The Bushwick Starr Presents Keelay Gipson's DEMONS. in May

The Bushwick Starr will partner with JAG Productions and Oye Group to present demons., a new Afro-Surrealist play written and directed by award-winning playwright Keelay Gipson (#NewSlaves: Princess Grace Finalist, The O'Neill, Seven Devils, imagine sisyphus happy: The O'Neill, P73 Summer Residency).

When the death of their patriarch draws family members home, they must reckon with grief and the haunting realities that death often brings to the surface. A surreal dark comedy, demons. is a meditation on the reality of getting older, of losing a parent, and that ever-elusive quest to exorcize the trauma a family passes down through the generations.

The cast stars Donell James Foreman (The Book of Mormon, Myths and Hymns), Paige Gilbert (A Raisin in the Sun, The Skin of Our Teeth), Joseph Lymous (Awkwafina is Nora From Queens), Ashton Muniz (I Wanna F*ck Like Romeo and Juliet), Gayle Samuels (Ohio State Murders), and Jason Veasey (A Strange Loop, Only Murders in the Building).

The production will feature set design by Yu Shibagaki, lighting design by Minjoo Kim, sound design by Chris Darbassie and puppet design by Cedwan Hooks. Associate direction/costume design by Machel Ross. The director of puppetry is Jon Riddleberger. Casting is by The Bushwick Starr.

demons. is made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, and Venturous Theater Fund of the Tides Foundation. Production design support for demons. provided by the Edith Lutyens and Norman Bel Geddes Design Enhancement Fund, a program of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York (A.R.T./New York), and Evening Squire Productions.

demons. was originally developed as part of JAGFest 2019 and New York Stage and Film's 2022 Summer Season at Marist College.

From The Bushwick Starr's Artistic Director: I am so very excited and proud that the Starr is producing Keelay Gipson's demons., a play that is at root an extremely personal, bitingly funny, and deeply moving journey through grief. I'm a huge fan of the risk taking Keelay employs in all his writing and here he uses a dynamic mix of dramatic realism and heightened theatricality to create a stylistic tension that insists we prick up our ears and listen attentively. The surreal overlaps with the mundane. Worlds collide. As the play continues, the layers and experiences accumulate conjuring the disorientation of the grieving process. What is real in the depths of grief? The play asks us to enter this maelstrom and meditate on what and who we hold close to help us find ourselves again. We're thrilled to be working with JAG Productions for the first time as well as our dear friends at Oye Group to support this special play. A production of this scale takes a village and we're very grateful to have supportive partners who believe in Keelay's vision. - Noel Allain

From JAG Productions Artistic Director: Having supported demons. while in development four years ago at JAGfest, our new works play festival, I am thrilled that we get the opportunity to bring this project to NYC for Keelay's much deserved Off-Broadway debut! It is a dream to collaborate on this deeply personal and visceral new comedy with The Bushwick Starr, and I cannot wait to share it with our extended community, chosen family, and friends! - Jarvis Green

From Oye Group's Artistic Director: I first came across Keelay Gipson's work by seeing his play The Lost, Or How to Just B in 2015. I fell in love with the poetry and hip-hop in his writing. The cast was brilliant, but what stood out to me the most was that it felt like he was penning the new Rent for the youth to see itself and its vernacular. I got very excited when the Starr asked us to jump in and support the king's new project, demons.! - Modesto Flako Jimenez

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