LCT3 celebrates the opening of Antoinette Nwandu’s Pass Over, directed by Danya Taymor, at Lincoln Center Theater's Claire Tow Theater June 18. The new play is centered on two young black men who dream of a better existence beyond their street corner.

In Pass Over, a mashup of Waiting for Godot and the Exodus saga, Moses and Kitch pass the time by talking smack and hoping for a miracle. Watch the video above, in which Nwandu talks about the political and personal inspiration behind Pass Over.

Pass Over features a cast made up of Tony winner Gabriel Ebert (Matilda The Musical), Tony nominee Jon Michael Hill (Superior Donuts), and 2018 Lucille Lortel nominee Namir Smallwood (Pipeline). Performances began June 2.

Performances are scheduled to run Off-Broadway through July 15.

The show features sets by Wilson Chin, costumes by Sarafina Bush, lighting by Marcus Doshi, and sound by Justin Ellington.

Pass Over received its world premiere at Chicago’s Steppenwolf last summer, also directed by Taymor. A film version, directed by Oscar nominee Spike Lee, premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.

Nwandu’s play Breach: a manifesto on race in America through the eyes of a black girl recovering from self-hate received its world premiere at Chicago’s Victory Gardens in February. She has been commissioned by Los Angeles’ Echo Theater Company, and her work has been supported and developed at the MacDowell Colony, Sundance Theatre Lab, Ignition Fest, Cherry Lane Mentor Project (mentor: Katori Hall), John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Page73, PlayPenn, Space on Ryder Farm, Southern Rep, The Flea, Fire This Time, and The Movement Theatre Company.

Nwandu is the winner of the Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, the Negro Ensemble Company’s Douglas Turner Ward Prize, a Literary Fellowship at the Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference, and was featured on the 2017 Kilroys List.