Kristolyn Lloyd, Leland Fowler & More to Star in Suzan-Lori Parks' SALLY & TOM at The Public Theater

The Public Theater has revealed the complete cast for the New York premiere of SALLY & TOM, a bold new dramedy written by Pulitzer Prize winner and Public Theater Writer-in-Residence Suzan-Lori Parks and directed by Steve H. Broadnax III. Following its Fall 2022 world premiere at The Guthrie Theater, SALLY & TOM begins performances with a Joseph Papp Free Performance on Thursday, March 28 and officially opens on Tuesday, April 16. The production will run in the Martinson Hall through Sunday, April 28. 

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, the author of last season’s The Harder They Come, returns to her artistic home with an edgy dramedy that celebrates the craft of theater while taking a hard look at history. The off-off-off-Broadway theater troupe Good Company is putting on a play about Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. Writer Luce is cast as Sally; her romantic partner, and the play’s director, Mike, is cast as Tom—really, people, what could possibly go wrong? In association with Minneapolis’ acclaimed Guthrie Theater, this funny, ferocious new work is about art, politics, and the contradictions that make all of us. Directed by Steve H. Broadnax III, SALLY & TOM is an unmissable New York premiere from one of our finest and most daring playwrights.

The complete cast of SALLY & TOM includes Sun Mee Chomet (Scout/Polly), Gabriel Ebert(Mike/Tom), Leland Fowler (Devon/Nathan), Sheria Irving (Luce/Sally), Kristolyn Lloyd (Maggie/Mary), Alano Miller (Kwame/James), Kate Nowlin (Ginger/Patsy), and Daniel Petzold(Geoff/Cooper/Colonel Carey/Mr. Tobias).

SALLY & TOM features scenic design by Riccardo Hernández, costume design by Rodrigo Muñoz, lighting design by Alan C. Edwards, sound design and music composition by Dan Moses Schreier, fight and intimacy direction by Kelsey Rainwater and Michael Rossmy, and dramaturgy by Jesse Cameron Alick. Norman Anthony Small serves as production stage manager and Jessica R. Aguilar as stage manager.

Following Fall 2023’s HELL’S KITCHEN and MANAHATTA, The Public Theater kicks off 2024 at its downtown Astor Place home with the world premiere of Tony Award winner Itamar Moses’ THE ALLY. The provocative new play directed by Drama Desk Award winner Lila Neugebauer about the vanishing line between the personal and the political begins February 15. Emerging Writers Group alumnus Ife Olujobi makes her professional stage debut with the bold, bitingly funny play JORDANS. Directed by Obie Award winner Whitney White, the world premiere play is a piercing exploration of assimilation, racial capitalism, success, and survival.

The Library at The Public serves food and drink Tuesday through Sunday, beginning at 5:00 p.m. and closing at midnight. The Library is closed on Mondays. For more information, visit publictheater.org.

BIOS:

Suzan-Lori Parks 

(Playwright) is the first African-American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Other honors include the Tony Award, MacArthur Genius Grant, and the Gish Prize for Excellence in the Arts, and she was recently inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame. In addition to the 20th Anniversary Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of Topdog/Underdog, Parks’ most recent world premieres include The Public’s  productions of Plays for the Plague Year and The Harder They Come, as well as Sally & Tom at the Guthrie Theater. Her other works includes The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess (Tony Award for Best Revival), 365 Days/365 Plays, Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3), f-ing A, The Book of Grace, Unchain My Heart: The Ray Charles Musical, and In the Blood. Parks also works extensively in film and television, most recently as the screenwriter for The United States vs. Billie Holiday and Genius: Aretha as creator, writer, and showrunner. Her novel Getting Mother’s Body is published by Random House, and in her spare time, she writes songs and fronts her band Sula & The Noise. Parks is a former writing student of James Baldwin. 

Steve H. Broadnax III 

(Director). Credits include Thoughts of a Colored Man (Broadway), Suzan-Lori Parks’ Sally & Tom (world premiere, Guthrie Theatre), Katori Hall’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Hot Wing King (world premiere, Signature), Lee Edward Colston’s The First Deep Breath (Geffen Theatre, Jeff Awards Best New Work), Dominique Morisseau’s Blood at the Root (National Black Theatre, Kennedy Center's Hip Hop Theater Creator Award), and William Jackson Harper’s Travisville (world premiere, Ensemble Studio). Broadnax is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, Associate Artistic Director at People’s Light Theatre, and Professor of Theatre and head of MFA Directing at Penn State University.

