Rep-Commissioned Play ‘Until the Flood’ Receives Broadcast Premiere

Rep-Commissioned Play ‘Until the Flood’ Receives Broadcast Premiere

Dael Orlandersmith’s award-winning piece examining Ferguson, Missouri in the wake of Michael Brown’s death airs nationwide November 15

ST. LOUIS – After the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson in 2014, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis commissioned acclaimed writer and performance artist Dael Orlandersmith to create a piece focused on the aftermath and a nation’s struggle for justice and freedom. Until the Flood’s 2016 world premiere at The Rep received critical acclaim, was named Outstanding New Play by the St. Louis Theater Circle Awards and has been produced around the country and in Ireland, Scotland and England.

The Rep, in collaboration with ALL ARTS and other theatres across the nation, will premier Rattlestick Playwrights Theater’s 2018 production online on Sunday, November 15 at 7 p.m. CST on the free ALL ARTS app and allarts.org, a broadcast and digital platform dedicated to the arts. This production features the same playwright/actor, director and design team that originated the piece at The Rep in 2016.

“The Rep is proud to support artists who examine our past, point us towards our future and bring us to a new understanding through art,” said The Rep’s Augustin Family Artistic Director Hana S. Sharif. “Dael’s work helps us examine a moment that forever changed our region.” 

Based on extensive interviews following the August 2014 shooting of Black teen Michael Brown by white police officer Darren Wilson, this tour-de-force one-woman show, directed for the stage and television by Neel Keller, gives voice to a community haunted by injustice and a country yearning for change. Brown’s death ignited weeks of social unrest, propelled the activist movement known as Black Lives Matter and prompted an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Orlandersmith traveled to the St. Louis region a few months after the shooting to conduct interviews with dozens of people. From these intimate conversations, she created eight unforgettable characters who embody a community struggling to come to terms with the personal damage caused by these complex events. Experienced in performance, these voices offer haunting reminders of America’s continuing struggle with racism and justice. 

Awarded a “Critic’s Pick” by the New York Times and acclaimed by critics and audiences across the country, Until the Flood is an unmissable drama that the Chicago Tribune raved, “achieves a great beauty by bringing us together rather than driving us apart.”

Joining Rattlestick in sponsoring the broadcast premiere are The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, which originally commissioned the piece, A Contemporary Theatre in Seattle, Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Milwaukee Repertory Theater and Portland Center Stage.

Following the November 15, 2020, broadcast premiere, Until the Flood will be available for on-demand viewing on ALL ARTS until the Fall of 2023.

For more information, visit repstl.org or call The Rep Box Office at 314-968-4925. 

World Premiere ‘Canfield Drive’ Next at The Black Rep

World Premiere ‘Canfield Drive’ Next at The Black Rep

 
In this World Premiere production, two high-powered news reporters from across the aisle are thrown together during a ratings frenzy in Ferguson, Mo., following the shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown. As they untangle the real cause of Brown’s death, they struggle to keep their own secrets out of the spotlight. Created from diverse interviews of people from around the corner and around the world, “Canfield Drive” shines a light of hope as it wrestles with the greatest questions of our age.
“Canfield Drive,” written by Kristen Adele Calhoun and Michael Thomas Walker, is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by 651 Arts in partnership with The St. Louis Black Repertory Company, and NPN.  The Creation & Development Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information: www.npnweb.org.
Producing Director Ron Himes says “We have worked on this script with Michael Thomas Walker and Kristen Adele Calhoun for four years, with workshops at Brooklyn Academy of Music in Brooklyn, Denver, Hartford, and St. Louis.  We are so excited to premiere this work here in St Louis for our community.”
Playwright Michael Thomas Walker says “If ‘riot is the language of the unheard’, this play aims to understand the killing of Michael Brown, the Ferguson protests and the subsequent #BlackLivesMatter movement by hearing the unheard voices and amplifying those stories.  We hope this play will serve as a platform for the necessary conversations about race, culture, privilege, history, and healing.”
The cast of “Canfield Drive” includes Kristen Adele recent credits include Corduroy (Denver Center of Performing Arts), Bump (Ensemble Studio Theatre), and Skeleton Crew (Premiere Stages); Christopher Hickey, with The Black Rep credits include Oak & Ivy and Relativity; Amy Loui with The Black Rep credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Three Ways Home, and Eric Connors with The Black Rep credits include Ms Julie, Clarissa & John, Anne & Emmett, Oak & Ivy, and Jitney .
“Canfield Drive” is directed by Producing Director Ron Himes, with scenic design by Peter and Margery Spack, lighting design by Jim Burwinkel; costumes by Marissa Perry, and sound design by Kareem Deanes, and Tracy D. Holliway-Wiggins is the stage manager.
The production will run January 9-27 at the Edison Theatre at Washington University. Tickets are available at www.theblackrep.org, 314-534-3807, or pick them up at our box office located at 6662 Olive Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63130.