Grammy Award-winner Alicia Keys with Reuben Cannon & Nelle Nugent are proud to announce the Broadway premiere of STICK FLY, the critically-acclaimed American play by Lydia R. Diamond and directed by Kenny Leon, opening on Broadway on Thursday, December 8, 2011 at the Lyceum Theatre (149 W. 45th Street). Performances begin Friday, November 18, 2011. Tickets are now on sale through Telecharge.com.
"This is a story that everybody can relate to," said producer Alicia Keys. "I'm passionate about this play because it is so beautifully written and portrays Black America in a way that we don't often get to see in entertainment. I know it will touch all audiences, who will find a piece of themselves somewhere inside this house."
"Stick Fly is one of those unique plays with a beauty that lies in its universality," said director Kenny Leon. "Lydia Diamond is a master storyteller, combining humor with intellect. Her reach is as great as my friend August Wilson - her poetry and the world of the characters may differ, but the results are the same: an evening full of laughter and thought that keeps us talking long after we've left the theatre. I love plays where everyone can find themselves in the story on stage."
STICK FLY follows the LeVays, an affluent African American family who come together to spend a summer weekend at their Martha's Vineyard home. The adult sons, aspiring novelist Kent and golden boy plastic surgeon Flip, have each brought their respective ladies (one Black and one White) to meet the parents. Food, drink and Trivial Pursuit tangle with class, race and identity politics in this contemporary comedy of manners.
STICK FLY was developed in a recent co-production last year between the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston and Arena Stage in Washington D.C. The play had its world premiere at Chicago's Congo Square Theatre Company in 2006 and was subsequently performed at theatres including the McCarter Theatre in 2007 and the Matrix Theatre Company in Los Angeles in 2009. STICK FLY is the recipient of 2011 Independent Reviewers of New England Awards for Best Play and Best Director of a Drama (Kenny Leon); 2010 LA Drama Critics Circle Awards for Best Production, Best Direction and Best Ensemble Performance; a 2010 LA Garland Award for Playwriting; a 2009 LA Weekly Theatre Award for Playwriting; and, the 2006 Black Theatre Alliance Award for Best New Play. It was also a 2008 Susan Blackburn Prize finalist and a nominee for the 2006 Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work.
Casting, creative team, and additional production information will be announced soon. Tickets are available by calling Telecharge.com at (212) 239-6200,
(800) 432-7250 outside the NY metro area, or online at Telecharge.com. For more information, visit www.StickFlyBroadway.com.
LYDIA R. DIAMOND (Playwright) is making her Broadway debut with her award-winning play, Stick Fly Stick Fly ('10 Irne Award - Best Play, '10 LA Critics Circle Awards, '10 LA Garland Award - Playwriting, '08 Susan S. Blackburn Finalist, ‘06 Black Theatre Alliance Award - Best Play), Voyeurs de Venus ('06 Joseph Jefferson Award - Best New Work, ‘06 BTAA - Best Writing), The Bluest Eye ('06 Black Arts Alliance Image Award - Best New Play, ‘08 American Alliance for Theatre and Education Distinguished Play Award), The Gift Horse ('05 Theadore Ward Prize, Kesselring Prize 2nd Place), Harriet Jacobs, Stage Black, and Lizzie Stranton (2008 Boston University Playwriting Initiative Commission). Theatres include: Arena Stage, Chicago Dramatists, Company One, Congo Square, Everyman Theatre Company, Freedom Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Hartford Stage, Huntington Theatre Co., Jubilee Theatre, Kansas City Rep, L.A. Theatre Works, Long Wharf, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, McCarter Theatre Co., Mo'Olelo Theatre Co., MPAACT, New Vic, Playmakers Rep, Plowshares Theatre Co., Providence Black Rep, Steppenwolf, TrueColors, The Matrix, Underground Railway Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and The Contemporary American Theatre Festival. Lydia's plays have been produced at Universities around the country including: Duke, Howard, Boston University, Northwestern University, University of Wisconsin, Columbia College Chicago, Spelman College, University of California - San Marcos, and University of Maryland. Lydia has been commissioned by: Steppenwolf, McCarter, Huntington, Actor's Theatre of Louisville/Victory Gardens, Humana, Boston University, and The Roundabout. Stick Fly and Harriet Jacobs are published by NU Press, Bluest Eye, Gift Horse, Stage Black - Dramatic Publishing. Lydia was an '05/'06 W.E.B. Du Bois Institute non-resident Fellow, a 2007 TCG/NEA Playwright in Residence at Steppenwolf, an 06/07 Huntington Playwright Fellow, a 2009 NEA/Arena Stage New Play Development Grant Finalist, is a TCG Executive Board Member, a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists, an Honorary Doctorate of Arts Recipient from Pine Manor College, and a recent recipient of the Huntington Theatre's 2011 Wimbley Award. Lydia is on faculty at Boston University.
KENNY LEON (Director). Tony nominated director and Julia Hansen Award winner; Kenny Leon is one of the most acclaimed directors in contemporary American theatre. In 2010, his hit Broadway production of Fences garnered 10 Tony Nominations including Best Director and won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play, Best Actor and Best Actress. Past Broadway credits include Radio Golf, Gem of the Ocean and the Tony-winning revival of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. Mr. Leon was nominated for Best Director by the Directors Guild of America for the television film of ‘A Raisin in the Sun' which also received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations and won 3 NAACP Image Awards. Prior to founding Kenny Leon's True Colors Theatre Company, he served 11 years as Artistic Director of the Alliance Theatre, where he produced the premieres of Disney's Elaborate Lives: The Legend of Aida, Pearl Cleage's Blues for an Alabama Sky and Alfred Uhry's The Last Night of Ballyhoo. Other directorial credits include Toni Morrison's opera Margaret Garner, the world premiere of Flashdance: The Musical, Alicia Keys' "As I Am" worldwide tour and the August Wilson Century Cycle at the Kennedy Center, for which he was Artistic Director. He's directed extensively around the United States including Chicago's Goodman Theatre, Boston's Huntington Theatre, Baltimore's Center Stage, Los Angeles' Center Theatre Group and New York's Public Theatre. This past fall, Mr. Leon directed the world premiere of Marcus Gardley's Every Tongue Confess starring Phylicia Rashad at Arena Stage in D.C. He will return to Broadway in 2011 to direct Katori Hall's The Mountaintop starring Samuel L. Jackson and will direct the feature films Babylon and Cotton later this summer. He has also directed episodes of "Private Practice" for ABC and "Ghost Whisperer" for CBS.
Tickets are on sale now here. For more information, visit www.stickflybroadway.com. Follow the show on Facebook at www.facebook.com/StickFly.
Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos
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