{"id":31714,"date":"2019-09-05T09:36:25","date_gmt":"2019-09-05T13:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=31714"},"modified":"2024-07-02T17:12:18","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T17:12:18","slug":"native-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=31714","title":{"rendered":"PlayMakers Repertory Company presents Nambi E. Kelley\u2019s \u201cNative Son\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"PlayMakers Repertory Company<\/a> proudly opens its 2019\/20 Mainstage season with Nambi E. Kelley\u2019s powerful and heart-stopping adaptation of Richard Wright\u2019s \u201cNative Son\u201d. Directed by Colette Robert, and featuring original music by G. Clausen, the production runs from September 11 to 29, 2019.<\/p>\n

1930s Chicago. Jazz, speakeasies, and gangsters come to mind. The Southside of Chicago where Bigger Thomas lives is an entirely different world. Bigger struggles to find his place, as a Black man, in a world where systemic oppression, racism, and poverty make fear and violence the everyday currency of life. When he takes a job in a wealthy white household, one fateful decision sends him down a seemingly inescapable path. \u201cNative Son\u201d is an unforgettable theatrical experience that captures the power of Richard Wright’s iconic novel about oppression, freedom, and justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was selecting plays for our Legacy| NOW \u201819\u2013\u201920 season, I found myself drawn to works that provide insight into our present moment through the visceral and intellectual investigation of the stories of our past,\u201d said PlayMakers\u2019 Producing Artistic Director Vivienne Benesch. \u201cNambi E. Kelley\u2019s adaptation of \u2018Native Son\u201d was the perfect, gutsy, all-too-timely choice to open our Mainstage season. In the hands of the magnificent Colette Robert and our amazing company \u2014 led by Brandon Haynes as Bigger Thomas \u2014 this production has a fast-paced, cinematic quality to it that leaves you on edge the whole 90 minutes, with all your senses engaged and your perceptions challenged.\u201d<\/p>\n

“As a director, I just want to tell a good story,” said Colette Robert. “I want to reflect the world back at itself, and explore the most ugly, beautiful, complicated and exceptional parts of being human. What drew me to ‘Native Son’ was the play’s fragmented, dream-like structure, and how, to me, it mirrors where we are as a nation, right now, in this moment. I hope this production makes audiences really lean in and look. Look at where we were, look at where we are and imagine where we could be. It is the looking that inspires empathy, action and change.”<\/p>\n

The first stage adaptation of Richard Wright\u2019s \u201cNative Son\u201d was written in Chapel Hill, by Wright and North Carolina playwright and humanitarian Paul Green, in 1941.<\/p>\n

\u201cNative Son\u201d features April Mae Davis as Bessie (\u201cJump,\u201d \u201cSherwood: The Adventures of Robin Hood\u201d), Julia Gibson as Mrs. Dalton (\u201cThe Cake,\u201d \u201cAn Enemy of the People\u201d), Brandon Herman St. Clair Haynes as Bigger Thomas (\u201cLife of Galileo,\u201d \u201cTartuffe\u201d), Tia James as Hannah (PlayMakers debut; Broadway\u2019s \u201cThe Merchant of Venice\u201d), Sarah Elizabeth Keyes as Mary (\u201cLeaving Eden,\u201d \u201cShe Loves Me\u201d), Amadio as Buddy (PlayMakers debut; Manbites Dog Theatre\u2019s \u201cThe Miraculous and The Mundane\u201d), Brandon J. Pierce as The Black Rat (PlayMakers debut; Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival\u2019s \u201cRichard II\u201d), Adam Poole as Jan (\u201cJump,\u201d \u201cSweeney Todd\u201d), and Daniel P. Wilson as Britten (\u201cLife of Galileo,\u201d and Raleigh Little Theatre\u2019s \u201cBlood Done Sign My Name\u201d).<\/p>\n

The Creative Team of \u201cNative Son\u201d includes: Colette Robert (Director; Ensemble Studio Theatre\u2019s \u201cBehind the Sheet\u201d and \u201cTempo\u201d), Lawrence E. Moten III (Scenic Designer; Associate Design, Broadway\u2019s \u201cWhat the Constitution Means to Me\u201d), Bobbi Owen (Costume Designer; \u201cIntimate Apparel,\u201d \u201cLife on the Mississippi\u201d), Reza Behjat (Lighting Designer; Waterwell\u2019s \u201cHamlet\u201d), G. Clausen (Sound Design; Studio Theatre\u2019s \u201cPYG or The Misedumacation of Dorian Belle\u201d), Chika Ike (Assistant Director; American Repertory Theatre\u2019s \u201cMoby Dick\u201d), Gwendolyn Schwinke (Vocal Coach; Shakespeare and Company\u2019s \u201cTaming of the Shrew\u201d), Tracy Bersley (Movement Coach & Intimacy Director; \u201cMy Fair Lady\u201d), Adam Vers\u00e9nyi (Dramaturg; \u201cThe Nutcracker\u201d), and Charles K. Bayang (Stage Manager; \u201cBewilderness\u201d).<\/p>\n

Due to rough language, adult situations, and racially-charged scenarios, we encourage patrons to use their own discretion in determining the age appropriateness of the material.<\/em><\/p>\n

For information and to purchase tickets, call 919.962.7529 or visit www.playmakersrep.org. Individual ticket prices start at $15.<\/p>\n

Performance and Special Event Schedule:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n