Pulitzer Prize winner Paula Vogel's Bard at the Gate virtual play reading series returns June 3 with an encore stream of Eisa Davis' Bulrusher. André Holland (Moonlight, Broadway's Jitney) and Kara Young (Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven) star in the online event, presented as part of the recently announced 2021-2022 season with McCarter Theatre Center.
The stream begins at 8 PM ET and will remain on demand through through June 9. While free to enjoy, tickets must be reserved online. Click here for more information. A live stream talkback will take place June 3 at 10:30 PM with Davis, Vogel, and The Hansberry Project Artistic Director Valerie Curtis-Newton, moderated by McCarter Associate Artistic Director and Bard at the Gate co-curator Nicole A. Watson.
Set in 1950s San Francisco, Bulrusher follows a girl—multiracial, orphaned, and clairvoyant—in a predominantly white community who discovers a new sense of self when a Black girl from Alabama comes to her town. The play premiered at Urban Stages in 2006 and was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist the following year.
Joining Holland and Young on screen are Tanis Parenteau (Billions), Edmund Donovan (Lewiston/Clarkston), Corey Stoll (House of Cards), and newcomer Sydney Elisabeth. Davis directs the reading, with Jhanae Bonnick as stage manager and Sue Slagle as video artist.
Bard at the Gate directly responds to the lack of representation of diverse voices within the American theatrical canon. The virtual reading series is designed to spotlight plays by BIPOC, women, LGBTQIA+, and disabled artists. Zakiyyah Alexander (How to Raise a Freeman), Jose Rivera (Sonnets for an Old Century), and Christina Anderson (Good Goods) are among those set to be featured next.
