Providence Black Rep Presents Done

The final production of the Black Rep's 2006-2007 Tenth Anniversary Theater Season is Done, a new play based on interviews with over one hundred teenagers.  The show opened in previews April 12th and runs through May 20th at The Providence Black Repertory Company.

According to The Black Rep's press release, Done is a realistic depiction of a group of teens and their culture of vulnerability, social pressure, music, humor, sex, violence, and a genuine longing for human contact.  Chad and Rochelle rule the school, while everyone picks on the outcast.  When a new girl, Blue - smart, tough, sensitive and attractive, arrives, the social and sexual dynamics shift in both tender and dangerous ways.

At a time when the 6 o'clock news alternates between news of a high-school stabbing, terrorist bombings in the Middle East, and fistfights between eighth grade girls, what could be more important than examining what really goes on between young people after school, in the hallway, and on-line?  This edgy and timely new play will appeal to youth and adult audiences alike, offering us a rare chance to begin a dialogue about the parts of the teenage social universe that adults glimpse all too rarely. 

Done began as a commission from George Street Playhouse [New Brunswick, NJ] for their school touring program, explains Sandberg. As I developed the play from my interviews with young people, teachers and administrators told me "Are you crazy?, we can't show that kind of stuff in schools"  So I wrote the school play,  but it became clear that there was a bigger, more dangerous play I wanted to write, that was really true to the kinds of things I heard and saw in the lives of the teenagers I was talking to. So the "school" play, In Between, has toured successfully with George Street, itís had professional productions in Seattle and Houston, and was published by Playscripts in 2006. Meanwhile, Done has had countless workshops and readings, but hasnít found a home until now.

R.N. Sandbergís plays have been produced throughout the U. S. as well as in Japan, South Korea, Panama, Canada and the UK. His Trials of the Massachusetts Servants won American Repertory Theatreís 2006 Discovering Justice Contest; Can't Believe It received a 2005 Bonderman National Playwriting award. Other plays include Anne of Green Gables, Convivencia, Frankenstein, In Between, The Moonstone and the mini-musical Goodbye Dolly seen at La Mama and the New York Musical Theatre Festival. He teaches at Princeton University.

Director Megan Sandberg-Zakian is Black Rep's Associate Director.  She is a recent transplant from New York City, where she was the Associate Artistic Director of The 52nd Street Project, a theater company dedicated to producing original plays created through collaborations between the youth of the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood and professional adult theater artists. She has written and directed plays performed in Providence, New York City, London, Southern France, and Santiago, Dominican Republic.  Megan is a graduate of Brown University.

Done is made possible in part through the generous support of Black Rep 06-07 season sponsors: The Biltmore Hotel, Motif, the Providence American, the Rhode Island Foundation, RIPTA, and RISCA.  Every Sunday a talkback will follow the show, supported by funds from the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities. 

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