The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre to Present AN OCTOROON

The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre will stage Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' An Octoroon, promising audiences an explosive theatrical experience to jump-start the new year. Both old and new, An Octoroon reinterprets a famous Victorian melodrama as an audaciously theatrical and sometimes shocking examination of race and representation in America. Longtime Trinity Repertory Company member Joe Wilson, Jr. makes his Gamm debut directing a cast of returning Gamm actors and newcomers in this daring, award-winning play.

A thrilling collision of the antebellum South and 21st century cultural politics, An Octoroon is a subversively humorous deconstruction of The Octoroon, Irish playwright Dion Boucicault's 1859 American stage sensation. The Gamm's production features Marc Pierre (Gloria 2018) as BJJ in a metatheatrical portrayal of Jacobs-Jenkins and Jeff Church (It's a Wonderful Life 2020/21, Gloria 2018) as Boucicault, among other roles.

Praised by The New York Times as "one of the country's most original and illuminating writers," American playwright Jacobs-Jenkins won the 2014 Obie Award for best new American play for both An Octoroon and Appropriate. His plays Gloria (Gamm 2018) and Everybody were finalists for the 2016 and 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama respectively. The Gamm also produced Jacobs-Jenkins' Admissions (2020) to critical acclaim.

Gamm Artistic Director Tony Estrella said he is greatly anticipating producing An Octoroon.

"We are thrilled to welcome Joe and an incredibly talented cast to bring Jacobs-Jenkins' extraordinary, unabashed and defiant dismantling of American history to life. He is a stridently original, singular voice in the American theater, and An Octoroon is already a 21st century classic," Estrella said.

An Octoroon runs from January 27-February 20 at The Gamm Theatre, 1245 Jefferson Blvd., Warwick, R.I. Tickets are $49-$69; preview performances (January 27-30) are $35. Tickets at 401-723-4266 or gammtheatre.org/octoroon. Information about discounts for seniors, students, groups and more at gammtheatre.org/discounts.

Please note: For the safety and comfort of Gamm audiences, patrons must present either proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test in order to enter the theater. All patrons, regardless of vaccination status, must wear a mask. Details at gammtheatre.org

ABOUT AN OCTOROON

Judge Peyton is dead and his plantation, Terrebonne, is in financial ruins. Peyton's handsome nephew George arrives as heir apparent and quickly falls in love with Zoe, a beautiful, one-eighth black "octoroon." But the evil overseer, M'Closky, has other plans for both Terrebonne and Zoe. This raucous, irreverent retelling of a hit 19th-century melodrama is from the author of Gloria (Gamm 2018) and Admissions (Gamm 2020).

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