In the midst of everything, I'm so happy to have had the opportunity to speak with  talk Piedmont Laureate Tamara Kissane about two projects that are near and dear to my heart. Tamara is the host of Artist Soapbox, a weekly podcast featuring original audio fiction and interviews with Triangle/NC artists about their creative process. In the first podcast, we discussed my latest play, XIX, with my collaborators JaMeeka Holloway-Burrell and Jules Odendahl-James. In the second podcast, Jules and I discuss narrative medicine, our collaboration on ARDEO, and the joy of working in collaboration as playwright and dramaturg.

Along with director JaMeeka Holloway-Burrell and dramaturg Jules Odendahl-James, I had the opportunity to speak about my new play XIX, which was commissioned by the Women’s Theatre Festival in celebration and reckoning with the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. XIX is a socio-political drama following a multi-racial family who find themselves in the middle of the fight for equality and divided over the right to vote.

We also  dig into playwriting topics such as translating a historical event into a contemporary piece, deciding what story to tell and who should be the center of the story, the development process and the roles of the director, dramaturg and playwright and much more. Click here to listen to the podcast interview.

XIX received a public sharing through the UNC Process Series in February 2020. Next up, on Saturday, July 11th at 7:30pm, we will be sharing an excerpt of the play as part of the Women's Theatre Festival. The reading will be followed by a post show discussion on voting rights and advocacy. Because theatre has a long history of addressing social, political, and cultural issues, the conversations around the play will allow us to assess not only how far we've come, but also how much work we have left to do to move towards a more just and equitable society. 

In the second episode, Jules Odendahl-James and I discuss our collaboration on ARDEO, which is a one act play inspired by research and personal narratives of health practitioners and patients at UNC-CH’s North Carolina’s Jaycee Burn Center. This play explores how patients and doctors communicate with each other; how health practitioners communicate with the public; and how theatre artists can be of service to patients, doctors and the larger public. 

In this conversation, Jules and I touch on the field of narrative medicine, the particular development process of ARDEO, the value of partnering the dramatic arts and science, and opportunities to create those collaborations. Speaking of collaborations, Jules and Jacqueline discuss their work together as theatre-makers and the awesomeness of dramaturgs and dramaturgy especially for new plays in development.

Learn and read more about ARDEO, to see photos, and watch the short film of the piece performed.

Late in the day on Tuesday, December 31, 2019, the World Health Organization’s China Country Office received a report of a pneumonia of unknown cause in a patient in Wuhan, China. The WHO began to monitor the situation. They requested information about the lab tests being done and possible diagnoses. We now know that the cause was the Coronavirus or COVID-19.
 
Now, I don’t know exactly what time that report came through, but on Tuesday, December 31, 2019 at 9:03pm in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, I wrote the following words on Facebook:
 
The one thing this decade has taught me is that nothing is promised, nothing is certain. Nothing.
All we have is now.
This moment.
Today.
For better or worse.
My hope for the new year is to meet each day with grace;
To live each day to the fullness of my ability;
To love wholly and completely;
To appreciate all that I have;
To pursue my dreams;
To work hard and diligently;
To remain curious about the world;
To embrace change as it comes;
To learn, forgive, and do better;
To be of service when called;
To fight for the justice of others, especially those unable to do so for themselves; and
To be a light and a blessing to my loved ones.
I deeply and passionately wish the same for you all in 2020.
 
Since that day, there have been 1,430,528 cases at least 184 countries and territories. We have lost 82,023 souls; and 301,828 people have recovered from the virus. In the United States, early numbers show that Black Americans appear to be contracting and dying from COVID-19 at a higher rate than white Americans. As horrifying as this is, I was not surprised to learn this. Black Americans are more likely to have underlying health conditions, such as asthma, diabetes, hypertension, high blood pressure, obesity, and other chronic illnesses. We are also more likely to have low wage jobs that can't be done remotely; and lack access to adequate health care. Click here, here, here, here, and here to learn more.
 
It’s a terrifying picture. But this is what we know. This is what we know today, at the time that I am writing this post, which is 9:00pm on Tuesday, April 7, 2020 …
 
Today would have been first rehearsal for my play, Edges of Time, at PlayMakers Repertory Company. This is a one woman play about the life, legacy, and career of the remarkable, investigative journalist Marvel Cooke, who worked as a reporter and editor in New York City from the late-1920s to the early 1960s. But it’s also more than that. It’s about what happens when political ideas are weaponized; when journalism and truth are attacked; and when powerful voices that represent and demand justice and civil rights for marginalized communities are silenced. The play is far too relevant than I anticipated when I began writing it.
 
