VIDEO: ECLIPSED's Lupita Nyong'o Talks Broadway Debut: 'It's More Than I Could Have Asked For'

Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong'o is best known for her breakout role as Patsey in "12 Years a Slave," and now she's heading to Broadway for the first time ever, with a starring role in Eclipsed. "It's more than I could have asked for," shares the actress with TODAY's Savannah Guthrie.

Later, Nyong'o talks about the new role and about the desire that she feels is fueling the #OscarSoWhite controversy over the lack of diversity in the Academy Award nominees. Watch the appearance in full below!

The acclaimed new American play Eclipsed by Danai Gurira and directed by Liesl Tommy begins previews on Tuesday, February 23 prior to an official opening night on Sunday, March 6 at the Golden Theatre (252 W. 45th Street).

LUPITA NYONG'O (The Girl) will next be seen in J.J. Abrams' highly anticipated Star Wars: The Force Awakens, as the motion capture character "Maz Kanata." The film will be released by Disney on December 18, 2015. She additionally just wrapped production in Uganda on Mira Nair's The Queen of Katwe opposite David Oyelowo, and lends her voice to Jon Favreau's upcoming Jungle Book as "Raksha," set for release next April. Nyong'o made her feature debut in Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave, which earned her the Academy Award and SAG Award for "Best Supporting Actress". A graduate of the Yale School of Drama's acting program, Nyongo's stage credits include playing Perdita inThe Winter's Tale (Yale Repertory Theater), Sonya in Uncle Vanya, Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew, as well as part of the cast in the original production of Michael Mitnick's Elijah.This stunning, deeply moving new American play by award-winning Zimbabwean-American Playwright/Actress, Danai Gurira (co-author of In the CONTINUUM and Michonne on AMC's hit series "The Walking Dead") features Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave) returning to the stage. Amid the chaos of the Liberian Civil War, the captive wives of a rebel officer band together to form a fragile community - until the balance of their lives is upset by the arrival of a new girl. Drawing on reserves of wit and compassion, Eclipsed reveals distinct women who must discover their own means of survival in this deeply felt portrait of women finding and testing their own strength in a hostile world of horrors not of their own making. South African born Liesl Tommy (Appropriate and The Public's The Good Negro) directs this magnificent story of survival and resilience.