The production follows two extensions and a sold-out engagement at Soho Rep. Sarah Benson, artistic director of Soho Rep, will direct.
Performances of the adaptation of Dion Boucicault's 1859 melodrama about a love affair between the white heir to a Louisiana plantation and a woman who is one-eighth black (an octoroon), will begin Feb. 14 prior to an official opening March 1. The production will continue through March 8.
Amber Gray is returning as Zoe. The remainder of the cast will be announced at a later date.
"Theatre for a New Audience presents Shakespeare alongside other major authors in a dialogue over centuries between past and present, classic and contemporary," founding artistic director Jeffrey Horowitz said in a statement. "Soho Rep. is a great theatre which also has a vital dialogue with tradition. It's exciting that Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins's An Octoroon now joins Theatre for a New Audience's season of plays by Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare and Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne."
"Directing An Octoroon has been one of the most fulfilling experiences I've had working in the theater," Benson added. "Branden's play asks us to question our own assumptions about everything we think we know and trust. I'm now delighted to get to reimagine our Soho Rep. production. For years, Jeffrey and I have talked about collaborating on projects, so I couldn't be happier that we're working together and able to share An Octoroon with thousands of new people in Theatre for a New Audience's stunning Brooklyn home." Dion Boucicault's The Octoroon, based on the novel "The Quadroon" by Thomas Mayne Reid, opened at The Winter Garden Theatre in New York City Dec. 5, 1859. One of the few contemporary plays about slavery, it was revived in 1929.
"In An Octoroon, Judge Peyton is dead, and his plantation Terrebonne is in financial ruins," press notes state. "Peyton's handsome nephew George arrives as heir apparent, and quickly falls in love with Zoe, a beautiful 'octoroon.' But, the evil overseer M'Closky has other plansfor both Terrebonne and Zoe."
The original Soho Rep design team will return, including César Alvarez (songs, music and music director), Mimi Lien (sets), Wade Laboissonniere (costumes), Matt Frey (lights), Matt Tierney (sound), Jeff Sugg (projections), Cookie Jordan (wigs and makeup), David Brimmer (fight director), David Neumann (choreography), J. Noah Mease (props) and Amanda Spooner (stage management).
Polonsky Shakespeare Center is located at 262 Ashland Place, Brooklyn. Tickets go on sale in January 2015. Visit tfana.org for more information.