Sun Mee Chomet she/her

(Scout/Polly). Off-Broadway credits include brownsville song (b-side for tray) (Lincoln Center; Lucille Lortel nomination). National tours include Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses. Regional productions include How to Be a Korean Woman (Theater J); Suzan-Lori Parks’ Sally & Tom, Kate Hamill’s Emma, Tony Kushner’s Intelligent Homosexual…, Seamus Heaney’s Burial at Thebes, King Lear (Guthrie Theater); Lloyd Suh’s Bina’s Six Apples (Alliance Theater/Children’s Theatre Company; Suzi Bass Award); Leah Nanako Winkler’s Two Mile Hollow and Qui Nguyen’s Vietgone (Mixed Blood Theater). Film credits include Stay Then Go. TCG Fox Fellow.

Gabriel Ebert 

(Mike/Tom) won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Mr. Wormwood in Matilda the Musical. Other theater credits include The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical, Local Hero, Pass Over (Lortel Award), Casa Valentina, Thérèse Raquin, Brief Encounter, Time and the Conways, Preludes, Gently Down the Stream, Prometheus Bound, Peer Gynt, and 4000 Miles (Obie Award). Film/TV credits include “Sinking Spring” (upcoming), “Dickinson,” “Mr. Mercedes,” News of the World, Jane Wants a Boyfriend, “I Am a Seagull,” and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. As a singer, Ebert has performed at Carnegie Hall and Royal Albert Hall, and with the New York Philharmonic. Ebert graduated from Juilliard as a member of Group 38.

Leland Fowler 

(Devon/Nathan). Off-Broadway credits include Plays for the Plague Year, Henry V, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Public); This Land Was Made (Vineyard); one in two (The New Group); Novenas…(Rattlestick); If Pretty Hurts…(Playwrights Horizons); and Measure for Measure(TFANA). Fowler has also performed at Williamstown, Dorset Theatre Festival, St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, Westport Country Playhouse, McCarter, Yale Rep, and Alliance Theatre. TV credits include “City on a Hill.” Fowler holds a BA from Morehouse College and MFA from Yale School of Drama. Fowler is a member of the Actor’s Center.

Sheria Irving 

(Luce/Sally). Broadway credits include Romeo and Juliet. Off-Broadway/Regional credits include White Noise (The Public Theater); While I Yet Live (Primary Stages), Crowndation(National Black Theater, Center Theater Group); Fit for a Queen (Classical Theater of Harlem); and The Model American (Williamstown Theater Festival); Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale (Yale Rep). TV/Film credits include “Kindred,” Bobcat Moretti, “Them,” “Twenties,” “The Good Wife,” and “Madam Secretary.” Irving is the founder of the nonprofit Shaping Her Earth, shapingherearth.org. MFA Yale School of Drama. sheriairving.com

Kristolyn Lloyd 

she/her (Maggie/Mary) is a Grammy and Emmy Award-winning actress. Broadway credits include 1776 and Dear Evan Hansen. Lloyd’s Off-Broadway credits include Blue Ridge (Atlantic); Paradise Blue, Confederates (The Signature Theatre); Hamlet (The Public Theater); Invisible Thread (Second Stage Theatre); Heathers: The Musical (New World Stages); Cabin in the Sky (Encores! City Center); and Little Women (Primary Stages). Selected regional productions include Paradise Blue (Williamstown); Witness Uganda (A.R.T.); and Hairspray and Rent (Hollywood Bowl). TV credits include “Random Acts of Flyness,” “Elementary,” “Madam Secretary,” “Kevin Can Wait,” “ER,” “Chicago Med,” and “Lie to Me.” @kristolynlloyd

Alano Miller 

(Kwame/James). Theater credits include Tarell Alvin McCraney’s acclaimedBrother/Sister Plays (The McCarter), Broke-ology (Lincoln Center), and Fences. TV credits include “The Morning Show,” “DMZ,” “Dexter: New Blood,” “Cherish the Day,” “The Red Line,” “Jane the Virgin,” “Halt and Catch Fire,” “Underground” (Hollywood Reporter “30 Emmy Supporting Actor contenders”), and the Emmy-winning “B.A.N.” episode of “Atlanta.” Film credits include Sylvie’s Love, Golden Globe nominee  Loving (NAACP Image Award Supporting Actor nomination) and Wish You Well.

