Michael R. Jackson's WHITE GIRL IN DANGER to Premiere Off-Broadway in Spring 2023

Vineyard Theatre and Second Stage Theater have announced that Michael R. Jackson's new musical, WHITE GIRL IN DANGER, will have its World Premiere in March 2023 in a co-production between the two theater companies. WHITE GIRL IN DANGER will begin previews on March 15, 2023 and will officially open on April 10, 2023 at Second Stage's Off-Broadway home, the Tony Kiser Theater (305 West 43rd Street). The limited 8-week run will play through Sunday, May 21, 2023.

WHITE GIRL IN DANGER will be directed by Tony Award nominee Lileana Blain-Cruz (The Skin of Our Teeth) and choreographed by Raja Feather Kelly (A Strange Loop, 2ST's We're Gonna Die).

Tune in to the epic and viciously funny new musical WHITE GIRL IN DANGER from Michael R. Jackson, the Tony® Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of A Strange Loop (2022 Tony Award Winner for Best Musical). It's a fever dream mashup of classic daytime and primetime soap operas, Lifetime movies, and red-hot melodrama.

The citizens of the soap opera town Allwhite face high-stakes drama and intrigue all the days of their lives. But Keesha Gibbs and the other Blackgrounds have been relegated to backburner stories of slavery and police violence for all of theirs. Keesha is determined to step out of the Blackground and into the center of Allwhite's juiciest stories. Can Keesha handle the Allwhite attention-especially from the Allwhite Killer on the loose? What role do the other Blackgrounds play in Keesha's Allwhite schemes? And just whose story is this anyway? Find out at WHITE GIRL IN DANGER.

WHITE GIRL IN DANGER was originally developed by Vineyard Theatre as part of a multi-year residency for Michael R. Jackson.

Casting and complete creative team will be announced at a later date.

Season subscriptions are currently available for both theatre companies at VineyardTheatre.org and 2ST.com.

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM

Michael R. Jackson

(Playwright, Composer, Lyricist) is one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people of 2022. His Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics Circle winning A Strange Loop (which had its 2019 world premiere at Playwrights Horizons in association with Page 73 Productions) received 11 Tony nominations in 2022, winning Best Musical, and was called "a full-on laparoscopy of the heart, soul, and loins" as well as a "gutsy, jubilantly anguished musical with infectious melodies" by Ben Brantley for The New York Times. In The New Yorker, Vinson Cunningham wrote, "To watch this show is to enter, by some urgent, bawdy magic, an ecstatic and infinitely more colorful version of the famous surreal lithograph by M. C. Escher: the hand that lifts from the page, becoming almost real, then draws another hand, which returns the favor." Awards and associations include: a New Professional Theatre Festival Award, a Jonathan Larson Grant, a Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, an ASCAP Foundation Harold Adamson Award, a Whiting Award, the Helen Merrill Award for Playwriting, an Outer Critics Circle Award, a Drama Desk Award, an Obie Award, an Antonyo Award, a Fred Ebb Award, a Windham-Campbell Prize, a Dramatist Guild Fellowship and he is an alum of Page 73's Interstate 73 Writers Group.

Lileana Blain-Cruz

(Director) is a director from New York City and Miami. Recent projects include: The Skin of Our Teeth (Lincoln Center, Tony nomination); The Listeners (Opera Norway); Dreaming Zenzile (St. Louis Rep, McCarter Theatre, upcoming: NYTW / National Black Theatre); Marys Seacole (LCT3, Obie Award); Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding's ...(Iphigenia) (MASS MoCA, Arts Emerson, The Kennedy Center); Hansel and Gretel (a film for Houston Grand Opera); Afrofemononomy (PSNY); Anatomy of a Suicide (Atlantic Theater Company); Fefu and Her Friends(TFANA); Girls(Yale Rep.); Faust (Opera Omaha); Fabulation, Or the Reeducation of Undine (Signature Theatre); Thunderbodies and Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. (Soho Rep.); The House That Will Not Stand and Red Speedo (New York Theatre Workshop); Water by the Spoonful (Mark Taper Forum/CTG); Pipeline (Lincoln Center); The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World (Signature Theatre, Obie Award); Henry IV, Part One and Much Ado About Nothing (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); The Bluest Eye (The Guthrie); War (LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater and Yale Rep.); Salome (JACK); Hollow Roots (the Under the Radar Festival at The Public Theater). She is the recipient of the Drama League's 2022 Founders Award for Excellence in Directing and is currently the resident director of Lincoln Center Theater. Lileana was named a 2021 Doris Duke Artist, a 2020 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist, and a 2018 United States Artists Fellow. She is a graduate of Princeton and received her MFA in directing from the Yale School of Drama.

