The Huntington Announces World Premiere of OUR DAUGHTERS, LIKE PILLARS

The Huntington has announced the world premiere of Our Daughters, Like Pillars, written by Obie Award-winning playwright and Huntington Playwriting Fellow Kirsten Greenidge (Luck of the Irish, Milk Like Sugar at The Huntington). The production runs from April 8 to May 8, 2022 at The Huntington's Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, with digital access to the filmed performance available until May 22, 2022.

Greenidge joins forces with director Kimberly Senior (Sweat, The Niceties at The Huntington; Disgraced on Broadway) to tell the epic and funny saga of one whirlwind week in the life of a contemporary Black family from Boston.

The story begins when Lavinia brings her sisters and mother on a much-needed family vacation. She has planned the week to the smallest detail - antiquing in the afternoons, grilled steaks for dinner, absolutely no cellphones allowed - and if Lavinia gets her way, they will stay forever. What will her sisters have to say? Our Daughters, Like Pillars asks about the ties that bind us to our families. How do sisters hold each other up and hold each other back? Will togetherness split this family apart, or can it bring them together?

Greenidge, who grew up near Boston, drew inspiration from her family when writing the show, but allowed the characters to take on a life of their own. "I do have sisters, and we are very close. But I really have to push myself to make Our Daughters, Like Pillars not autobiographical and allow all of these characters to do things and say things that are much funnier and meaner and far more audacious than we would all behave towards each other in real life," she explained. "That is the delight of being an artist, a playwright."

Originally scheduled to begin performances in March 2020, the cast and crew of Our Daughters, Like Pillars was about to start technical rehearsals in the theatre when COVID-19 shut down performance venues and much of the city, and the set remained on stage for several months until Huntington staff could remove and store it in the summer of 2020.

"Given how difficult the last years have been for so many of us, I hope this play offers an invitation to get lost in another space for a short bit of time," Greenidge said, "I hope audiences enjoy the story of this particular family. I hope they laugh."

The cast of Our Daughters, Like Pillars features, in alphabetical order:

Lyndsay Allyn Cox (Zelda; she/her) as the free-spirited, youngest sibling of the Shaw family. Credits include Witch (The Huntington), Bright Half Life (Actors' Shakespeare Project), Three Musketeers (Greater Boston Stage Company).

Lizan Mitchell (Yvonne) as the matriarch of the Shaw family, who raised all three girls on her own after their father left. Credits include Electra, Having Our Say, So Long on Lonely Street (Broadway).

Julian Parker (Paul; he/him) as the romantic interest of Zelda, who he met two weeks before agreeing to accompany her on a family vacation. Credits include Pass Over, Gospel of Franklin and Blacktop (Steppenwolf Theatre Company), "The Chi" (Showtime), "Chicago PD" and "Chicago Fire" (NBC).

Postell Pringle (Morris) as Lavinia's husband, who regularly assists in her antics. Credits include A Free Man of Color (Lincoln Center Theater), Q Brother's Christmas Carol, Othello: The Remix and Funk It Up About Nothin' (Chicago Shakespeare Theater).

Nikkole Salter (Lavinia) as the eldest sister, who has rented out a vacation house in New Hampshire under the guise of a family reunion. Credits include Luck of the Irish, Stick Fly (The Huntington), The Great Society (Broadway).

Cheryl D. Singleton (Missy; she/her) as the stepmother of the Shaw Sisters, who arrives unexpectedly on their family trip. Credits include Sonia Flew (understudy) at The Huntington. The Boston Project: Project Resilience (SpeakEasy Stage Co.), The America Plays (Plays in Place), "Castle Rock" (Hulu).

Arie Thompson (Octavia; she/her) as the accomplished and intelligent middle sister, whose marriage is slowly falling apart. Credits include The Fifth Season (Institute for the Future of Storytelling, UCLA); Haymarket 8 (Steppenwolf Theatre); Twelve Volt Heart (Hartford Stage).

The creative team for Our Daughters, Like Pillars includes set design by Marion Williams (The Wanderers at The Old Globe; King Lear at the Guthrie Theater), costume design by Sarita Fellows (Original Sound at The Cherry Lane Theater; The Haunted Life Merrimack Repertory Theater), lighting design by Mary Louise Geiger (Witch, Top Girls, Venus in Fur, Invisible Man at The Huntington), hair, wig, and makeup design by Tommy Kurzman (In Transit, The King & I National Tour with LCT Production), and sound design by Jane Shaw (The Killer at Theater for a New Audience; Actually at Manhattan Theater Club/Williamstown Theatre Festival). The production stage manager is Kevin Schlagle and the stage manager is Ashley Pitchford.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Kirsten Greenidge (Playwright, she/her) is a Huntington Playwriting Fellow from 2007-2009 and the author of Milk Like Sugar and Luck of the Irish (premiered at The Huntington in 2016 and 2012 respectively), as well as The View from Here (commission from The Huntington's Education Department). A Village Voice/Obie Award winner and a PEN/America Laura Pels Award recipient, she is also the author of Greater Good, Splendor, Bossa Nova, Rust, Sans-Culottes in the Promised Land, 103 Within the Veil, and The Gibson Girl. She has developed her work at Sundance (Utah and Ucross), Magic Theatre, National New Play Network, Page 73 Productions, Bay Area Playwrights, Playwrights Horizons, New Dramatists, ASK, McCarter Theatre Center, and New Georges. She is a recipient of an NEA/TCG residency at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and was playwright-in-residence at Company One Theatre. She received Sundance's Time Warner Award for Bossa Nova. Ms. Greenidge attended Wesleyan University and the University of Iowa's Playwrights Workshop. A member of Rhombus and an alumna member of New Dramatists, she is currently working on commissions from The Goodman Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Big Ten, The Kennedy Center, and Playwrights Horizons.

Kimberly Senior (Director; she/her) is thrilled to return to The Huntington where she previously directed Lynn Nottage's Sweat and Eleanor Burgess' The Niceties. Broadway: Disgraced. Off-Broadway: Harvey Fierstein's Bella Bella (Manhattan Theatre Club); Aasif Mandvi's Sakina's Restaurant (Audible Theatre); Discord (Primary Stages); Engagements (Second Stage). Regional: Support Group for Men; Rapture, Blister, Burn (Goodman Theatre); Buried Child; Hedda Gabler; Marjorie Prime and others (Writers Theatre); Byhalia, MS (Kennedy Center); Sex with Strangers (Geffen Playhouse) and many more. TV: Chris Gethard's Career Suicide (HBO/Judd Apatow). Audio: The Wastelanders: Starlord (Marvel/Sirius XM); Ghostwriter (Cadence 13); Dan Rather's Stories of a Lifetime; Margaret Trudeau's Certain Woman of an Age (Audible) and many more. Kimberly is a member of Goodman Theatre's Artistic Collective and a proud member of SDC. kimberlysenior.net

For more information visit: huntingtontheatre.org

Photo credit: Nile Hawver