I had been looking forward to today for a long time, but nothing is promised. Nothing. Not even hard won, long hoped for days.
 
But I didn’t wake up feeling sad or disappointed. I didn’t have an ache for what today should have been. Instead, I woke up feeling grateful. I felt grateful to be alive, to be healthy or at least not sick, to have a job where I get to teach (remotely) and make theatre alongside some truly smart, funny, generous, and talented people, and to know so few people who have been tragically impacted by the virus.

But I know that all of this could change at any moment ... and I spend a lot of days angry at the response to this crisis and afraid of how easily this virus can be spread ...
 
Deep breaths ...

Here is what I also know:

It is not safe to gather together today. And we don’t know how long we’ll be asked to remain apart and inside, but the longer we do the better chance we’ll have at protecting ourselves, our loved ones, and our neighbors.

But know this, the world that we return to will be very different from the one we left. It will have to be. My God, we should do everything possible to make sure that it is, and that the structures of inequities and systems of oppression that were in place are no longer ruling over us ... that is my hope anyway.  
 
In the meantime, I’m going to write. I'm going to write because there will come a time when we’ll able to gather again, and we will need the stories more than ever. We'll need bold, daring, beautiful  stories to help us navigate this ever-changing world. Stories that remind us that love and hope and the fight for a better tomorrow are truly worthwhile endeavors.  Stories that show us how wondrous, thrilling, and terrifying it can be … to be human. 

As you know,  I received the 2019-2020 Institute for African American Research Faculty Fellowship to support the research, writing, development, and presentation of a new play, So Goes We. This is the play that examines  examines what happens in the immigrant rights movement when black immigrants seek asylum. It follows the fraught and intersecting journeys of black asylum seekers and their legal advocates in the U.S. post-2016. 

The new play development workshop took place over two days in December. The most exciting part of our time together was when our director, JaMeeka Holloway-Burrell, got the actors up on their feet. We were able to figure out the opening text and the rhythm and flow of the choral work. I also got a clearer understanding of how the characters function when they are onstage, but are outside of the scenes. There's still a ways to go with the script, but it was just so inspiring to be in the room with everyone and hear the play. 

Then, on Tuesday, March 3rd, I had the opportunity to speak about the play and other work that I had completed since moving to Chapel Hill. I was joined in this conversation by Kathy Perkins, who is a lighting designer and editor. The extraordinary work that Kathy has done to honor and preserve black women playwrights and black theatre history is remarkable.  We had a small, but attentive and enthusiastic audience. It was wonderful to share a bit about my creative process with folx who enjoy theatre, but who are familiar with the ins and out of how it all comes together. 

Now, I was hoping to have a second workshop and public reading in May, but that's not going to happen for a number of reasons, including the quarantine. I've been toying with the idea of doing something online, but the choral nature of the play may make that difficult. We'll see. In the meantime, I wanted to take a moment to share the photos of our time together. 

As a reminder, the workshop was directed by JaMeeka Holloway-Burrell with dramaturgy by Jules Odendahl-James. The cast included Thaddeus Edwards, Rasool Jahan, Tia James, Monet Marshall, and Sarita Ocón. Our stage manager was Erin Bell, who was also our photographer and stage directions were read by Takhona Hlatshwako, who was working with me as a research assistant through UNC's Institute for the Arts and Humanities Honors Collaboration. I hope you enjoy these photos!

​JACQUELINE E. LAWTON is a playwright, dramaturg, producer, and advocate for Access, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the American Theatre. Her plays include: Among These Wild Things; Anna K;  Behold, A Negress; Blackbirds; Blood-bound and Tongue-tied; Deep Belly Beautiful; The Devil’s Sweet Water; Edges of Time; Freedom Hill; The Hampton Years; Intelligence, The Inferior Sex; Love Brothers Serenade; Mad Breed; and Noms de Guerre . Ms. Lawton received her MFA in Playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin, where she was a James A. Michener Fellow. She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including a 2019-2020 Institute for African and African American Research Faculty Fellowship, 2018 UNC Arts and Humanities Grant, 2018 UNC Institute for Arts and Humanities Faculty Fellowship,  and 2018-2020 University Research Council Grant.  She is a proud member of the Dramatist Guild of America and is the Regional Representative for North Carolina. 

