Intimate Apparel + Amplifying & Connecting Black Women's Stories A Benefit for the Banneker-Douglass-Tubman Museum & Compass Rose Theater at Compass Rose Theater

Join us for an award-winning play written by Lynn Nottage, Intimate Apparel, presented by Compass Rose Theater in Annapolis, MD. The show will follow with a talkback and reception with the director, Lottie Porch, professional actors, and leaders from the Banneker-Douglass-Tubman Museum. Amplifying and Connecting Black Women's Stories is a fundraiser event in honor of the museum's renaming. The show starts promptly at 2 PM. (Free parking at Maryland Hall, doors open 20 minutes before show time).

Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage: In 1905, in New York, a stark social divide contrasts with a dynamic influx of immigrants. An African-American seamstress, Esther skillfully navigates this world, crafting fine, intimate apparel for clientele from elites to the marginalized. Romance blooms through letters from Panama-based George Armstrong as the story explores independence, connection, and the impacts of deception, racism, and classism. 

The play offers poignant commentary on an era when the cut and color of one's dress - and, of course, skin -determined who one could and could not marry, sleep with, or even talk to in public. - Variety 

Winner of: Steinberg New Play Award, New York Drama Critics' Circle Award

About the Playwright: Lynn Nottage is a playwright, screenwriter, and installation artist. She is the first and remains the only woman to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice. Her plays have been produced widely in the United States and worldwide. Recent work includes the book for the musical MJ, Clyde's (Second Stage), and co-curating the performance installation The Watering Hole (Signature). Other work consists of the musical adaptation of The Secret Life of Bees (Atlantic); Mlima's Tale (The Public); Sweat (Pulitzer, Obie, Evening Standard Award, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize); By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (Lilly Award); Ruined (Pulitzer, Obie, Lortel, NY Drama Critics' Circle, AUDELCO, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle awards); Intimate Apparel (American Theatre Critics and NYDCC). TV: Writer/Producer of She's Gotta Have It (Netflix), Consulting Producer on Dickinson (Apple TV+). Awards: PEN/Laura Pels Master Dramatist Award, Doris Duke Artist Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, MacArthur "Genius Grant" Fellowship. She is an Associate Professor at Columbia University School of the Arts and is a member of the Dramatists Guild. She is currently an artist-in-residence at the Park Avenue Armory.

Compass Rose Theater: Led by Executive Director Barbara Webber, the nonprofit theater was founded in 2011 under the leadership of Founder and Theater Advisor Lucinda Merry-Browne. Compass Rose Theater is an award-winning and critically acclaimed professional theater and nonprofit teaching company in Annapolis. It is rooted in the belief that theater education creates performance excellence. The theater's unwavering commitment to upholding the highest artistic and educational standards is at the core of each presentation, whether a play, musical, reading, or workshop. It has produced more than 50 shows, garnering a Helen Hayes Award for A Chorus Line, five Helen Hayes Award nominations, and several Helen Hayes Award Recommendations.

Show at 2 PM

Reception and TalkBack to follow (Approximately 4 PM)