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OHIO STATE
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Audra McDonald |
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Ohio State Murders is an unusual look at the destructiveness of racism in the U.S. When Suzanne Alexander, a fictional African American writer, returns to Ohio State University to talk about the violence in her writing, a dark mystery unravels.
What's Next?
DEAR ELIZABETH- June 17, 2021
Based on the compiled letters between poets Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop, Dear Elizabeth maps the relationship of the two poets from first meeting to an abbreviated affair-- and the turmoil of their lives in between.
*Dates subject to change
The Spring Series of “Spotlight” on Plays is produced by an award-winning team of producers including Good Productions/Patty Baker, Rebecca Gold, Jayne Baron Sherman, Iris Smith, Louise Gund, Willette Klausner, Myla Lerner, Judith Manocherian, Alix Ritchie, Jenna Segal, and The Shubert Organization with support from The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation. Associate Producers for the Spring Season include Rose Caiola, Barbara Freitag, Barbara Manocherian and Gabrielle Palitz.
“Spotlight on Plays” is created by Jeffrey Richards with Jacob Soroken Porter and Jim Glaub.
Meet the Company
Adrienne Kennedy
Award-winning playwright, lecturer, and author Adrienne Kennedy was born in Pittsburgh in 1931 and attended Ohio State University. Her plays include Funnyhouse of a Negro (Obie Award), June and Jean in Concert (Obie Award), A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White, A Rat's Mass, The Owl Answers, Motherhood 2000, Electra and Orestes (adaptation), She Talks to Beethoven, An Evening with Dead Essex, A Lesson in a Dead Language, and The Lennon Play. She is the recipient of an Obie Award for Sleep Deprivation Chamber, which she co-authored with her son Adam. It premiered at the Public Theater and was produced by Signature Theatre Company, which devoted an entire season to Ms. Kennedy's work. Other awards include a Guggenheim award, the Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature, and the American Book Award for 1990. Her published works include In One Act, Alexander Plays, and Deadly Triplets, all published by University of Minnesota Press, and People Who Led to My Plays (a memoir), originally published by Knopf and now in paperback by Theatre Communications Group, which also published Sleep Deprivation Chamber.
Kenny Leon
Leon is a Tony Award-winning Broadway and television director. Recently he directed the Tony-nominated revival of A Soldier’s Play (Tony nom, Best Director) and the acclaimed production of Much Ado About Nothing at the Delacorte/Shakespeare in the Park. Broadway: American Son, Children of a Lesser God; Holler If Ya Hear Me; two productions of A Raisin in the Sun (Tony Award, 2014); The Mountaintop; Stick Fly; August Wilson’s Fences, Gem of the Ocean and Radio Golf. Television: “American Son” (adapted for Netflix), “Hairspray Live!,” “The Wiz Live!,” “Steel Magnolias,” “Dynasty,” “In My Dreams.” Author, Take You Wherever You Go. Board Member, Public Theater.
Audra McDonald
Audra McDonald, recently starred on-Broadway with Michael Shannon in the revival of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, holds the record for more Tony Best Performance wins than any other actor in history, and is the only person to win all four acting categories. She became a three-time Tony Award winner by the age of 28 for her performances in Carousel, Master Class, and Ragtime, placing her alongside Shirley Booth, Gwen Verdon and Zero Mostel by accomplishing this feat within five years. She won her fourth in 2004 for her role in A Raisin in the Sun, a role she reprised for a 2008 television adaptation, earning her a second Emmy Award nomination. Her fifth Tony Award came for the 2012 revival of Porgy and Bess.
Warner Miller
Miller made his Broadway debut last season in Roundabout Theatre Company's A Soldier's Play. Off-Broadway: By the Way, Meet Vera Stark. Regional: The Old Settler (AUDELCO Award winner), SOUL: The Stax Musical, The Convert, Antony and Cleopatra, The Piano Lesson, A Raisin in the Sun, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Fences. Other theatres: Kirk Douglas Theatre, Goodman Theatre, McCarter Theatre Center, Alliance Theatre, Arena Stage. Film/ television: Marvel’s “Luke Cage,” “Boardwalk Empire,” American Gangster, “Law & Order,” “CSI: NY” and “Chicago PD.
Lizan Mitchell
Mitchell has appeared on Broadway in Electra, Having Our Say, and So Long on Lonely Street. Her Off-Broadway credits include Passages (SoHo Rep),The First Noel, Brownsville Song, Cell, Rosmersholm, For Colored Girls (25th Anniversary), Gum, and Ma Rose and Salt. She has been seen regionally in Richard III (The Shakespeare Theatre), My Lord What A Night (CATF), Pride and Prejudice (Rep. Theater of St. Louis), The Tempest (Old Globe), Skeleton Crew (Trinity Rep), A Raisin in the Sun (Arena Stage), The Good Peaches (Cleveland Play House), The House That Will Not Stand (Yale Repertory, Berkeley Repertory, Victory Gardens), Dead and Breathing (CATF, National Black Theater UK premiere), and A Trip to Bountiful (Cincinnati Playhouse, Roundhouse Theater). Film and TV credits include Detroit, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” “Deadbeat,” We’ll Never Have Paris, “Golden Boy,” “John Adams,” “The Good Wife,” The Human Stain, The Preacher’s Wife, “Sesame Street,” and “The Wire.”
Ben Rappaport
Ben was most recently seen on Broadway in the 2015 revival of Fiddler on the Roof. He also starred on Broadway in Picnic with Ellen Burstyn, directed by Sam Gold. His Off-Broadway credits include: Sex Lives Of Our Parents (Second Stage),The Gingerbread House(Rattlestick/stageFARM). Regional: Alex Timbers' original production of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Williamstown Theatre Festival). On TV, Ben is best known as the star of the NBC series "Outsourced". He currently appears as Carey Zepps on "The Good Wife"(CBS) and Ollie Parker on "Mr. Robot"(USA). He has also appeared on "Elementary"(CBS). Film credits include: Hope Springs opposite Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, and Steve Carell. The Brass Teapot, Stereotypically You (upcoming), and lead of the upcoming film Landing Up. Ben trained at Juilliard, where he received the Michel and Suria Saint-Denis Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Drama.
About Broadway's Best Shows:
Broadway’s Best Shows is a new home for entertaining, engaging content, long form features and exclusive access to Broadway's Best The play series launched in May 2020 with David Mamet’s November; Joshua Harmon’s Significant Other; and A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters. In Fall 2020, seven plays were presented including Gore Vidal’s The Best Man, Kenneth Lonergan’s This Is Our Youth, David Mamet’s RACE, David Mamet’s Boston Marriage, a new adaptation of Uncle Vanya, a reunion with the original Broadway cast of Donald Margulies’ Time Stands Still and Robert’s O’Hara’s Barbecue.
Proceeds:
Proceeds from the Spotlight on Plays series benefit The Actors Fund- a national human services organization that fosters stability and resiliency and provides a safety net for performing arts and entertainment professionals over their lifespan. Through offices in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, The Fund serves everyone in film, theater, television, music, opera, radio and dance with programs including social services and emergency financial assistance, health care and insurance counseling, housing, and secondary employment and training services. Visit www.actorsfund.org.
Coming This Summer...