Meeka Holloway-Burrell (Director) (she/her/hers) is a freelance director and producer. She is the Founding Artistic Director of Black Ops Theatre Company, lead curator for the Bull City Black Theatre Festival in Durham, NC, and a founding company member of Bulldog Ensemble Theatre. A 2018 Indy Arts Award winner, JaMeeka is a 2019-20 grant recipient from both the Manbites Dog Theater Fund and from the Ella Fountain Pratt Emerging Artists program. She also served as a 2019 theatre panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts and for the North Carolina Arts Council. An alumnus of The Lark Play Development Center Apprenticeship program, JaMeeka has been an Assistant Director with The Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Playmakers Repertory, and more recently, an Associate Director with Duke Performances at Duke University. Her directing work has appeared at the Justice Theatre Project, Shakespeare in Detroit, Classic Stage, The Department of Theatre at Dartmouth College, and Duke University’s Department of Theatre Studies, and Northern Stage.  www.jhbdirectedit.com

ERIN BELL (Stage Manager) is a Durham-based thespian and entrepreneur. She founded Bull City Photography in 2017, specializing in event and performance photography. She also works as a stage manager, lighting designer, web designer throughout Triangle community. She has done lighting design for Master Builder (Little Green Pig), Again but This Time with Feeling (real live people), Lady Misrule (Tiny Engine), and Auto da Fe (Monkey Paw). She has also taught lighting design for the Women's Theatre Festival.  In collaboration with JaMeeka Holloway-Burrell, Erin will be co-producing the Let Her Tell It series: Four Plays by Black Women about Black Womanhood (2019-2020).  ​

THADDAEUS EDWARDS (Kervens)  is a Durham-based performer who has performed across the Triangle for nearly a decade and a half, as well as touring productions along the East Coast. He is a founding member of Bulldog Ensemble Theater, having directed its inaugural production of Curve of Departure. He is a Performance Educator with Theater Delta, and believes in its mission of using performance to affect real change. He has performed with Manbites Dog Theater, StreetSigns, and many more. Recent performance credits include: In A Word  (Bulldog Ensemble Theatre), Life Sucks (Manbites Dog Theater), The Durham 150 Closing Ceremony, and the Master Builder audio drama produced by the Artist Soapbox podcast.

MONÉT NOELLE MARSHALL (Kazima) is an artist, director, playwright, curator & producer. A 2018 Indies Arts Award winner, she serves as the Founding Artistic Director of MOJOAA Performing Arts Company, producing new works by and new opportunities for Black playwrights. Recent projects include the “Buy It Call It” performance installations, a trilogy in response to the systemic oppression Black artists encounter in the art world, the toll of capitalism on their minds and bodies, and the process of reclaiming one’s holiness and self-worth. She is currently working on The Bring Me My Purse Project, a multidisciplinary, multi-phase project that exposes the economic reality of Black women. You can see her next in “No Child” at Cape Fear Regional Theatre. You can learn more about her upcoming work at MonetNoelleMarshall.com.  ​

Everyone, I am woefully behind on posts! I’ve been writing nonstop and traveling for work. But I’m determined to get them all written today.
 
First up, I’m excited to share that the new play development workshop for Behold A Negress was a huge success. As you may remember, this play was the second of three plays for which I received funding to write with the support of a University Research Council (URC) Small Grant. Click here to read my earlier post and here is a synopsis of the play:

Set in Paris and spanning the heights of the French Revolution through the beginnings of Napoleon's reign, Behold A Negress imagines an intimate relationship between real-life painter, Marie-Guillemine Benoist, and her muse, Madeleine, a formerly enslaved black woman. Inspired by the execution of eighteenth-century feminist and playwright, Olympe de Gouges, Marie and Madeleine maneuver the codes and corridors of women's power in post-revolutionary France in pursuit of their own liberty, equality, and fraternity. However, when Marie's ambition and desire for artistic recognition overshadow Madeleine's sense of justice and personal integrity, the women find themselves at odds just as revolutionary as the political world that surrounds them. Behold A Negress is a passionate and daring examination of the challenges of intersectional feminism and the role of art during times of great social unrest and political upheaval.

