Featuring music by Kim D. Sherman, Orphans will play the Spingold Theater Center Dec. 1-11. Dennis Garnhum directs. The Two Orphans is adapted from the nineteenth-century melodrama of the same name. The musical, according to the theatre company's brochure, "traces the story of two African-American sisters who struggle with survival in a hostile world in the aftermath of the Civil War and their recent liberation from slavery. The atmosphere of Reconstruction New Orleans is evoked by a rich variety of music drawn from the traditional songs as well as the original musical melodies and rhythms of the American South."

Theresa Rebeck’s plays include Omnium Gatherum, The Butterfly Collection, View of the Dome, The Family of Mann, Loose Knit, Spike Heels and Bad Dates. She was also a writer and producer of “NYPD Blues” and “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.” The Bells, Rebeck's new drama set in the waning years of the Alaskan Gold Rush, had its world premiere this past March at New Jersey’s McCarter Theatre Center.

The Spingold Theater Center is located at 415 South Street on the campus of Brandeis University in Waltham, MA. For tickets, call (781) 736-3400. Visit www.brandeis.edu/theater for more information.