Performances begin September 26 for the world premiere of Donja R. Love's play Fireflies, directed by Saheem Ali, at Atlantic Theater Company Off-Broadway. Set in the Jim Crow South, the new play looks at the impact of a church bombing—which kills four little girls—on the marriage of a young couple.
Fireflies stars Khris Davis and DeWanda Wise as Charles and Olivia, respectively. She is a fierce speech writer and he, the leader of a movement to galvanize people to march towards freedom. The tragedy of the bombing, along with years of civil unrest, leaves Olivia believing that “this world ain't no place to raise a colored child.”
The new play is the second part of Love’s trilogy, which began with Sugar in Our Wounds, recently seen at Manhattan Theatre Club (also directed by Ali).
Fireflies is playing in Atlantic's Linda Gross Theater, where it will officially open October 15. The limited engagement is scheduled to run through November 11.
Obie Award winner Davis was recently seen on Broadway in Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Sweat, and Off-Broadway as Jack Jackson in Marco Ramirez's The Royale. He can currently be seen on FX’s Atlanta and recently wrapped filming Goldie for Vice Films.
Wise stars as Nola Darling in the hit Netflix series She's Gotta Have It from Spike Lee. She recently completed production on another Netflix original, titled Someone Great, and can be seen next in the film The Weekend. Other screen credits include Shots Fired, Underground, Boardwalk Empire, and The Good Wife. Wise is also a screenwriter and penned the short film Where You Go, which premiered at Cannes.
Fireflies features scenic design by Arnulfo Maldonado, costume design by Dede Ayite, lighting design by David Weiner, sound design by Justin Ellington, projection design by Alex Basco Koch, and casting by Telsey + Company: Adam Caldwell, CSA; Will Cantler, CSA; Karyn Casl, CSA.
Love is a poet, filmmaker, and playwright. He is The Lark's 2016 Van Lier New Voices Playwriting Fellow, The Playwrights Realm's 2016-2017 Writing Fellow, the 2016 Arch and Bruce Brown Playwriting Award recipient, a Eugene O'Neill 2017 National Playwrights Conference finalist, and the recipient of the Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award. His plays include The Love Plays (Sugar in Our Wounds, Fireflies, in the Middle) and Soft; Or the Dead N---- Poem.