As you’ll recall, the workshop was directed by Shirley Serotsky with dramaturgy by Jules Odendahl-James. The cast included Kaja Dunn and Laurel Ullman with Kayla Brown reading stage directions. Ruthie Allen was our stage manager.
 
We spent three wonderfully productive days together. I worked on revisions in the room and at home in between rehearsals. On the final day, we welcomed a small audience for the reading. I was moved by the conversation that followed. The audience responded well to the intimate and charged relationship of the two women. They were riveted by the world of the play and major conflicts of race and representation in the art world; the role of art in the social politics; the personal sacrifices that are made when pursuing a career; and the downfalls of fame. It was so exciting to hear the audience discuss how relevant the play felt today.
 
In a few months, I’ll have a chance to work on revisions of the play. I’ll be taking it from its epic scope in time to a six month period. This compressed time will allow us to spend more time with the women as the painting is being created, up to the expositions, and following the painting’s debut. I’ll be sure to keep you posted if I’m able to gather in the room once again for a new play development workshop.
 
In my next post, I’m going to update you on Freedom Hill.  In the meantime, I'm excited to share a few photos from our time together. 

On October 5th and 6th, I’ll be workshopping my latest play, Freedom Hill. An homage to Thorton Wilder’s Our Town, Freedom Hill is a metatheatrical play that takes place in Princeville, North Carolina. Set from 1870 to 1885, Freedom Hill follows the everyday lives of newly freed black citizens. But let’s back up a bit, I’d like to share a bit about how this play came to be:
 
Last year, I received an Arts and Humanities grant from UNC to support the research, writing, development, and presentation of a play focused on Environmental Justice. The Environmental Protection Agency defines environmental justice as “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.” Their basic goal is for all people and communities across this nation to have clean air, land, and water. Unfortunately, that isn’t happening. What’s more, the continued denial of climate change and deregulations are causing many communities to be at even greater risk. This creates such significant challenges for many marginalized and impoverished people, who are unable to leave their homes or afford costly measures to purify their water and air.  
 
When I applied for the grant, I knew that I wanted focus on Princeville, North Carolina, the oldest historically black town in the United States of America. I had learned about Princeville from David Salvensen (Research Associate and Director, Sustainable Triangle Field Site), who I met after speaking on the UNC Environmental Summit. He has spent the past several years producing short documentaries about how climate changes is affecting people across NC (see climatestoriesnc.org).

Originally named Freedom Hill, Princeville was settled in 1865 by formerly enslaved men and women from the Tarboro area. The town was named after a knoll, where union troops had read the Emancipation Proclamation.  By 1885, North Carolina granted the town a charter and Freedom Hill was renamed Princeville, after Turner Prince, a local political leader and carpenter, who helped to build the town. Since its founding, the people of Princeville have faced adversity from racial violence, poverty, and the rising tides of the Tar River. The greatest devastation was caused by two powerful hurricanes: Hurricane Floyd in 1999 and Hurricane Matthew in 2016. Although not a coastal city and in spite of being fortified by a levee that was built in the 1960s, the Tar River flooded and washed the town away. Three years later, the town is slowly coming back, but each new storm makes full recovery a Sisyphean task. 
​
When I began my research, I thought the play would be centered around a community based city planner who was working with the people of Townsville to rebuild after the recent devastation of a hurricane. You see, in addition to the impact of climate change, I was interested in exploring this question of place (physical location and a sense of home), community (location and people), and artifacts (how objects hold meaning, purpose, and memory). However, when Shirley Serotsky (Director and Associate Artistic Director and Education Director, Hanger Theatre) and I met with town manager Dr. Glenda Knight, I learned just how much the people of Princeville had lost and the great challenges they have ahead of them when working to rebuild. And I learned firsthand about connected the people of Princeville are to the land and the history, and also how resilient they are. I was also struck by the loss of their museum. There are only a handful of artifacts remaining. In that moment, the focus of the play shifted significantly.
 
I left that meeting knowing that that I had to write the town’s history into being, but I didn’t quite know which direction it would take.  That is, until I shared my thoughts on the play and the powerful meeting with Vivienne Benesch (Artistic Director, PlayMakers Repertory Company) and Jules Odendahl-James (Dramaturg and Founding Member of bulldog ensemble theatre). In two separate meetings, they both recommended the framing of Our Town as a way to approach the history and the narrative. And so, in consultation with Amy Cooke (Teaching Associate Professor, Environment Ecology Energy Program), Mai Thi Nguyen (Associate Professor, City and Regional Planning), and David Salvensen, I set out to do just that!
 
