Soho Rep has announced casting and a creative team for its upcoming U.S. premiere production of Nia Akilah Robinson’s The Great Privation (How to flip ten cents into a dollar), running February 26-March 23 at Playwrights Horizons' Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Evren Odcikin is set to direct.
The cast will include Tony nominee Crystal Lucas-Perry (1776, Ain't No Mo'), Clarissa Vickerie, Holiday, and Miles G. Jackson (A Different Man, Problemista). Casting is by Stephanie Yankwitt and Nia Smith of tbd casting co.
Timelines collide in The Great Privation as a mother and daughter stand vigil behind the African Baptist Church in Philadelphia at the grave of a recently deceased loved one. At present day on the same grounds, another strangely familiar mother and daughter work as counselors at what is now a sleepaway camp.
“I learned about grave robbing and organ trafficking from my parents, my first teachers," Robinson said in a statement. "I didn’t want to believe it, and I think I wrote this to help that horrified younger me. The second part of the title, how to flip ten cents into a dollar, is an expression first taught to me by them, which for me means, ‘How, when with little, can we make something great in life.’ In reference to this play, I hope to take us all on a journey about a history we cannot change, and its impact on the descendants of that history. Love is a powerful force, and I’d like to say that through the horror of the play that spills out almost uncontrollably, we remember that love never lacked, it never waned, we never questioned the familial love between the fathers, mothers, and daughters of this story.”
The creative team will include scenic designer Mariana Sanchez, costume designer Kara Harmon, lighting designer Marika Kent, sound designer Tosin Olufolabi, video designer and programmer Maxwell Bowman, wig and hair designer Cookie Jordan, props supervisor Jackson Berkley, dramaturgy consultant Arminda Thomas, sensitivity specialist Ann C. James, voice and dialect coach Xavier Clark, production stage manager Mars Wolfe, and production managers Lay Hoon Tan and Lauren Parrish.
The Great Privation made its world premiere at Theatre 503 in London. The work is the first production in Soho Rep's multi-year residency at Playwrights Horizons.
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