On a hot and humid summer day In Montpelier, Louisiana, a community of isolated neighbors -- divided by property lines, race, class and tradition, but bonded by overlapping personal and cultural histories-- reckon with the truth and their uncertain fates as they look for refuge in unlikely places.
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Kelley Nicole Girod (she/her) is an award-winning playwright whose work centers on her Black Cajun/ Creole Louisiana heritage. Awards include NYIT Ellen Stewart Award 2023, Sundance IDP 2021 grantee, City Corp Artist Grant 2021, Atlantic Launch New Play Commission 2019, Sheen Center Fellow 2019, Stein and Liberace Fellow 2007, and John Golden Fellow 2008. Her work has been developed/presented at Atlantic Theater Company, Sheen Center for Thought and Culture, The Fire This Time Festival, Harlem 9, Primary Stages, Project Y, Poetic Theater Productions, Classical Theater of Harlem, Frigid NYC, Planet Connections Theater Festival, The Field, and Dixon Place. She was recently commissioned by Stanford University’s TAPS Program and completed a commission of a children’s play about Covid through a collaboration with Erin Brown under a City Corp Artist grant.
In addition, Kelley Nicole Girod is an award winning producer, known mostly for founding The Fire This Time Festival which has become a premier destination for Black artists and theater makers, and won a prestigious OBIE award in 2015. She was recently named Director of New Works at the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem. Kelley was also Producing Director of The Billie Holiday Theater from 2014-2015, and creative programmer at The Sheen Center for Thought and Culture from 2017-2019.
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Directed by Ludovica Villar-Hauser (she/her)
CAST: Donovan Wayne Christie Jr.* (Felonius, he/him), Josephine Florence Cooper (Francis, she/they), Tandy Cronyn* (Kacky, she/her), Jordan Donaldson (Boniface, he/him), Dorothi Fox* (Mae, she/her), Joyce Griffen* (Janice, she/her), Carole Monferdini* (Ruby, she/her), Bailey Macejak (Caroline, she/her)
* Appearing courtesy of Actor's Equity Association
Dramaturg: Jaye Hunt (they/them)
Costume Designer: Nicole Brooks Sanwandee (she/her)
Sound Designer: Emma Lea Hasselbach (they/she)
Set, Lighting, and Props Designer: Yang Yu (she/her)
Co-Production Stage Manager: Dexter Warren (he/they)
Co-Production Stage Manager: Jenny Herdman Lando (she/her)
Stage Management Assistance: Schuyler Seitz (she/her), Becca Silbert (she/her), Maddie Jewell (they/them), Erin Bradford (she/her), Mirit Skeen (they/he)
Partially Cast by Sujotta Pace, CSA (she/her)
Key Art by Marc Ella Roy (they/them)
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This production will be approximately 90 minutes, with no intermission.
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As part of our COVID-19 protocol and to keep our actors and audience as safe and healthy as possible, we require all audience members to wear a mask throughout the performance. The 14th Street Y is ADA accessible. All performances will include open captioning. Captioning is being provided, in part, by a grant from NYSCA/TDDT TAP Plus.
This production contains discussions of racialized violence. A gun will be present onstage but not used.
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Tickets will be pay what you can at the box office starting 30 minutes before curtain ($15 minimum.)
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THIS PROGRAM IS SUPPORTED, IN PART, BY PUBLIC FUNDS FROM THE NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE CITY COUNCIL.
This program was funded in part by Humanities New York with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this production do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.