Raja Feather Kelly

(Choreographer) is a choreographer and director, and the Artistic Director of the feath3r theory-a dance-theatre-media company. Kelly has created 16 evening-length premieres with the feath3r theory, most recently WEDNESDAY at New York Live Arts. He choreographed the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical A Strange Loop (Lyceum Theatre, premiered off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizon), and is also a choreographer for Off-Broadway theatre with frequent collaborators like Lileana Blain-Cruz, Branden JacobsJenkins, Sarah Benson, and Michael R. Jackson. Recent works include We're Gonna Die (Second Stage Theater), Macbeth In Stride (A.R.T.), On Sugarland (New York Theater Workshop), SUFFS (The Public Theater), and Lempicka (La Jolla Playhouse). He has received numerous accolades, including three Princess Grace Awards, an Obie Award, an Outer Critics Circle honor for choreography for the Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony Awardwinning musical A Strange Loop, a Randjelović/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist at New York Live Arts, a Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, a Creative Capital award, a Breakout Award for choreography from the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SCDF), the Solange MacArthur Award for New Choreography, Dance Magazine's Harkness Promise Award, and the SDCF Joe A. Callaway Award finalist for outstanding choreography of Fairview (Soho Rep, Berkeley Rep, TFANA, and winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama).

Vineyard Theatre 40th ANNIVERSARY SEASON

WHITE GIRL IN DANGER is part of the Vineyard Theatre's upcoming 40th Anniversary Season which will include two other world-premiere productions. Kicking off the season will be David Cale's Sandra, which reunites Cale and director Leigh Silverman following the acclaimed Harry Clarke, which premiered at the Vineyard in 2017. This thriller will star Marjan Neshat (Selling Kabul and English) and features original music by Matthew Dean Marsh. Tori Sampson (If Pretty Hurts, Ugly Must Be A Muhfucka), will debut her latest work, This Land Was Made, which will close the season and be directed by Taylor Reynolds (Man Cave).

ABOUT Vineyard Theatre

Under the artistic leadership of Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern, Vineyard Theatre develops and produces new plays and musicals that push the boundaries of what theatre can be and do. For nearly 40 years, The Vineyard has nurtured a community of fearless theatre makers whose work has expanded the form, the field, and the larger culture. Vineyard Theatre has transferred 11 shows to Broadway, seven directly after their acclaimed Vineyard premieres: Lucas Hnath's Dana H and Tina Satter's Is This A Room (both NYT Best Theatre of 2021); Paula Vogel's Indecent; Nicky Silver's The Lyons; Kander, Ebb and Thompson's The Scottsboro Boys; Bell and Bowen's [title of show]; and Avenue Q by Marx, Lopez and Whitty (Tony Award, Best Musical). In recent years, four additional shows launched at The Vineyard have been revived in their first Broadway productions: Paula Vogel's Pulitzer Prize-winning How I Learned to Drive; Lanie Robertson's Lady Day At Emerson's Bar And Grill; Becky Mode's Fully Committed; and Edward Albee's Pulitzer Prize-winning Three Tall Women.

From their home in NYC's Union Square, The Vineyard develops and premieres new plays and musicals which go on to be seen around the country and the world. Recently, Jeremy O. Harris' play "Daddy" (2019) received its London premiere at the Almeida; Ngozi Anyanwu's Good Grief (2018) and David Cale's Harry Clarke (2017) were recorded by Audible; Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Gloria (2014), a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, transferred to Chicago's Goodman Theatre; Paula Vogel's Tony Award-winning Indecent (2016) aired on PBS's "Great Performances" and was one of the most-produced plays nationwide in 2019; and Emmy winner Colman Domingo's Dot (2016) is being adapted into an AMC series. The Vineyard's first major digital work, Lessons in Survival, was named one of the top theatrical experiences of 2020 by the New York Times and has been viewed by audiences in more than 40 countries.

Their work and artists have been honored with numerous awards including Pulitzer Prizes and Tony Awards, and the company is proud to be the recipient of special Drama Desk, Obie, and Lucille Lortel Awards for artistic excellence and support of artists.

For more information please visit: www.vineyardtheatre.org

Second Stage Theater 44th SEASON

WHITE GIRL IN DANGER joins Second Stage Theater's 44 th Season, which will kick off this fall with Bess Wohl's new play, Camp Siegfried, directed by David Cromer. The New York premiere production will begin previews October 25th and officially open November 15 th at the Tony Kiser Theater. On November 30th , Stephen Adly Guirgis' Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Between Riverside and Crazy, directed by Austin Pendleton, will begin previews for its Broadway premiere at Second Stage's Broadway home, the Hayes Theater, officially opening on December 19th . The season will also include the Broadway premiere of Larissa Fasthorse's The Thanksgiving Play, directed by Rachel Chavkin, beginning previews in April 2023 at the Hayes Theater.

