Blackfriars Repertory Theatre and The Storm Theatre Company will present the world premiere of Death Comes for the War Poets, a dramatic verse tapestry by Joseph Pearce. The production, which will be performed June 9-24, 2017 at The Sheen Center for Thought and Culture's Black Box Theater, is directed by Peter Dobbins.
Berkeley Repertory Theatre today announced the West Coast premiere of An Octoroon written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and directed by Eric Ting will close out its season.
Definition Theatre Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tyrone Phillips and Managing Director Neel McNeill, announces the first play of its 2017-2018 season, the Chicago premiere of An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Gloria, Appropriate), produced in association with Goodman Theatre. An Octoroon is directed by Goodman Theatre Resident Director Chuck Smith and runs July 21 - August 20, 2017 in the Richard Christiansen Theater at Victory Gardens Theater as part of Definition's tenure in the Victory Gardens Resident Theater Program.
The Shaw Festival proudly announces casting for Artistic Director Tim Carroll's first season. The Shaw's 2017 ensemble is a mix of new faces and Festival favourites - each actor ready to entertain and excite audiences in this season's 11 productions.
Theater represents the era from which it comes! In 1859, when THE OCTOROON opened in New York, the United States was in racial chaos. The slaves of the South had been 'freed,' but, in reality, they weren't free from their years of enslavement. Yes, blacks, the only mass group of people who came to this country against their free will, were the center of much controversy.
City Lit Theater's 37th season will honor its traditions while bringing Chicago audiences four plays that will be new to nearly all audience members. The season lineup announced today by City Lit artistic director Terry McCabe includes a mix of three world premieres (two of them adaptations of novels and one original new comedy), plus a classic comedy of the 19th Century that has not been seen in Chicago in 120 years.
The Shaw Festival is pleased to announce the playbill and directors list for the 2017 season; the company's 56th and the first led by Artistic Director Designate Tim Carroll.
"Out of every eight drops of my blood, seven are red, but one is black." In those words, spoken with despairing apology in An Octoroon by Zoe, the titular octoroon, the illegitimate daughter of a plantation owner, are revealed the most profound and internalized depths of racism. Like a root vegetable, where the substance of the plant is buried under the ground, it truly visible only when you yank it out to examine what has grown underneath. In this case, what's above ground is a brilliant adaptation by playwright, 2016 Pulitzer finalist (for Gloria), and DC-native Branden Jacobs-Jenkins of an 1859 play by Anglo-Irish Dion Boucicault; a play that caused controversy and sold-out houses in somewhat equal measure when it played at the Winter Garden Theatre in the looming shadow of the Civil War.
Today, Berkeley Repertory Theatre revealed that Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Obie Award- winning play, An Octoroon, will be the seventh and final production in its upcoming 2016-17 subscription season. The West Coast premiere of the reworking of the mid-19th-century play will be performed in the Peet's Theatre in June 2017.
One of the most romantic stories ever written, THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY won the 2014 Tony Awards® for Best Original Score and Best Orchestrations. The musical adaptation of the best-selling novel and popular film will play at The Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts April 26 - May 1. Tickets are on sale now.
Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins has assaulted the fourth wall and countless racial stereotypes in his funny and audacious new play AN OCTOROON. Adapted from an 1859 melodrama titled "The Octoroon" by Irish playwright Dion Boucicault, Jenkins' piece weaves a biting contemporary narrative within Boucicault's stock storytelling to turn familiar antebellum tropes into jarring racial commentaries. Imagine "Gone with the Wind" down the rabbit hole and you get the idea.
The word octoroon is defined as 'a person of one-eight black ancestry.' THE OCTOROON is a 19th Century play by Irish playwright Dion Boucicault about which Wikipedia says, 'among antebellum melodramas, it was considered second only in popularity to Uncle Tom's Cabin.' AN OCTOROON is a new play by playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, who adapted the play and added himself as a character, writing the play and playing all the while male parts in white face, with the original playwright and his assistant playing roles in redface and blackface, while a rabbit seems to pull the strings behind the scenes. Got all that? Believe me, it's a lot to take in, and the play says some pretty profound things about race and racism in the past and present. But despite being a little perplexing and intentionally offensive (in a way that's not really offensive because it's satire), the whole thing is kinda brilliant in a crazy sort of way.
Mixed Blood Theatre has inhabited the historic firehouse on the West Bank for 40 years and is celebrating its anniversary with the first phase of a major venue renovation, a revitalized commitment to its West Bank community, and an ambitious season of new work!
The Wilma Theater has announced the four plays that will make up its upcoming 2015/16 Season. The Wilma will open the season with Sophocles' Antigone translated by Marinanne McDonald and directed by Theodorus Terzopoulos, the renowned founder of Attis Theatre in Athens, Greece.
Due to popular demand, Theatre for A New Audience's production of Soho Rep.'s An Octoroon has been extended again and will play through March 29, Theatre for a New Audience Founding Artistic Director Jeffrey Horowitz announced.
Theatre for A New Audience presents Soho Rep.'s An Octoroon. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's widely acclaimed play, directed by Sarah Benson, Artistic Director, Soho Rep, opens tonight, February 26, and plays through March 15, 2015. Let's see what the critics had to say...
Theatre for A New Audience presents Soho Rep.'s An Octoroon. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's widely acclaimed play, directed by Sarah Benson, Artistic Director, Soho Rep, has played to sold out houses since previews began on February 14 and as a result of strong ticket sales, has added eight additional performances. Originally scheduled to end its run on March 8, An Octoroon will now play through March 15 at Theatre for a New Audience, Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Place, Brooklyn. Opening night is tonight, February 26. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!