Archive: Arts & Entertainment

Coming up next on Kitchen Theatre Company's 24th Main Stage Season is Dominique Morisseau's explosive, uncensored Sunset Baby. A secret cache of letters brings together a 1960s revolutionary, his estranged daughter, and her drug-dealing boyfriend in this story of family and activism, revolution and estrangement. Sunset Baby begins previews on December 3rd, and opening night is December 6th. The play runs until December 21st.

Nina is a fiercely independent hustler and her boyfriend Damon is dealing drugs, but they both are dead set on breaking from this life and finding a way out. When Kenyatta, her estranged father and former Black Liberation leader, shows up on her doorstep, her life plan is thrown askew. Nina is in possession of a cache of love letters written by her father and her late mother, Ashanti X. Kenyatta is desperate to see them, but he is not the only one with eyes on the letters. Academics and historians around the world are itching for new insight into the relationship between Kenyatta Shakur and Ashanti X. Nina could sell the letters to the highest bidder--helping Damon and her to make their escape--or she can share them with her father. Or does she have another choice? Sunset Baby considers the personal cost of social progress and what it means to be a father, and it forces us to ask ourselves what we would be willing to give up in order to have the life we know we deserve.

Sunset Baby playwright Dominique Morisseau is an award winning writer and actress. Sunset Baby premiered at the Gate Theater in London and had its U.S. premiere at Labyrinth Theater, NYC. Her play Detroit '67, the first play in her 3-play cycle on her hometown of Detroit, was the 2014 winner of the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History. Morisseau is an alumnus of the Public Theater Emerging Writer's Group, the Women's Project Playwrights Lab, and Lark Playwrights' Workshop.

Artistic Director, Rachel Lampert says, "Dominique Morisseau's characters speak the hardest truths to each other. Nina, Kenyatta and Damon are brave and driven to understand the meaning in their lives. Morisseau's writing erupts on the page. I cannot wait for this brilliant text to be brought to life by director Margarett Perry and our outstanding cast."

The all-Equity cast includes Alexander Thomas as the revolutionary Kenyatta Shakur, Ithaca College graduate Gillian Glasco as Nina, and Carl Hedrick Louis as Damon. Thomas appeared on Kitchen Theatre's stage last in 2013 in The Whipping Man. Sunset Baby will mark Thomas's 7th production with Kitchen Theatre Company, including such memorable productions as Opus, Broke-ology, After Ashley, his solo show Throw Pitchfork, and Black Stuff. Gillian Glasco debuts on the Kitchen main stage as Nina and is excited to be back in Ithaca. Glasco has performed at the Hangar Theatre in Doubt. Her off-Broadway credits include The New Federal Theatre Company's productions of Knock Me A Kiss and Court Martial at Fort Devens, The Classical Theatre of Harlem's Ain't Suppose To Die A Natural Death, The Billie Holiday Theatre's The Waiting Room, and The Steppingstone Theatre Company's Reflections of a Heart. Carl Hendrick Louis makes his KTC debut as Damon. Louis's performance credits include Off-Broadway productions of The King's Whore (Walkerspace); In Fields Where They Lay (Hudson Guild Theatre); Marat/Sade (Classical Theatre of Harlem) as well as work in film (Fan Girl, Unknown Soldier).

Back again for the second time this season to lead the creative team as director is Kitchen Theatre Company's resident director, Margarett Perry (The House, Seminar, Cock, Heroes, The Motherf**ker with the Hat, Brian Dykstra Selling Out, and many others). David L. Arsenault returns as the scenic and lighting designer (Seminar, Cock, Black Pearl Sings!, The Motherf**cker with the Hat, The Whipping Man, Call Me Waldo, Mary's Wedding and many others). Amanda Cardwell-Aiken joins Kitchen Theatre Company for her second show as costume designer (Seminar). Ryan Mutton makes his design debut at KTC as sound designer. The production stage manager is Jennifer Schilansky. Sunset Baby is co-produced by ¡Viva! Taqueria and Cantina, and the media sponsor is WVBR 93.5 FM.

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