Playwrights Horizons recently announced casting for Familiar, which will feature Ito Aghayere, Joby Earle, Melanie Nicholls-King, Roslyn Ruff, Harold Surratt, Myra Lucretia Taylor, Joe Tippett, and Tony Award winner Tamara Tunie (Spring Awakening). Rebecca Taichman is set to direct.

Previews are scheduled to begin February 12 with an opening night set for March 3 and run through March 27 at Playwrights Horizons’ Mainstage Theater. Familiar had its world premiere at Yale Repertory Theatre in February 2014.

The synopsis is billed as:

It’s winter in Minnesota and a Zimbabwean family is preparing for the wedding of their eldest daughter (Ruff), a first-generation American. But when the bride insists on observing a traditional African custom, it opens a deep rift in the household. Rowdy and affectionate, Familiar pitches tradition against assimilation, drawing a loving portrait of a family: the customs they keep, and the secrets they bury.

Gurira has made it known that she is very interested in getting stories about women of color out there for the world to see. “I want to see women of African descent shine,” Gurira told “Elle” magazine in a recent interview. “I want to see them [in roles] that are intense, that are full, that are complex—that allow them to exercise their chops. I want women of color who are preparing for auditions to stop asking, ‘Where are the monologues? Where are my stories?'”

Tickets to Familiar aren’t yet on sale, but information regarding tickets and the show can be found at the official website , by phone at (212) 279-4200, or by visiting Ticket Central Box Office at 416 West 42nd St., Manhattan.

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The cast also includes Emily Donahoe, Andrew Garman, Philip Kerr and will be accompanied by a rotating twenty-person choir comprised of singers from all five boroughs.

The synopsis;

Ten years ago, Pastor Paul’s church was a modest storefront. Now it houses thousands, with a coffee shop in the lobby and a baptismal font as big as a swimming pool. But Paul is about to preach a sermon that will shake the foundation of his congregation’s beliefs. Backed by a live choir, ‘The Christians’ is both epic and unexpectedly intimate, an unflinching look at faith in America – and its power to unite or divide.

Linda Powell‘s credits include Broadway: On Golden Pond, The Trip to Bountiful and Wilder, Wilder, Wilder. Off-Broadway: Jitney, Jar the Floor, The Overwhelming, Pericles and Angela’s Mixtape. Film: Morning Glory, American Gangster, Blue Caprice and I Think I Love My Wife. Television: Law & Order: SVU, Blue Bloods, Louie, Political Animals, The Good Wife and Chicago Fire. Powell earned a B.A. from The College of William and Mary and attended Circle in the Square’s professional training program.

Larry Powell’s theater credits include: Regional Theatre: The Mountaintop, Goddess at The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center (2013 National Music Theater Conference); The Brothers Size at Everyman Theatre; Marcus, Or the Secret of Sweet at City Theatre; Brokeology at Kansas City Repertory Theatre; The Task at Quantum Theatre; and Bronzeville at the Robey Theatre Company (NAACP Theatre Award Nomination). Powell is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama (Roth-Levine Acting Award).

The production will feature scenic design by Dane Laffrey, costume design by Connie Furr, lighting design by Tony Award nominee Ben Stanton and sound design by Jake Rodriguez. The Christians had its world premiere in the 2014 Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville in March 2014.

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