Christine Toy Johnson to Star in World Premiere of REDEMPTION STORY at A.R.T./New York Theatres

Tony and Obie Award honoree Christine Toy Johnson (Come From Away National Tour; The Music Man on Broadway) will lead the cast for the World Premiere of Peregrine Teng Heard’s Redemption Story with The Associates Theater Ensemble. The production will be directed by Sarah Blush (Events with The Hearth; I thought I would die but I didn’t at The Tank) at the Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre at the A.R.T./New York Theatres May 4-19. The cast will also feature José Espinosa (Our Class at BAM; Los Complicados with EST), Dee Beasnael (Ulysses with Elevator Repair Service), Emily Stout (Pick Me Last at La Jolla Playhouse), Gregory Saint Georges (Cake Walk: A Digital Play with Garage Magazine/Jeremy O. Harris), and Mitchell Winter (Lortel Award-winner for Wolf Play with MCC/Soho Rep).

INT. DINER - LOS ANGELES, 1971. Connie Lee (50s, hardened glamor) drinks coffee, fingers her cigarettes. Her eyes glint with magnetism, even after years of playing clichés instead of characters. A MAN (20s, blond and eager) pushes through the door, and Connie does a double-take, then turns away. She's already made the worst mistake of her life, and a fresh face can't fix it. A new play about alienation, conditional love, and our distorted senses of self.

The creative team includes Set Design by Emmie Finckel (In the Southern Breeze with Rattlestick), Costume Design by Dan Wang (Events with The Hearth), Lighting Design by Jiahao (Neil) Qiu (Connecticut Critics Circle Award for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with Yale Rep), Sound Design by John Gasper (Obie Award for Wet Brain with Playwrights Horizons), Props Design by Rhys Roffey (Partnership at Mint Theatre/Theatre Row), and Technical Direction by Jack Daniel Woods (Sydney Symphony Orchestra). 

Performances are scheduled on Saturday, May 4 at 7:30pm, Sunday, May 5 at 7:30pm, Monday, May 6 at 7:30pm, Wednesday, May 8 at 7:30pm, Thursday, May 9 at 7:30pm, Friday, May 10 at 7:30pm, Saturday, May 11 at 7:30pm, Sunday, May 12 at 7:30pm, Monday, May 13 at 7:30pm, Wednesday, May 15 at 7:30pm, Thursday, May 16 at 7:30pm, Friday, May 17 at 7:30pm, Saturday, May 18 at 7:30pm, and Sunday, May 19 at 2pm. Tickets ($15-$45) are available for advance purchase at www.universe.com/events/redemption-story-tickets-SDVTKH. The performance will run approximately 100 minutes, with no intermission.

The Associates create, develop, and produce new plays that expose and examine the paradox at the heart of American modes of identity. With a fierce appetite for contradiction and complexity, we give audiences the experience of sinking into another person’s existence: a deep, unnerving experience, and one that can enrich our perception of difference and of commonality. We make our theater through a process of long-term collaboration with generative artists—whether playwrights, devisers, or performers—by nurturing their curiosity and daring in a radically experimental environment.

Previous productions include Grownup at MITU580, Sheila at A.R.T./New York Theatres, The Cousinhood (workshop) at The Center at West Park’s Furnace Festival, Freesome in The Brick’s F*ckfest, and Black Protagonist at 124 Bank Street Theatre (NYIT nomination for Best Original Script).  www.theassociatestheater.com

Photo credit: Bruce Johnson

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