This weekend, I’ll be able to hear the script for the first time and I’m beyond excited! Under the direction of Shirley Serotsky with dramaturgy by Jules Odendahl-James, the cast for this workshop includes Aliese Cobb, Thaddeus Edwards, Jennifer Evans, Rasool Jahan, Tia James, Thomasi McDonald, Monet Marshall, and Marcus Zollicoffer. Our stage manager is Erin Bell and stage directions will be read by Bethany Lockhart and Takhona Hlatshwako, who is working with me this semester as a research assistant through UNC's Institute for the Arts and Humanities Honors Collaboration.  Of course, I’ll keep you posted on what happen next! For now, here’s more information about the amazing ensemble working with me on this play. 

​JACQUELINE E. LAWTON is a playwright, dramaturg, producer, and advocate for Access, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the American Theatre. Her plays include: Among These Wild Things (2018 Semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference);; Anna K; Blackbirds; Blood-bound and Tongue-tied; Deep Belly Beautiful; The Devil’s Sweet Water; Edges of Time; The Hampton Years; Intelligence, The Inferior Sex; Love Brothers Serenade (2013 semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference); Mad Breed; and Noms de Guerre (Susan Blackburn Prize Nominee (2015, 2017). Ms. Lawton received her MFA in Playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin, where she was a James A. Michener Fellow. She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including a 2019-2020 Institute for African and African American Research Faculty Fellowship, 2018 UNC Arts and Humanities Grant, 2018 UNC Institute for Arts and Humanities Faculty Fellowship,  and 2018-2020 University Research Council Grant.  She is a proud member of the Dramatist Guild of America and is the Regional Representative for North Carolina. 

MONÉT NOELLE MARSHALL (Abigail Johnson) is an artist, director, playwright, curator & producer. A 2018 Indies Arts Award winner, she serves as the Founding Artistic Director of MOJOAA Performing Arts Company, producing new works by and new opportunities for Black playwrights. Recent projects include the “Buy It Call It” performance installations, a trilogy in response to the systemic oppression Black artists encounter in the art world, the toll of capitalism on their minds and bodies, and the process of reclaiming one’s holiness and self-worth. She is currently working on The Bring Me My Purse Project, a multidisciplinary, multi-phase project that exposes the economic reality of Black women. You can see her next in “No Child” at Cape Fear Regional Theatre. You can learn more about her upcoming work at MonetNoelleMarshall.com.  ​

​JACQUELINE E. LAWTON is a playwright, dramaturg, producer, and advocate for Access, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the American Theatre. Her plays include: Among These Wild Things (2018 Semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference); Anna K; Blackbirds; Blood-bound and Tongue-tied; Deep Belly Beautiful; The Devil’s Sweet Water; Edges of Time; The Hampton Years; Intelligence, The Inferior Sex; Love Brothers Serenade (2013 semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference); Mad Breed; Noms de Guerre (Susan Blackburn Prize Nominee (2015, 2017); and Our Man Beverly Snow. Ms. Lawton received her MFA in Playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin, where she was a James A. Michener Fellow. She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including a 2019-2020 Institute for African and African American Research Faculty Fellowship, 2018 UNC Arts and Humanities Grant, 2018 UNC Institute for Arts and Humanities Faculty Fellowship,  and 2018-2020 University Research Council Grant.  She is a proud member of the Dramatist Guild of America and is the Regional Representative for North Carolina.  ​

SHIRLEY SEROTSKY (Director) is a director, dramaturg, artistic leader, educator and programmer in the Washington, DC area. Selected directing credits include: The How and the Why, Another Way Home, The Call, Yentl, The Argument, The Hampton Years, The History of Invulnerability, The Moscows of Nantucket, Mikveh (Theater J); Rapture, Blister, Burn (Round House Theatre); The Jungle Book (Adventure Theatre); The Break (Signature Theatre); Other Life Forms, Working: The Musical (Keegan Theatre); Blood Wedding (Constellation Theatre); A Man, His Wife, and His Hat and Birds of a Feather (The Hub Theatre); Juno and the Paycock (Washington Shakespeare Company); Reals, Five Flights and Two Rooms (Theater Alliance); Crumble and We Are Not These Hands (Catalyst Theater); References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot (Rorschach Theater, for which she received a 2007 Helen Hayes nomination for outstanding direction); Sovereignty (The Humana Festival of New Plays). Training: BFA, The University of North Carolina School of the Arts; MFA, Catholic University. www.shirleyserotsky.com

