Spiked with music by Daniel Bernard Roumain and directed by Oz Scott, the co-production with Hartford Stage will play Aug. 29–Oct. 5 in Arena Stage's 2008-09 home in Crystal City, VA, where the DC company is making a home while its main stage is undergoing a massive renovation. A run in Connecticut follows, Oct. 16-Nov. 16.
The cast includes Thuliso Dingwall, Turron Kofi Alleyne, Che Ayende, Alvin Keith, Michael Genet and Jeffery V. Thompson.
"In a unique blend of music, poetry and dance, Daniel Beaty brings us six show-stopping characters — from Eric, a budding child scientist, to The Bishop, the leader of a mega church, to his son Isaac, a corporate executive," according to Arena Stage notes. "The stories of these African-American men collide one evening in an unforgettable look at identity, relationships and, above all, our human connections."
In Resurrection, Roumain, a Haitian-American composer, fuses classical violin with a variety of unlikely soundscapes.
Beaty's Emergence-SEE!, which played a popular run at Arena in summer 2007, won the 2007 Obie Award for Outstanding Writing and Performance. Director Scott originally directed For Colored Girls... on Broadway.
The creative team also includes set designer Skip Mercier, costume designer Karen Perry, lighting designer Victor En Yu Tan, assistant lighting designer Jason Arnold and sound designer Tim Thompson. The Arena stage manager is Kurt Hall, the Arena assistant stage manager is Angelita Thomas.
Tickets are available for purchase online at www.arenastage.org or by phone at (202) 488-3300. *
Resurrection is a recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New American Plays Award and is sponsored by Susan and Steven Bralove, Linda and John M. Derrick, Jr., Wendy Farrow Raines, Mark and Merrill Shugoll, and Dick and Katie Snowdon.
Philadelphia Theatre Company will produce Resurrection starting in January 2009. Here's how PTC bills the play: "Five African-American men aged 20-60, each striving to fulfill his hopes and dreams, have their lives transformed by the extraordinary mind and spirit of a ten-year-old boy in this joyous new play that examines what it means to be a black man in America."
