Zora Neale Hurston's play Spunk is getting its first-ever full staging at Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut. The play, which also features songs written by Hurston herself, runs October 3–25. Above, in a Playbill exclusive, see J. Quinton Johnson (as Spunk) and Kimber Elayne Sprawl (as Evalina) perform the song "Halimuhfack."

Spunk was written in 1935, adapted by Hurston's short story of the same name that she had written 10 years earlier. The play was never published or produced, and was thought to be lost until it was uncovered by the Library of Congress in its unpublished manuscripts division in 1997 (listen to Hurston perform her version of "Halimuhfack" here). 

The play follows a man named Spunk, who arrives in town looking for work. He then falls in love with Evalina, except she is already married to Joe, the son of a conjurer. Hurston (Their Eyes Were Watching God) set Spunk in a small Florida town resembling her own hometown of Eatonville, Florida, one of America’s first incorporated Black townships.

Tamilla Woodard directs Spunk, with choreography by nicHi douglas. This production preserves also includes songs written by Hurston herself, recreating those songs based on recordings of Hurston, and setting lyrics she wrote to traditional found music from Florida. Nehemiah Luckett did the arrangements.

Said Woodard in a statement: “There’s such a profound feeling of celebration around giving life to a text that has been waiting for nearly a century to receive a full staging. Spunk is a singular work and a gorgeous synthesis of Zora Neale Hurston’s passions: Black folk music, mythology, oral storytelling, and putting black vernacular on the page as it was spoken in these rural places at the time. Nehemiah builds the play’s musical world from Hurston’s own cultural anthropology, recordings and the clues she left behind in her extensive body of work, and nicHi’s choreography meets the musical landscape with vibrancy and celebration. Finally, Zora gets to be a celebrated playwright alongside her other celebrated writerly identities. We’re aiming to give Hurston’s words the breadth of theatrical life she imagined. It’s exhilarating to lead this historic production.”

Spunk’s cast includes Jeannette Bayardelle (Girl From the North Country) as Mrs. Watson, Shawn Bowers (Ain’t Too Proud) as Willie Joe, Tyler Clarke as Teazie, Alaman Diadhiou (Jelly’s Last Jam) as Blue Trout, Amahri Edwards-Jones (Tina: The Tina Turner Musical) as Maggie Mae, Janiah-Camile François (McNeal) as Daisy, Charlie Hudson III (Nollywood Dreams) as Hodge Bishop, J. Quinton Johnson (Choir Boy) as Spunk, Naiqui Macabroad (I Am Delivered’t) as Jim Bishop, Kimberly Marable (Chicago) as Ruby, Christian Pedersen (Ohio State Murders) as Captain Hammer, Isaiah Reynolds (Beautiful the Carole King Musical) as Nunkie, Kimber Elayne Sprawl (Girl from the North Country) as Evalina, Matthew Elijah Webb (Fat Ham) as Admiral, and Correy West (Ain’t Too Proud) as Oral.

The creative team also includes music director John Bronston, scenic designer Karen Loewy Movilla, costume designer Kristen Taylor, lighting designer Gib Gibney, sound designer Justin Ellington, projection designer Ke Xu 许可, hair designer Matthew Armentrout, dramaturgs Eric M. Glover and Catherine Sheehy, technical director Tom Minucci, fight and intimacy directors Kelsey Rainwater and Michael Rossmy, vocal coach Julie Foh, associate director Stephanie Rolland, casting director Calleri Jensen Davis, and stage manager James Mountcastle.

Visit YaleRep.org.