Nikki M. James, Zachary Noah Piser, Micaela Diamond & More Join Williamstown Theatre Festival 2021 Live Season

Williamstown Theatre Festival has announced additional casting and members of the creative teams for all three of their 2021 Live Season productions, which begins July 6 and will take place outdoors, socially distanced, and with safety prioritized.

Due to overwhelming early interest from groups, online and phone inquiries, and community feedback, WTF has announced a one-week extension to the 2021 Live Season, which will now run through Sunday, August 15. The extension adds an additional week to the runs of both the world premiere musical Row, performed at the Clark Art Institute, and ALIEN/NATION, the world premiere immersive theatrical experience that takes audiences on multiple journeys throughout Williamstown by foot and by car.

Additionally, as part of its larger strategy to make tickets to WTF productions accessible to as many people as possible, the Festival is pleased to extend its partnership with both the EBT and ConnectorCare Card to Culture programs. WTF will make $20 tickets available to program participants to all three of their shows this season. These two ticket initiatives are created by the Mass Cultural Council in partnership with the Executive Office of Health and Human Services' Department of Transitional Assistance and the Massachusetts Health Connector, respectively. To learn more, visit wtfestival.org.

The world premiere of Celebrating the Black Radical Imagination: Nine Solo Plays (Tuesday, July 6 - Sunday, July 25) will feature a troupe of actors of color including exciting newcomers and beloved stage veterans all bringing to life these nine WTF-commissioned works that center and celebrate Black artists. The cast will include Brian D. Coats, Rosalyn Coleman, Cindy De La Cruz, Antwayn Hopper, Naomi Lorrain, Sharina Martin, Ronald Peet, Portia, and Ashley C. Turner. In addition, joining the creative team are April Hickman (costume design for Week One), and Shannon Clarke (associate lighting designer), with casting by The Telsey Office: William Cantler, CSA, Karyn Casl, CSA, Destiny Lilly, CSA.

Joining Grace McLean at the Clark's serene reflecting pool for the uplifting world premiere musical Row (Tuesday, July 13 - Sunday, August 15) are Jeannette Bayardelle, Lisa Brescia, Micaela Diamond, Andy Grotelueschen, Nehal Joshi, John McGinty, Zachary Noah Piser, Horace V. Rogers, and Jennifer Sánchez. Joining the creative team are Julie McBride (music supervisor), Geoffrey Ko (music director), Cam Moncur (copyist), Sarah Briggs (music contractor), and Noah Teplin (music assistant), with casting by The Telsey Office: Patrick Goodwin, CSA, Destiny Lilly, CSA.

The world premiere immersive theatrical experience ALIEN/NATION (Tuesday, July 20 - Sunday, August 15) will feature an Equity cast that includes Yeman Brown, Andrei Chagas, Maxwell Dunham, Leigh-Ann Esty, Sara Esty, Chantelle Good, Christopher Hampton Grant, Nikki M. James, Eriko Jimbo, Matthew Alexander Johnson, Jesse Kovarsky, Renni Magee, Jodi McFadden, Emilio Ramos, Shea Renne, and Lauren Yalango-Grant. Additional cast members include Julian Abelskamp, Oluwatobiloba Adeyemo, Tim Creavin, Cody Hayman, Austin Phillips, Kallie Pong, Jaime Lee Rodney, Marissa Ruben, Jessica Natalie Smith, Tyqaun Malik White, Ontaria Kim Wilson, and Bekah Zornosa. The creative team will also feature Eamon Foley (choreographer), Edward Michael Rose (video editor), and Daniel Hartman (AV coordinator).

Williamstown Theatre Festival is part of a Berkshire-based consortium of cultural organizations, who stand together in placing public safety first. As state guidelines have changed, each organization has created its own set of safety protocols, under the guidance of its local public health authority, for how the public can experience its performances, events, spaces, and/or galleries. The organizations support each other in upholding public safety for staff, artists, and visitors.

TICKETS TO THE 2021 LIVE SEASON

The WTF Box Office is now open, with tickets to all three of the 2021 Live Season productions available for purchase at wtfestival.org, by phone at (413) 458-3253, or in person at The Andrew Martin-Weber Festival Box Office, newly located for 2021 at 30 Spring Street in the heart of the downtown Cultural District in Williamstown, MA.

WTF is a proud participant in the EBT & ConnectorCare Card to Culture programs-two new accessible ticket initiatives created by the Mass Cultural Council in partnership with the Executive Office of Health and Human Services' Department of Transitional Assistance and the Massachusetts Health Connector, respectively. To learn more, visit wtfestival.org.