​JULES ODENDAHL-JAMES (Dramaturg) is an artist/scholar and Associate Member of the Society of Directors and Choreographers who has been making theater in the Triangle for almost twenty years. Directing credits for the 18-19 season: In A Word by Lauren Yee for Bulldog Ensemble Theater & Men On Boats by Jaclyn Backhaus for Justice Theatre Project. As a dramaturg this season she's been supporting new work by playwright Jacqueline Lawton (UNC-Chapel Hill) on her pieces Blackbirds; Edges of Time; and Behold! A Negress. She served as an Associate Artistic Director at Manbites Dog Theatre from 2014 until the theater’s closure in June of 2018; she is a founding member of Bulldog Ensemble Theater (Durham) and an adjunct faculty in Theater Studies Department at Duke University where she'll be directing Shakespeare's Twelfth Night in the fall of 2019.  www.julesodendahljames.com

KAJA DUNN (Madeleine) is an Assistant Professor of Theatre and teaches acting at UNC Charlotte as well as being an actor, director, and activist. Her research targets reshaping pedagogy for theatre students of color as well as Decolonization and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion issues in theatre and their application in academic, professional and corporate settings. She has performed in over 40 shows and was an associate artist at both Moxie Theatre and Lamb’s Players in San Diego. She has performed or directed at Tri-Arts (Chicago), Alder Danztheatre (Chicago), Pacific Theatre (Vancouver), Lamb's Players Theatre (San Diego), Moxie Theatre (San Diego), Kaiser Educational Theatre (Los Angeles), Amigos Del Rep (San Diego), San Diego Rep., Cygnet Theatre (San Diego), Ya Tong Theatre (Taipei), Playmakers Rep. (Chapel Hill), and Black Ops (Durham). You can follow her on Twitter where she frequently posts about EDI issues under the handle @KajaDunn.

​LAUREL ULLMAN (Marie) is an actor and producer based in Raleigh. Most recently she played Dr. John Watson in Baskerville at Raleigh Little Theatre. She studied Theatre at UNC-Greensboro; the co-founder of Tiny Engine Theatre, Laurel serves on the board of the Women's Theatre Festival. Favorite roles include Ellen/Mrs. Saunders/Betty in Cloud 9  (Tiny Engine), Emma in Contractions  (Common Wealth Endeavours), Anna in Closer (She's-A-Nelson),  and The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls with Manbites Dog. She studied theatre at UNC-Greensboro and spent many years on Triad stages performing with companies such as Touring Theatre of NC, Paper Lantern, and Twin City Stage.  ​

​KAYLA BROWN (Stage Directions) is a Junior at UNC studying Dramatic Art with a minor in Statistics. She has worked with several student companies on campus, and recent performance credits include Mr. Burns (KTC), La Fiesta (LAB!), and Just Like Now (KTC). Kayla is actively involved in multiple aspects of production around campus, including acting, stage management, and set construction. She has recently stage managed Eurydice with LAB! Theatre Company and has helped build every KTC set during the 2018-2019 school year. Outside of UNC, she has participated in a few community productions, including Urinetown with Davidson Community Players. She also plans to further expand her experience in production by exploring lighting design and set design. Kayla has had the privilege of working with Jacqueline Lawton before on a previous workshop and is incredibly excited to see what discussions Behold, a Negress will bring forward.

PlayMakers Repertory Company proudly announces its 2019/20 Season: Legacy | NOW. The season brings to our Mainstage one of the Bard’s best tales of political intrigue, a sweeping, Tony Award-winning musical, a seminal American novel in a theatrical re-imagining, a comedy about why fences make for terrible neighbors, a fresh take on the age-old morality play, and a world premiere comedy about a farm-to-table food fight. Our PRC2 Kenan Stage series, curated to spark conversation, brings us the voices of two North Carolina writers as they explore two vastly different women of substantial legacy and a third story that examines the path to forgiveness forged in a community after an unthinkable tragedy.​

As PlayMakers celebrates 100 years of playmaking at UNC-Chapel Hill, the upcoming 2019/20 Legacy | NOW season presents a slate of new work combined with new angles on older work that will challenge us to see beyond what we’ve thought of as history’s edges and to explore the diverse ways in which we tell our history, so as to open our hearts and minds to new perspectives.

