Andre Holland, Kara Young, Tanis Parenteau and More to Star in BULRUSHER for BARD AT THE GATE

Eisa Davis's Pulitzer Prize-nominated play BULRUSHER will be the 3rd play to receive an online production as part of Paula Vogel's play reading series, BARD AT THE GATE, debuting on YouTube on Thursday, September 17 at 7 p.m. Following the reading, Ms. Davis and Ms. Vogel will participate in a discussion about the play on Zoom. For more information about the webstream and post-show Q&A, visit www.paulavogelplaywright.com.

Directed by Eisa Davis, the cast of BULRUSHER includes Andre Holland (MOONLIGHT, JITNEY on Broadway), Kara Young (HALFWAY BITCHES GO STRAIGHT TO HEAVEN), Tanis Parenteau (BILLIONS, DESIGNATED SURVIVOR), Sydney Elisabeth (NYU Grad Acting program), Edmund Donovan (LEWISTON/CLARKSTON) and Corey Stoll (BILLIONS,HOUSE OF CARDS)Jhanaë Bonnick will stage manage and Sue Slagle (2020 Creative Capital Awardee) is the video artist.

Set in 1955 in San Francisco's redwood country, BULRUSHER depicts the life of a multiracial girl in a predominantly white town where the language is peppered with the native Boontling tongue. Found floating in a basket in the river, Bulrusher is an orphan, an outsider and a clairvoyant in this rough and tumble logging town. She discovers an entirely new sense of self when a black girl from Alabama comes to town.

Eisa Davis is an award-winning Brooklyn-based, Berkeley-born writer, composer, and performer working on stage and screen. A 2020 Creative Capital Awardee and Obie winner for Sustained Excellence in Performance, Eisa was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for her play BULRUSHER in 2009, and wrote and starred in the stage memoir ANGELA'S MIXTAPE, named by The New Yorker as one of the best plays of the year. Other work includes RAMP (Ruby Prize winner), THE HISTORY OF LIGHT, PAPER AMOR, SIX MINUTES and others. Eisa wrote for both seasons of the Spike Lee Netflix series SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT, penned the narration for Cirque du Soleil's first ice show Crystal, and has released two albums of music. As an actress, she received an Obie Award and has been acclaimed for her performances in JULIUS CAESAR (Shakespeare in the Park), PRELUDES, THE CRADLE WILL ROCK, LUCK OF THE IRISH, THE PIANO LESSON (Yale Rep), and the Broadway musical PASSING STRANGE, also filmed by Spike Lee.

A Covid Era start-up reading series begun by the Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony-nominated playwright Paula Vogel (HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE and INDECENT), BARD AT THE GATE was created to produce online readings of a variety of overlooked and underappreciated plays Ms. Vogel has encountered in her 40 years as one of the nation's leading professors of playwriting (Brown and Yale Universities). The series kicked off with a reading of Kermit Frazier's 1979 KERNEL OF SANITY in July, followed by Meg Miroshnik's THE DROLL.

The series will continue this fall with readings of Dan LeFranc's ORIGIN STORY on October 7, and GOOD GOODS by Christina Anderson on October 29, both at 7 p.m. on YouTube.

Donations are suggested for BARD AT THE GATE. Proceeds from the reading of BULRUSHER will benefit 350.org, an organization that advocates for a safe climate and climate change action and legislation.

BARD AT THE GATE is produced by Paula Vogel, co-producer Rosey Strub and associate producers BJ Evans and Ryan Pointer.

www.paulavogelplaywright.com