ABOUT THE 2021 LIVE SEASON

WORLD PREMIERE SERIES

Celebrating the Black Radical Imagination: Nine Solo Plays

Wednesday, July 6 - Sunday, July 25

Performed at the Front Lawn of the '62 Center for Theatre and Dance

Directed by Colette Robert, Wardell Julius Clark, and Candis C. Jones

Guest Curated by Robert O'Hara

Written by Guadalís Del Carmen, France-Luce Benson, NSangou Njikam, J. Nicole Brooks, Terry Guest, Ike Holter, Charly Evon Simpson, Ngozi Anyanwu, and Zora Howard

Featuring Brian D. Coats, Cindy De La Cruz, Donnetta Lavinia Grays, Antwayn Hopper, Naomi Lorrain, Sharina Martin, Ronald Peet, Portia, and Ashley C. Turner

Discover the power and intimacy of the solo play with this series of three shows centering and celebrating Black artists and their voices through theatrical storytelling. Each show consists of three, 30-minute world premieres, created by Black writers, written for actors of color, and brought to life by directors Colette Robert, Wardell Julius Clark, and Candis C. Jones on the Front Lawn of the '62 Center for Theatre and Dance. Celebrating the Black Radical Imagination: Nine Solo Plays is guest curated by Tony Award-nominated director and playwright Robert O'Hara.

Celebrating the Black Radical Imagination: Nine Solo Plays premieres over three weeks:

Week One (Tuesday, July 6 - Saturday, July 10):

Border of Lights by Guadalís Del Carmen

Ghosts of the Diaspora by France-Luce Benson

Freaky Dee, Baby by NSangou Njikam

Directed by Colette Robert

Week Two (Tuesday, July 13 - Sunday, July 18):

Black Moon Lilith by J. Nicole Brooks

A Ghost in Satin by Terry Guest

don't get got by Ike Holter

Directed by Wardell Julius Clark

Week Three (Wednesday, July 21 - Sunday, July 25):

Mark It Down by Charly Evon Simpson

The Last......(A Work in Progress) by Ngozi Anyanwu

THE MASTER'S TOOLS by Zora Howard

Directed by Candis C. Jones

The nine solo plays that comprise Celebrating the Black Radical Imagination: Nine Solo Plays are Williamstown Theatre Festival commissions, supported by WTF's Andrew Martin-Weber New Play and Musical Commissioning Program.

WORLD PREMIERE MUSICAL

Row

Tuesday, July 13 - Sunday, August 15

Performed at the Clark Art Institute

Book by Daniel Goldstein

Music and Lyrics by Dawn Landes

Directed by Tyne Rafaeli

Inspired by A Pearl in the Storm by Tori Murden McClure

Featuring Jeannette Bayardelle, Lisa Brescia, Micaela Diamond, Andy Grotelueschen, Nehal Joshi, John McGinty, Grace McLean, Zachary Noah Piser, Horace V. Rogers, and Jennifer Sánchez

The Clark's serene reflecting pool becomes the stage for this uplifting world premiere musical that interrogates the resilience, fear, and ambition inside one individual (Grace McLean) as she aims to be the first woman to row solo across the Atlantic. Inspired by A Pearl in the Storm by Tori Murden McClure, with a book by Daniel Goldstein, music and lyrics by Dawn Landes, and directed by Tyne Rafaeli, Row exposes you to the elements endured by an extraordinary woman undeterred by the odds.

This production has received a 2021 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. Row is supported by a grant from the Laurents/Hatcher Foundation.

WORLD PREMIERE IMMERSIVE THEATRICAL EXPERIENCE

ALIEN/NATION

Tuesday, July 20 - Sunday, August 15

Performed throughout Williamstown

An Immersive Theatrical Experience in Two Parts

from The Forest of Arden

Written and Devised by Eric Berryman, Jen Silverman, and the Company of The Forest of Arden

Featuring Equity cast members Yeman Brown, Andrei Chagas, Maxwell Dunham, Leigh-Ann Esty, Sara Esty, Chantelle Good, Christopher Hampton Grant, Nikki M. James, Eriko Jimbo, Matthew Alexander Johnson, Jesse Kovarsky, Renni Magee, Jodi McFadden, Emilio Ramos, Shea Renne, and Lauren Yalango-Grant

Also featuring Julian Abelskamp, Oluwatobiloba Adeyemo, Tim Creavin, Cody Hayman, Austin Phillips, Kallie Pong, Jaime Lee Rodney, Marissa Ruben, Jessica Natalie Smith, Tyqaun Malik White, Ontaria Kim Wilson, and Bekah Zornosa

From Tony Award-nominated director Michael Arden and the company of The Forest of Arden comes an immersive, world premiere theatrical experience that takes you on a journey throughout Williamstown, revealing unexpected surprises around you and within you. Choose to experience this completely unique site-specific performance by foot or by car and plunge yourself into the center of stories inspired by real events that took place in Western Massachusetts in 1969. Devised in collaboration with writers Jen Silverman and Eric Berryman and featuring members of WTF's COMMUNITY WORKS program, ALIEN/NATION engages all of your senses for a theatre experience unlike any other.

Learn more about Williamstown Theatre Festival at www.wtfestival.org.