Cast Set For HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER? at Ensemble Studio Theatre
Performances run March 5-30.
By: Stephi Wild Jan. 27, 2025
Ensemble Studio Theatre will continue the 56th season at EST with a world premiere new comedy HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER? by Michael Walek, an alumni of the theatre’s Youngblood playwrights program. The play is commissioned and developed through the EST/Sloan Project, which is celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the partnership between EST and The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation this season.
HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER? will run March 5 to March 30, with an official press opening on Thursday, March 13 at EST’s long-time home at 545 West 52nd Street.
Directed by the Program Director of the EST/Sloan Project and EST Member Artist Linsay Firman, the cast will feature Brittany K. Allen, Jordan Donaldson, Kristin Griffith, Tommy Heleringer, and Rami Margron.
The Tanzanian government allowed Jane Goodall to study chimpanzees in the wild under one condition - she must bring a chaperone. So, Jane invited her mother.
HAVE YOU MET JANE GOODALL AND HER MOTHER? received an EST/Sloan Project new play commission in 2018 and has been developed, workshopped, and presented in the First Light festival on its journey toward getting a full production.
The world premiere will feature scenic design by Tanya Orellana; costume design by Suzanne Chesney; lighting design by Reza Behjat; sound design by Kathy Ruvuna; props design by Thomas Jenkeleit, and puppet design by Lake Simons. Pamela Salling will be Production Stage Manager and Clarissa Mota will be Assistant Stage Manager. Casting was handled by Calleri Jensen Davis.
“Since I joined Youngblood, Ensemble Studio Theatre has been my artistic home in New York City, and the Sloan Foundation has provided amazing support for this play. I am incredibly honored to have my New York City playwriting debut on the EST stage. If only I could go back and tell my very nervous 20-year-old self as he walked up the stairs for the first time to interview with RJ and Graeme,” said Playwright Michael Walek.
“We are delighted to continue this landmark partnership with Ensemble Studio Theatre, which has helped make the science play an integral part of the theater canon,” said Doron Weber, Vice President and Program Director at the Sloan Foundation. “This pioneering collaboration has resulted in the commissioning, development and production of over 300 plays, including the brilliant and witty new play Have You Met Jane Goodall and Her Mother? about the renowned primatologist Jane Goodall, the world’s foremost expert on chimpanzees. We are grateful to EST’s tremendous pool of talent, its resourcefulness and indefatigable energy, and its willingness to experiment and take risks as one of America’s leading developmental theater companies.”
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