Photos: SLAVE PLAY Unveils 'The Wilson Lounge' for First Preview

Preview performances begin tonight at 8 PM for the return of Slave Play, the ground-breaking work by Tony Award- nominee Jeremy O. Harris under the direction of Tony Award nominee Robert O'Hara, ahead of a Thursday, December 2 opening night at the August Wilson Theatre. Slave Play will have a strictly limited 69-performance engagement with available at www.seatgeek.com/slave-play-tickets or by visiting the August Wilson box office.

This afternoon, the producers of Slave Play and Jujamcyn Theatres will unveil the Wilson Lounge, a reimagining of the lobby of the August Wilson Theatre as a space for the conversations that the play stimulates, and in which audiences can be in conversation with the work and each other.

The Slave Play design team, led by Tony Award-winning scenic designer Clint Ramos, have created seating areas, conversation pods, music activations inspired by the play, and micro libraries featuring curated scripts by Black playwrights and art books celebrating Black work.

Upon entering the theater, audiences will be greeted by a conceirge, who will welcome them into the lounge. The space will feature a large-scale LED screen showcasing "Kita Meditating" by acclaimed Black visual artist Martine Syms featuring a digital avatar modeled after the 1990s BET show "Cita's World." Cita floats peacefully among a background of soothing natural settings asking us to "stay here and just observe."

Decor incorporating global furniture and foliage designed to create a warm environment for the collision of conversations will be complemented by custom mixtapes, inspired by the play.

Additionally, copies of plays included in The Golden Collection, a selection of 15 works by prominent Black playwrights curated by Harris, are available for sale at the Wilson Lounge.

The Wilson Lounge is an integrative and curated approach to expand and physicalize the ideas around Slave Play. Believing that by reimagining space, a deeper dialogue can be sparked: the role of theater in the larger culture and how, in community, people can evolve together through conversation.

The cast of Slave Play features Tony Award nominee Ato Blankson-Wood, Antoinette Crowe-Legacy, Jonathan Higginbotham, Devin Kawaoka, Tony Award nominee Chalia La Tour, Irene Sofia Lucio, Tony Award nominee Annie McNamara, and Paul Alexander Nolan. Slave Play features understudies Eboni Flowers, Blake Russell, Luigi Sottile, Elizabeth Stahlmann, and Galen J. Williams.

Following the run at the August Wilson Theatre, the Broadway production, under the direction of O'Hara, will travel to Los Angeles as part of Center Theatre Group's upcoming Mark Taper Forum season. Casting for the CTG run of Slave Play will be announced shortly.

In addition to Ramos, the creative team for the production includes two-time Tony Award nominee Dede Ayite (costume design), Tony Award nominee Jiyoun Chang (lighting design), two-time Tony Award nominee Lindsay Jones (sound design and original music), Cookie Jordan (hair and wig design), Byron Easley (movement), Teniece Divya Johnson and Drama Desk Award winner Claire Warden (intimacy and fight directors), Amauta Marston-Firmino (dramaturg), Taylor Williams (casting director), Victor Vasquez (additional casting), and Cherie B. Tay (production stage manager).

Slave Play at the August Wilson Theatre is produced by Seaview; Troy Carter; Level Forward; and Nine Stories, founded by Jake Gyllenhaal and Riva Marker; Sing Out, Louise! Productions; Shooting Star Productions; Roth-Manella Productions; Carlin Katler Productions; Cohen Hopkins Productions; Thomas Laub; Blair Russell; WEB Productions; Salman Al-Rashid; Jeremy O. Harris; and New York Theatre Workshop. Mark Shacket serves as Executive Producer and Doug Nevin serves as Production Counsel.

Slave Play received 12 Tony Award nominations, the most for any play in Broadway history and the 2019 production was the best reviewed play of the year.

Over one explosive weekend, three interracial couples inhabit the confines of a sprawling Southern plantation. As the heat is turned up on their volatile relationships, the line between fantasy and reality blurs and history begins to repeat itself.

The 2019 production of Slave Play began previews at Broadway's Golden Theatre (252 West 45th Street) on Tuesday, September 10, 2019, opened to rave reviews on Sunday, October 6, 2019, and played the final performance of its hit engagement on Sunday, January 19, 2020.

Photo Credit: Emilio Madrid