Nicholas Braun & Kara Young Will Lead GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES Off-Broadway

Seaview, Sue Wagner and John Johnson by Special Arrangement with the Lucille Lortel Theatre announced today that Pulitzer Prize Finalist Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries will return to the New York stage in a new production starring three-time Emmy Award nominee Nicholas Braun (“Succession”) and two-time Tony Award winner Kara Young (Purpose), and directed by Tony Award Nominee Neil Pepe (American Buffalo). Gruesome Playground Injuries will begin performances off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theatre on Friday, November 7 for a limited run through Sunday, December 28.

Over the course of 30 years, the lives of Kayleen and Doug intersect at the most bizarre intervals, leading the two childhood friends to compare scars and the physical calamities that keep drawing them together.

"I have known and loved Rajiv Joseph's work for years and am thrilled to be directing this seminal play,” said Neil Pepe. “And to have the opportunity to work with these two extraordinary actors, Kara Young and Nicholas Braun, is a gift."

“Off-Broadway is the beating heart of New York and there is no more thrilling place in the world to present a play than the storied and historic Lucille Lortel Theater,” stated the producers. “It has been the honor of a lifetime to produce plays with and at The Lortel over the last two years, and we cannot wait for audiences to have the opportunity to revisit Rajiv Joesph’s staggering, transporting, timeless and healing work this fall on Christopher Street.” 

Lucille Lortel Theatre member tickets will be available at 12pm today, Thursday, September 24 and can be purchased online at www.lortel.org and at the box office located at 121 Christopher Street, New York, NY 10014. Tickets will be available beginning Friday, September 26 at 12pm exclusively on TodayTix by visiting TodayTix.com or downloading the TodayTix app. Tickets will be available to the general public beginning at 10am on Monday, September 29. For more information, please visit: www.gruesomeplaygroundinjuries.com 

The full creative team will be announced at a later date.

Bios:

Rajiv Joseph (Playwright). Rajiv Joseph’s play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo was a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama. He has twice won the Obie Award for Best New American Play, first in 2016 with Guards at the Taj (also a 2016 Lortel Winner for Best Play) and in 2018 with Describe the Night.  Other plays include Mr. Wolf, King James, Letters of Suresh, Gruesome Playground Injuries and Animals Out of Paper. He has been an ensemble member of the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago since 2018, and he served for three years in the Peace Corps in Senegal.

Neil Pepe (Director) received a Tony Nomination for Best Director for his production of American Buffalo on Broadway and recently directed Hold On To Me Darling at the Lortel. Broadway: Hands on a Hardbody, Speed-the-Plow, A Life in the Theatre. Off-Broadway/Regional: A Play Is A Poem (CTG); Juno and the Paycock (Irish Rep); On the Shore of the Wide World, The Penitent, Marie and Rosetta, Dying for It, 3 Kinds of Exile, Happy Hour, Offices, Almost an Evening, Parlour Song, The Night Heron, Mojo, Celebration, The Room, Dreams of Flying Dreams of Falling, Sea of Tranquility, Blue/Orange, Wolf Lullaby, Cornelia Street (Atlantic); Hold on to Me Darling (Atlantic); The Subject Was Roses, Keep Your Pantheon, Romance (Center Theatre Group, Atlantic); Red Angel (Williamstown); Further Than the Furthest Thing (MTC); The Beginning of August (South Coast Repertory, Atlantic); American Buffalo (Donmar Warehouse, Atlantic); Refuge (Playwrights Horizons); I’m Not Rappaport (Shadowland Stages). Neil has been the artistic director of Atlantic Theater Company since 1992.

NICHOLAS BRAUN (Doug) is an actor, writer, producer, and musician, best known for starring in HBO’s critically acclaimed and award-winning drama series “Succession.” Braun himself has earned three Emmy nominations and a Critics Choice nomination for his role as fan-favorite “Cousin Greg.” The show aired the fourth and final season in Spring 2023, subsequently winning an Emmy Award and Critics Choice Award for ‘Outstanding Drama Series’. 

Braun recently wrapped production on Ruben Ostlünd’s buzzy satire for A24, The Entertainment System is Down opposite Keanu Reeves, Kirsten Dunst and Daniel Brühl. He also stars in the upcoming Amazon MGM Studios’ Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Movie alongside Hugh Jackman and Emma Thompson, as well as A24’s upcoming Famous, alongside Zac Efron and Phoebe Dynevor, with Jody Hill directing. 

Earlier this month, Braun appeared in Neon’s Splitsville directed by Michael Covino (The Climb), alongside Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona. Braun also appeared as both Jim Henson and Andy Kaufman in the Sony Pictures' film, Saturday Night, directed by Jason Reitman and based on the true story of what happened behind the scenes leading up to the first broadcast of NBC's “Saturday Night Live.” Braun also starred in the controversial film Cat Person alongside Emilia Jones, which premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. The psychological thriller is based on a viral short story from the New Yorker and revolves around a relationship between two unlikely individuals. Directed by Susanna Fogel, the film was released on Hulu in February 2024. 

Braun starred opposite Riley Keough and Colman Domingo in the A24 indie film Zola, which premiered to rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival. At the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, Braun was presented with the IMDb Star Meter Award, an award given to stars who are fan favorites on IMDb's Star Meter Chart. 

Additional previous film credits include A24’s Dream Scenario by Kristoffer Borgli, Warner Bros romantic comedy How to Be Single opposite Dakota Johnson, Rebel Wilson, Alison Brie, and Leslie Mann, Whitskey Tango Foxtrot opposite Tina Fey and Margot Robbie, MGM's remake of Poltergeist, Kyle Alvarez’s The Stanford Prison, Lionsgate’s comedy Date and Switch, Fox’s The Watch opposite Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Disney’s Sky High, and a fantastic breakthrough performance in Kevin Smith’s Red State, which premiered at Sundance. 

Outside of acting, Braun landed a record deal with Atlantic Records in which he released his single "Antibodies (Do You Have The)". He also features on two tracks on PHANTOMS' debut EP, “Broken Halo”, providing vocals on the title track and "Voyeur".

Kara Young (Kayleen) made history as the first Black performer to win two back-to-back Tony Awards and to be nominated four times in a row. Kara was most recently seen starring in Purpose on Broadway, which in addition to a Tony Award, earned her a Drama Desk Award as well as Drama League and Outer Critics Circle nominations. She previously starred on Broadway as ‘Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkins’ in Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch, for which she won the 2024 Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play. Additionally, her performance in Purlie Victorious earned her an Outer Critics Circle Award, Drama Desk Award and Drama League nomination.

Young was also seen last season starring in MCC Theater’s Table 17, which earned her a 2025 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Performer in a Play. In 2022, she made her Broadway debut in Lynn Nottage’s Clyde’s, for which she earned a Theatre World Award and her first Tony nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play. In 2023, she was Tony nominated for her work in Cost of Living and won an Obie Award for her performance in the Classical Theatre of Harlem’s production of Twelfth Knight.