Kia Corthron's FISH to Present Accessible Performances and Post-Show Conversations

Keen Company and Working Theater will present a series of accessible performances and post-show conversations taking place in conjunction with the world premiere of Kia Corthron’s Fish. 

Directed by Adrienne D. Williams, Fish is a frank, funny, and fearless new play about the everyday people who make up America’s education system. Fish is scheduled to run through April 20, 2024, with an opening set for Tuesday, April 2, at Theatre Row in Theatre Four, located at 410 W 42nd St in Manhattan. Tickets, which are priced at a $0–$130 sliding scale, are currently on sale at www.keencompany.org.

The performance on April 3 will be Audio Described. The April 10 performance will feature ASL Interpretation. Both services will be performed by Inclusive Communication Services.

Following the April 9 performance, two students and two educators will engage in a dialogue around the many issues of education explored in Fish. Participants include Mariana Hunter-Ellin, ELA Teacher at the High School for Public Service: Heroes of Tomorrow, and Daniel Rodriguez, Bronx High Schools District Representative at the UFT, with moderation by Janella Hinds, VP for Academic High Schools at the United Federation of Teachers (UFT).

After the April 16 performance, members of the Fish cast and creative team discuss their work on Kia Corthtron’s play and in the theater industry at large in a conversation celebrating Black artists and Black agency, moderated by Marcia Pendelton of Walk Tall Girl Productions. Walk Tall Girl Productions is a boutique marketing, audience development, and group sales agency for the performing arts with a special emphasis placed on the theater. In addition to bringing people into the performance space, Pendelton produces and hosts the popular radio show and podcast "Backstage Stories," heard weekly on WBAI New York 

In the play Fish, between acting as guardian to her little brother and losing her best friend to the charter school on the upper floor, Tree is just trying her best to get through senior year at her underfunded public school. Ms. Harris, the new English teacher, has grown embittered over budget cuts and standardized testing – keeping every student afloat is proving easier said than done. When questions arise that no textbook can answer, both student and teacher will face their most challenging assignment to date.

The cast for Fish includes Torée Alexandre (Fairview), Mikayla LaShae Bartholomew (King Richard w/ Will Smith), Josiah Gaffney (Tina: The Tina Turner Musical), Morgan Siobhan Green (Be More Chill, White Girl in Danger), Rachel Leslie (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child), Margaret Odette (Shakespeare in the Park’s Much Ado About Nothing, Rattlestick’s The Convent), and Christopher B. Portley (La Race).

Playwright Kia Corthron remarked, “I’d already been thinking about addressing public education when I was invited to become a member of the 2018 Keen Playwrights Lab. Digging into the issues, I was looking at budget cuts and school choice and standardized testing and poverty—a thousand directions I could go—but the one thing I knew for sure is that I was interested in the struggles of both students and teachers: parallel journeys. I wrote the play over the course of my lab year, had a public reading that December, the Working Theater eventually joined in and here we are. The Working Theater is committed to working people on its stages and in its seats, and Keen Company is a theater of humanity and heart—and I would like to think all that pretty much sums up my writing. So Fish couldn’t premiere at a more perfect place.”

Keen Company’s Artistic Director Jonathan Silverstein and Working Theater’s Artistic Director Colm Summers said, “Keen Company and Working Theater are thrilled to announce the cast and creative teams for Fish. We cannot wait to see the magic they will create with Adrienne Williams at the helm. Fish is a perfect play for our companies to collaborate on. Its timely focus on the challenges of the educational system, together with the moving tale of the human toll the system exerts, beautifully speaks to both of our companies’ missions. We look forward to sharing Kia’s powerful play with our communities in New York City.”

The creative team for Fish includes Jason Simms (scenic design), Mika Eubanks (costume design), Nic Vincent (lighting design), Michael Keck (sound design), Yudelka Heyer (prop design), Stephanie Yankwitt, tbd casting (casting), and Shane Schnetzler (production stage management). 

Performances of Fish continue through April 20, 2024, at Theatre Row in Theatre Four, located at 410 W 42nd St in Manhattan. The performance schedule is Tuesday–Saturday at 7pm and Saturday & Sunday at 2pm with an additional 2pm performance on Wednesday, April 17. The anticipated running time is 1 hour, 40 minutes, with no intermission. Tickets, which are priced at a $0–$130 sliding scale, are available at www.keencompany.org. Standard ticketing fees apply.

Please visit https://www.keencompany.org/fish for more information on the production.

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