“I couldn’t be more excited about the line-up for our Legacy | NOW season as an opportunity to celebrate, interrogate and renew the diverse and intersecting legacies that make us who we are,” said Producing Artistic Director Vivienne Benesch. “Some of the brightest and most thought provoking theatre-makers of today, like Karen Zacarías, Nambi E. Kelley, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Jacqueline E. Lawton, and Heidi Armbruster, will engage and collide with some foundational stories and storytellers in a season long conversation that recommits PlayMakers to the legacy of social justice and humanitarianism begun 100 years ago, and also to the tradition of producing world-class entertainment made right here in North Carolina with our exceptional resident company—one of the last resident theatre companies still operating in the country. With two world premieres by astonishing women writers sitting alongside PlayMakers’ first production of ‘Julius Caesar’ in its history, 2019/20 is going to be full to the brim with great theatre.”

Subscription packages are available for purchase now, and renewing subscribers can secure their current seats for the new season through May 1. Single tickets go on sale June 11. Call (919) 962-7529 or visit www.playmakersrep.org for information.

“Native Son” by Nambi E. Kelley, Sept. 11–29, 2019 
The season opens with a classic of American literature, adapted by Nambi E. Kelly into a theatrical and psychological kaleidoscope for a new generation. The first adaptation of Richard Wright’s “Native Son” was written at UNC-Chapel HIll, a collaboration between Wright and our own Pulitzer Prize-winning Paul Green. In Kelley’s searing new adaptation, Bigger Thomas still struggles to find his place in a world whose prejudice has shut him out. Is Bigger’s slide into violence an inevitable outcome of the racism and poverty that surrounds him?

“Dairyland” by Heidi Armbruster, Oct. 16–Nov. 3, 2019 
A world premiere comedy that invites audiences to experience an epic farm-to-table food fight. Allie, a food writer in New York City, is raw from failed office romance, journalistic rivalry, and baby shower crafts. When she finds herself on the wrong side of the food scene, will her father’s dairy farm and Patches, the cow, show her the way home? If the success of premieres like “The Cake,” “Temples of Lung and Air,” “Bewilderness,” and “Leaving Eden” are any indication, PlayMakers is becoming an essential home for the development of great new work for the American stage—you won’t want to miss this.

“Ragtime” book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynne Ahrens, Nov. 20–Dec. 15, 2019 
Based on the novel of the same name by E.L. Doctrow, the Tony Award-winning musical, about the American experience and the volatile “melting pot” of turn of the 20th century New York weaves a tale that is as relevant today, as ever. Prepare to be swept away by its sweeping melodies, as three distinctly American stories—of a determined Jewish immigrant and his motherless daughter, a daring Harlem musician, and a well-off white family from New Rochelle—paint a powerful picture of the American Dream that will awaken the heart and captivate the soul. The Los Angeles Times calls Ragtime “some of the most breathtaking musical theatre writing of the last 25 years.” This production will feature the long-anticipated PlayMakers debut of Lauren Kennedy as Mother.

“Everybody” by Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins, Jan. 22–Feb. 9, 2020 
This existential comedy updates the medieval morality play “Everyman” to take us on a life-affirming journey of love. Hounded by Death, the character of Everybody desperately searches everything and everyone in life with the hope of finding something to take to the grave. Five brave actors will be assigned their roles by lottery each night—that’s 120 possible combinations—as they fight to cheat Death.

“Julius Caesar” by William Shakespeare, Mar. 4–22, 2020 
The Bard’s classic play of politics and power hits the stage at PlayMakers for the first time ever. When Julius Caesar’s heroic magnetism tips the scale and threatens to undo four centuries of republican rule in Rome, a small band of patriots determine to put things right. But is their “right” any better?

“Native Gardens” by Karen Zacarías, Apr. 8–26, 2020 
This comedy reminds us that good fences don’t always make great neighbors. An attorney on the rise and his very pregnant wife couldn’t feel more welcomed by their new neighbors. But soon, a friendly disagreement about the lay of the land quickly spirals into a war of taste, class, and entitlement.