Tonya Pinkins Opens Up About Bringing Her Perspective to TIME ALONE

Belle Rêve Theatre Company presents their inaugural production of Time Alone, a World Premiere by Alessandro Camon (Academy Award nominee "The Messenger") starring Tony Award winner Tonya Pinkins (Jelly's Last Jam, Caroline or Change, ABC Scandal). In a recent interview with the LA Times, Pinkins chats about how she became involved with the production.

"The last two or three theater things I had done were really traumatizing for me," she told LAT. "I feel really comfortable talking with a writer about my perspective inside of it as the actor,' she says. "Like, 'This doesn't feel good in my mouth,' or 'I think I could show you this and I don't have to say it. Listen to this. What do you think?'"

She continues: "I appreciated his humility about writing this character. He told me, 'I wrote Anna as a white woman, because I thought I could write a white woman, and I don't know that I could write a black woman. Do I have to change it to write a black woman?' And I said, 'Well, you wrote about grief, which is universal and doesn't really have a color, so I don't think there's anything you need to change for me to play it.'"

Click here to read the full interview.

Time Alone traces the parallel journeys of a young man convicted of killing a gang rival, and a woman whose son - a police officer - is murdered in the line of duty. Both end up in places of extreme loneliness - a solitary confinement prison cell, and the silent house of the bereaved. As time itself seems to unravel, their tales both contrast and mirror each other, providing answers to each other's questions - until they find new doors to life.

Pinkins is a Tony award-winning actress, singer, author, activist and educator. She portrays Susan Thompson on "Madame Secretary," Ethel Peabody on "Gotham" on FOX TV, Miz Mimi Corcoran on Hulu's "11/22/63" and Sandra on "Scandal." She will appear in the films "Mercy" and "The Book of Henry."

Tonya appeared in "Rasheeda Speaking" (Lortel and Outer Critics Circle Nominations) opposite Dianne Wiest at The New Group. Tonya's Broadway credits include: "Holler If Ya Hear Me," "A Time To Kill," "Radio Golf," "Merrily We Roll Along," "Chronicle of a Death Foretold," "The Wild Party" and "Caroline or Change" (Winner - Obie, Lucile Lortel Award, LA Drama Critics Circle Award; Nominations for Olivier, NAACP Theatre Award, Tony Award, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Drama League), "Play On" (Tony, Joseph Jeffersonnominations) , Jelly's Last Jam (Winner Tony Award, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Clarence Derwent). She has also been nominated for The Joseph Jefferson Citation, the Helen Hayes Award, Soap Opera Digest Award and The Onstage Award. Other Off-Broadway Credits include "Milk Like Sugar, "Hurt Village," Shakespeare in the Park: "All's Well That Ends Well," "The Merry Wives of Windsor" and "Measure for Measure."

Time Alone begins previews Saturday, September 30, opens on Saturday, October 7, and is performed through Sunday, October 29 at Los Angeles Theatre Center, Theatre 2, 514 S Spring Street Los Angeles. The performance schedule is Thursday -Saturday at 8p; Monday at 7:30p; Sundays at 3p and 5p. Tickets are available now at www.thelatc.org/timealone or by calling 213-489-0994.