Regional NewsRobert O'Hara to Direct Kimber Lee's Untitled F*ck M*ss S**gon Play at the O'Neill This SummerKyle Vincent Terry, Tiffany Villarin, Cristina Pitter, and more are tapped to perform in the new plays at the Playwrights Conference in Connecticut.
By
Olivia Clement
June 17, 2019
Robert O'Hara
Marc J. Franklin
Casting and creative teams have been unveiled for the 2019 National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center this summer. The upcoming season will see eight new plays, selected from thousands of submissions from around the country, developed and presented in a staged reading format at the Connecticut theatre throughout July.
Obie-winning playwright and director Robert O'Hara (BLKS, Slave Play) will direct Kimber Lee's Untitled F*ck M*ss S**gon Play, the story of a woman trapped in a cycle and looking for a way out, July 24 and 25. The cast will be made up of Erin Anderson, Deonna Bouye, Jackie Chung, Thomas Keegan, Tiffany Villarin, and Johnny Wu. Lexy Leuszler will serve as dramaturg.
Kimber Lee
Ugly Lies the Bone director Patricia McGregor will helm Zayd Dohrn's The Humanities, presented July 5 and 6. The new work by The Profane playwright details the violent fallout from a political provocateur's appearance at a university. The cast will be made up of Rob Campbell, Daniel Davila Jr., Glenn Davis, Emily Dorsch, Lio Mehiel, Reynaldo Piniella, and Nick Westrate. John Baker is dramaturg.
Deonna Bouye, Fedna Jacquet, Cristina Pitter, and Kita Updike will perform in the reading of Charly Evon Simpson's it's not a trip it's a journey, directed by Nicole A. Watson. The new play by the Behind the Sheet playwright is the story of four friends on a road trip West. Liz Frankel is dramaturg, performances will be July 10 and 11.
Casey Stangle will direct Anna Ziegler's retelling of Antigone for the #MeToo movement, Antigones, with a cast made up of Stephanie DiMaggio, Mary Beth Fisher, Emma Kikue, Alex Mickiewicz, JD Mollison, and Marianne Rendón. Performances will be July 17 and 18; Kristin Leahey is dramaturg.
Kyle Vincent Terry, seen in Michael Cristofer's play Man in the Ring at Huntington Theatre last year, will be part of Tearrance Chisholm's play Black Dick, directed by Roy Alexander Weise, along with Gisela Chipe, Carmen Salta, and Victor Williams. The new play, a theatrical re-imagining of the 1970s Blaxploitation film genre, will be presented July 19–20. Carrie Chapter is dramaturg.
Rattlestick Artistic Director Daniella Topol will helm Laura Neill's Winter People, a play which traces the impact of a burned down Hamptons mansion on five local women. Sarah Herrman, Michelle Honaker, Carolyn Kettig, Flor De Liz Perez, and Kara Young make up the cast, with Ignacia Delgado attached as dramaturg. Performances will be July 26 and 27.
The National Playwrights Conference, running July 3–27, will launch with Craig Lucas' Death of the Republic, directed by Wendy C. Goldberg, with casting yet to be announced. Casting will also be announced for George Brant's Tender Age, directed by Henry Godinez, which rounds out the summer programming.
