colleagues inspire me endlessly, their courage, their bravery. We have three new cast members and just the opportunity to rediscover the play with new people, that’s inspiring, as well as the experience of discovering it the first time with the people who originated their roles. I have a profound belief that the first cast leaves DNA in the play, there’s no getting around that.

When you do world premieres, you’re crafting an experience. You’re crafting a play. You’re crafting this thing, telling this story. You have these actors telling this story, this way. You’ve got a director working on it and on the way we tell that story, but no matter who the director is, and the playwright, and the words that the playwright has brought to the table, and we tell that story, there’s no getting around the fact that the first cast puts a stamp on it.

For tickets to see Scott in Sweat at the Arena Stage’s Kreeger Theater in Washington, DC, visit here.

The post Exclusive: Kimberly Scott Talks Sweat, Nottage Vs. Wilson, & What Inspires Her appeared first on Broadway Black.

The project started by gathering artists from top theatre companies around the country to create a series of one-minute plays centered around the themes of race and police brutality.While it seems as though a one-minute play isn’t enough time to faithfully explore the subject matter, I ask you this question: Is one minute not the amount of time it takes for a law enforcement officer to make an incorrect assumption and leave another Black body lifeless on the ground? In one minute is someone able to be choked to death? In one minute is someone able to be held down on the ground against their will with a knee lodged in their spine? Yes, these occurrences can happen in a minute and have happened. Co-Creater and Producer of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Claudia Alick, told The Takeaway with John Hockenberry that “you can do a lot in one minute, the rigor and the restraint required means that you say something specific.”

The plays were workshopped in St. Louis from October 18th – 23rd, were produced and live streamed October 24th, and featured content by collaborators such as Lynn Nottage, Dominique Morisseau, Nikkole Salter, The National Black Theater, The Hansberry Project and American Theater Company, The Black Rep and many more. The festival will make the body of plays available for participating theatre companies who’ve sent participants — and other national partners who have opted to participate for free –with the aim to have those partnering theaters hold a specific day or week of events in staging these plays from Oct 26^th– October 30^th, 2016.

As a firm believer that the stage is the best place for art to truly live, breathe and exsist, I find productions like this to be important for the whole world to see. I don’t want to have to wait a year to be able to see these plays, but I know it will be more than worth it.

The post Every 28 Hours: 1-Minute Play Festival Tackles Race & Police Brutality in Black Communities appeared first on Broadway Black.

The dance-theatre musical In Your Arms, which had its world premiere Sept. 24 at The Old Globe in San Diego, is such a show. Featuring the music and lyrics of Tony winner Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime, Rocky, Seussical, Once on This Island) and Lynn Ahrens, respectively, it is described as “a ravishing evening that flies, leaps and twirls through the giddy extremes of romantic love” and “as intoxicating as a sunset cocktail and as exhilarating as a first kiss.” The adjectives are rampant for this unique event of vignettes. It is noted as ranging across eras and cultures to tell stories in the universal language of dance. The styles include classical ballet, swing, tap, ballroom, jazz, flamenco and more.

One of the segments features noted choreographer Adesola Osakalumi along with Marija Juliette Abney in “The Wedding Dance,” written by Pulizer winner Lynn Nottage (Sweat, By The Way Meet Vera Stark, Ruined). Osakalumi, the lead in the Broadway and international tours of the Tony-winning Fela!, and Abney are stunning in their African garb.

The wedding is the most important ceremony in African culture, with marriage being considered a privilege. An African proverb says: “A man without a wife is like a vase without flowers.” This rite of passage signifies new life and new hope, as the new relationship is meant to enrich communities.

Osakalumi’s Broadway debut was in the 2008 revival of Peter Shaffer’s Equus. Abney – Cheetah in the The Lion King and whose work has been featured in After Midnight and New York City Opera’s Anna Nicole – is a recent alumna of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts graduate performance studies program. She received her undergraduate degree from The Ailey School/Fordham University B.F.A. program.

In Your Arms runs through Oct. 25 under the direction and choreography of Tony winner Christopher Gattelli (Newsies, Amazing Grace, The King and I), who also serves as the co-conceiver with longtime Broadway producer Jennifer Manocherian.

The post Adesola Osakalumi Dances Among All-Star Cast Of In Your Arms appeared first on Broadway Black.

Tony-winners Anika Noni-Rose (2004, Best Featured Actress in a Musical, Caroline, or Change) and Tonya Pinkins (1992, Best Featured Actress in a Musical, Jelly’s Last Jam) are teaming up again (they appeared on Broadway together in ‘Caroline, Or Change’) for a benefit reading of Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynn Nottage’s play, Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine at New World Stages in Manhattan. Noni-Rose and Pinkins will be joined by Wood Harris (2012 Broadwa

y “multiracial” adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire, HBO’s The Wire) and Michael Mastro (2009, Broadway revival of West Side Story). This reading is to be directed by Tony-winner Kenny Leon (2014, Best Direction of a Play), who previously worked with Noni-Rose in his revival of A Raisin in the Sun (for which he won his Tony) in 2014, and Pinkins in Holler If Ya Hear Me in 2013.

This benefit, which is set to happen April 21st, at 6:30 PM is for the non-profit arts education organization Opening Act.

Proceeds of the evening go directly to Opening Act’s free theatre programs.

The non-profit organization provides students attending New York City’s most under-served public schools, the opportunity – through theater – to develop leadership, commitment, confidence, and community. Opening Act provides free after-school and extra-curricular programs to the most high-need NYC public high schools that have low graduation rates and a lack of theater and arts programs. Tickets are now on sale at http://openingact.org/play-reading/.

Noni-Rose can next be seen in the CBS pilot For Justice, opposite fellow Tony-winner Phylicia Rashad (2004, Best Actress in a Play, A Raisin in the Sun), and directed by Ava DuVernay (director of the Oscar-winning film Selma, 2015). Pinkins can currently be seen in Joel Drake Johnson’s Rasheeda Speaking, at the New Group‘s Pershing Square Signature Center through March 22nd.

Up next for Kenny Leon is a revival of the 1980 Tony-winning play Children of a Lesser God, set to bow during the 2015-2016 season.

The post ‘Fabulation’ At New World Stages Directed By Kenny Leon appeared first on Broadway Black.