ABOUT Second Stage Theater

Under the artistic direction of Carole Rothman, Second Stage Theater operates three New York City venues, exclusively dedicated to producing living American Playwrights.

Second Stage recently completed its 43 rd season, which included the Tony Award-winning revival of Richard Greenberg's Take Me Out and the New York premiere production of Lynn Nottage's Tony-nominated play Clyde's, as well as the world premieres of Rajiv Joseph's Letters of Suresh and JC Lee's To My Girls. The company's 2021-22 productions received several nominations and awards, including Tony Awards for Best Revival of a Play (Take Me Out) and Best Featured Actor in a Play (Jesse Tyler Ferguson - Take Me Out); the Outer Critics Circle Awards for Outstanding Revival of a Play (Take Me Out), Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play (Jesse Tyler Ferguson - Take Me Out) and Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play (Uzo Aduba - Clyde's); the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Projection Design (Shawn Duan - Letters of Suresh); and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design for a Play (Jennifer Moeller - Clyde's).

Second Stage's first season on Broadway at The Hayes Theater included Lobby Hero by Kenneth Lonergan, directed by Trip Cullman (Tony nominee for Best Revival of Play, Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role, Michael Cera and Brian Tyree Henry) and Straight White Men by Young Jean Lee, directed by Anna D. Shapiro.

Among Second Stage's 180 productions are the 2015 Pulitzer Prize winner Between Riverside and Crazy by Stephen Adly Guirgis; the 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner Next to Normal by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey; the 2012 Pulitzer Prize winner Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegria Hudes; Mary Page Marlowe by Tracy Letts; The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown; Dogfight by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul and Peter Duchan; Dear Evan Hansen by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, and Steven Levenson; By the Way, Meet Vera Stark by Lynn Nottage; Trust and Lonely, I'm Not by Paul Weitz; Grand Horizons by Bess Wohl; The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity by Kristoffer Diaz; Everyday Rapture and Whorl Inside a Loop by Dick Scanlan and Sherie Rene Scott; Let Me Down Easy and Notes From the Field by Anna Deavere Smith; Becky Shaw by Gina Gionfriddo; Torch Song by Harvey Fierstein; Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl; The Little Dog Laughed by Douglas Carter Beane; Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman; The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee by William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin; Jitney by August Wilson; Crowns by Regina Taylor; Saturday Night by Stephen Sondheim; Afterbirth: Kathy & Mo's Greatest Hits by Mo Gaffney and Kathy Najimy; This Is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan; Coastal Disturbances by Tina Howe; A Soldier's Play by Charles Fuller; The Good Times Are Killing Me by Lynda Barry; and Tiny Alice and Peter and Jerry by Edward Albee.

The company's more than 170 citations include six 2017 Tony Awards for Dear Evan Hansen (Best Musical; Best Lead Actor in a Musical, Ben Platt; Best Featured Actress in a Musical, Rachel Bay Jones; Best Book of a Musical; Best Original Score; Best Orchestrations); the 2009 Tony Awards for Best Lead Actress in a Musical (Alice Ripley, Next to Normal), Best Score (Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, Next to Normal), and Best Orchestrations (Tom Kitt and Michael Starobin, Next to Normal); the 2007 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play (Julie White, The Little Dog Laughed); the 2005 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical (Rachel Sheinkin, ...Spelling Bee) and Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Dan Fogler, ...Spelling Bee); the 2002 Tony Award for Best Director of a Play (Mary Zimmerman for Metamorphoses); the 2002 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work, 29 Obie Awards, 11 Outer Critics Circle Awards, four Clarence Derwent Awards, 17 Drama Desk Awards, 11 Theatre World Awards, one Dorothy Louden Award, 20 Lucille Lortel Awards, the Drama Critics Circle Award and 23 AUDELCO Awards.

In 1999, Second Stage Theater opened The Tony Kiser Theater, its state-of-the-art, 296-seat theater, designed by renowned Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. In 2002, Second Stage launched "Second Stage Theater Uptown" to showcase the work of up-and-coming artists at the 99-seat McGinn/Cazale Theater. The Theater supports artists through several programs that include residencies, fellowships and commissions, and engages students and community members through education and outreach programs. In 2018, Second Stage began producing at its 581 seat Broadway home, The Hayes Theater. Originally named "The Little Theater" and built in 1912, the city landmark has been remodeled by David Rockwell of Rockwell Group.

For more information, please visit www.2ST.com.