Newly released production shots offer a first look at the Off-Broadway New York premiere of Candrice Jones' Flex, which began performances at Lincoln Center Theater's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre June 23 and is scheduled to open July 20. LCT Resident Director Lileana Blain-Cruz (The Skin of Our Teeth, White Girl in Danger) directs.
The new play follows an Arkansas all-girls high school basketball team in 1997 juggling aspirations of going pro in the WNBA and the pressures of being young, Black, and female in rural Arkansas.
The cast features Brittany Bellizeare as April Jenkins, Christiana Clark as Coach Francine Pace, Eboni Edwards as The Sophomore and The Referee, Renita Lewis as Donna Cunningham, Erica Matthews as Starra Jones, Ciara Monique as Cherise Howard, and Tamera Tomakili as Sidney Brown. Rounding out the company as understudies are Alaina Kai Chester, Halili Knox, and Stephanie Everett. Casting is by Daniel Swee.
Take a look at the production:
Cast of FLEX
Erica Matthews and Tamera Tomakili in FLEX
Christiana Clark and the cast of FLEX
Ciara Monique and Renita Lewis in FLEX
Brittany Bellizeare, Tamera Tomakili, and Renita Lewis in FLEX
Cast of FLEX
Erica Matthews and Renita Lewis in FLEX
Erica Matthews in FLEX
The work received its co-world premiere in 2022 via runs at Arkansas' TheatreSquared and Georgia's Theatrical Outfit, and was previously developed at the 2019 Bay Area Playwrights Festival, NNPN's 2020 National Showcase of New Plays, and the 2021 Arkansas New Play Festival.
The production features sets by Matt Saunders, costumes by Mike Eubanks, lighting by Adam Honoré, and sound by Palmer Hefferan. Charles M. Turner III is stage manager, and Jenna Clark Embrey and Kim Euell served as dramaturgs.
Also currently playing LCT is the Tony-nominated revival of Lerner and Loewe's Camelot, in the company's Vivian Beaumont Theater through July 23.
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