TELLING TALES OUT OF SCHOOL to Open at New Federal Theatre Next Week

New Federal Theatre will present "Telling Tales Out of School," a new play by Wesley Brown, from May 2 to 7 as a work in progress at Castillo Theatre/ASP, 543 West 42nd Street. The play offers a unique perspective on the Harlem Renaissance by providing a character study of four of its most-noted female prime movers--Zora Neale Hurston, Nella Larsen, Jessie Fauset and Nancy Cunard--revealing their ambitions, longings and resentments and illuminating the feminine energy they brought to the movement. Director is Woodie King, Jr., founder and Producing Director Emeritus of NFT and an iconic figure of Black Theater. King and NFT received a 2020 Tony Award for Excellence in the Theatre and the Off-Broadway Alliance named him a "Legend of Off Broadway."

In the play, it's June, 1954 and a memorial service for Alain Locke, architect of the Harlem Renaissance, is being held at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. Among the attendees are Zora Neale Hurston, Nella Larsen, Jessie Fauset and Nancy Cunard. Not having seen one another in over twenty years, they gather at the Hotel Theresa after the funeral. Over tea, an afternoon of boundless praise of Locke unravels into disturbing revelations about the great man and the four women who have come to honor him.

These four leading women of the Harlem Renaissance will be played by four distinguished actresses of Off-Broadway. Richarda Abrams plays Jessie Fauset, June Ballinger plays Nancy Cunard, Petronia Paley plays Nella Larsen and Elizabeth Van Dyke plays Zora Neale Hurston.

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