Tennessee Repertory Theatre has announced plans for REPaloud, the popular play reading series which highlights contemporary plays. The Second Staged reading of the 2010-11 season will be Lynn Nottage's Ruined, winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. REPaloud will take place on January 14-15 at 7:00 pm atTennessee Rep's Rehearsal Hall (NPT Studio A, 161 Rains Avenue).
From
Lynn Nottage, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of such plays as Fabulation and Intimate Apparel, comes this haunting, probing work about the resilience of the human spirit during times of war. Set in a small mining town in Democratic Republic of Congo, this powerful play follows Mama Nadi, a shrewd businesswoman in a land torn apart by civil war. But is she protecting or profiting by the women she shelters? How far will she go to survive? Can a price be placed on a human life?
"I had the privilege of directing
Lynn Nottage's play Intimate Apparel a couple of years back and I still get all a-flutter remembering the staggering beauty and heartrending insight and delicate poetry of it," says Tennessee Rep Producing Artistic Director Rene D. Copeland. " When I read Ruined, I fell in love once again, and I'm so excited about sharing it with an audience. I had the great pleasure of meeting Ms. Nottage last fall, and I was struck by her passion, her intellect and her wit-all of which are embodied in her plays. Ruined is set in the Congo, and her inspiration was her actual interviews with women in Central Africa whose bodies had been used as a battleground in the never ending war there. Only
Lynn Nottage could tell a story with characters who suffer the horrific use of repeated sexual assault as a weapon, and find the hope and even the love. She tells a riveting story that shows humans at their worst, and ultimately, at their best, and it is that complexity that makes this play special."
The cast includes Chris Bosen,
David Chattam,
Joel Diggs,
Alicia Haymer, Brandon Hirsch,
Bakari King,
Mary McCallum, Jason McGowan, Aleta Miles, Jacqueline Springfield, Rodrikus Springfield, and Jennifer Whitcomb-Oliva.
Tennessee Repertory Theatre's REPaloud features contemporary, award-winning dramas. The final reading scheduled for the 2010-11 season will be August: Osage County by
Tracy Letts (winner of the 2008 Tony Award for Best Play and Pulitzer Prize for Drama) in April. For more information on REPaloud, visit tennesseerep.org/repaloud.php.
Since 1985, Tennessee Repertory Theatre has been a critically acclaimed regional theatre, creating the highest quality professional productions and by serving as a prime cultural, educational, and economic resource within the Nashville and Middle Tennessee communities. Tennessee Rep produces work that is designed, built, and rehearsed in Nashville by highly skilled actors, designers, directors, and technicians. A non-profit organization, Tennessee Rep is committed to consistently delivering thought-provoking theatre each year. For more information on the Tennessee Repertory Theatre, please visit www.tennesseerep.org.