Kate Nowlin 

she/her (Ginger/Patsy) performed in The Public’s Sweat Mobile Unit National Tour. Nowlin has performed Off-Broadway at Rattlestick, Atlantic, and Second Stage and regionally at the Guthrie (Sally & Tom premiere), Westport, and Shakespeare Theatre DC (Helen Hayes nominee). Film/TV credits include Lemon Shark (writer/director/composer), The Hunt, Blood Stripe (co-writer/producer), Young Adult, The Adjustment Bureau, “New Amsterdam,” “One Dollar,” “Outsiders,” “Blacklist,” “Ironside,” “The Carrie Diaries,” and “Rubicon.” Nowlin has received a LAFF Jury Award, Audience Award Austin Film Fest, Yale in Hollywood Best Dramatic Film, TCFF Breakout Performance Award, and Knight Foundation Grant. MFA Yale; BFA SMU. katenowlin.com

Daniel Petzold 

he/him (Geoff, Cooper, Colone. Carey, Tobias). Public debut. Off-Broadway credits include Switzerland (59E59) and Pushkin (american vicarious). His selected regional credits include Sally & Tom, Hamlet, The Importance of Being Earnest (The Guthrie); Airness (Park Square Theatre); American Son (Florida Studio Theatre); A Christmas Carol (Cincinnati Playhouse); Macbeth, Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure (The Old Globe); Three Sisters (Berkeley Rep); A Bright New Boise (Aurora); and Another Way Home, Any Given Day (The Magic). Petzold has appeared on TV in “FBI.” He received an MFA from The Old Globe.

ABOUT The Public Theater:

THE PUBLIC continues the work of its visionary founder Joe Papp as a civic institution engaging, both on-stage and off, with some of the most important ideas and social issues of today Conceived over 60 years ago as one of the nation’s first nonprofit theaters, The Public has long operated on the principles that theater is an essential cultural force and that art and culture belong to everyone. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Patrick Willingham, The Public’s wide breadth of programming includes an annual season of new work at its landmark home at Astor Place, Free Shakespeare in the Park at The Delacorte Theater in Central Park, the Mobile Unit touring throughout New York City’s five boroughs, Public Works, Public Shakespeare Initiative, and Joe’s Pub. Since premiering HAIR in 1967, The Public continues to create the canon of American Theater and is currently represented on Broadway by the Tony Award-winning musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Their programs and productions can also be seen regionally across the country and around the world. The Public has received 60 Tony Awards, 190 Obie Awards, 57 Drama Desk Awards, 61 Lortel Awards, 36 Outer Critics Circle Awards, 13 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards, 65 AUDELCO Awards, 6 Antonyo Awards, and 6 Pulitzer Prizes. publictheater.org 

The Public Theater stands in honor of the first inhabitants and our ancestors. We acknowledge the land on which The Public and its theaters stand—the original homeland of the Lenape people. We acknowledge the painful history of genocide and forced removal from this territory. We honor the generations of stewards and we pay our respects to the many diverse indigenous peoples still connected to this land. 

The LuEsther T. Mertz Legacy Trust provides leadership support for The Public Theater's year-round activities. 

TICKET INFORMATION

SALLY & TOM begins performances in The Public’s Martinson Hall with a Joseph Papp Free Performance on Thursday, March 28. The production will officially open on Tuesday, April 16 and run through Sunday, April 28.

Tickets are available now and can be accessed by visiting publictheater.org, calling 212.967.7555, or in person at the Taub Box Office at The Public Theater at 425 Lafayette Street. 

The Public’s Joseph Papp Free Performance initiative will offer free tickets to the performance on Thursday, March 28 through TodayTix. The Lottery will open for entries on Thursday, March 21 and Will Close at 12:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 27. Winners will be notified by email and push notification anytime from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., and if selected, winners will have one hour to claim their tickets.

The performance schedule is Tuesday through Sunday at 7:00 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday at 1:00 p.m. (There will be no 1:00 p.m. performance on Saturday, March 30 or Sunday, March 31. The performance on Thursday, April 18 will be at 8:00 p.m.)

The American Sign Language Interpreted performance will be at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, April 19. The Open Captioned performance will be at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 20. The Audio Describedperformance will be at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 27. 

The full performance calendar can be found at publictheater.org.  

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