Boston Premiere of FAIRVIEW to Open at SpeakEasy Stage Company in February

From February 17 to March 11, 2023, SpeakEasy Stage Company will present the Boston premiere of Jackie Sibblies Drury's acclaimed comedy FAIRVIEW.

Winner of 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, FAIRVIEW is a bold and disarmingly funny play. When the play opens, we meet the Frasiers, a seemingly typical, middle class Black American family trying desperately to make everything perfect for Grandma's birthday celebration. But not too far into the festivities, we see the Frasiers' story through a whole new lens, leading to one of the most outrageous and jaw-dropping endings in theatre history.

Jackie Sibblies Drury is a Brooklyn-based playwright whose works include the Obie Award-winning drama Marys Seacole, and We Are Proud to Present.... Her plays have been produced by Lincoln Center Theater, Soho Rep, Berkeley Rep, Victory Gardens Theater, Trinity Rep, Woolly Mammoth, Undermain Theatre, InterAct Theatre Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Company One, among others. In addition, she has received the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, a Jerome Fellowship at The Lark, a United States Artists Fellowship, a Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, and a Windham-Campbell Literary Prize in Drama.

Pascale Florestal returns to SpeakEasy to direct FAIRVIEW, having helmed last season's revival of Once on This Island, which was nominated for six Elliot Norton Awards including Best Musical. She is a director, educator, dramaturg, writer, and collaborator, currently serving as associate director for the National Broadway Tour of Jagged Little Pill and as the Education Director and Associate Producer for the Front Porch Arts Collective. Pascale is also an Assistant Professor of Theater at Boston Conservatory at Berklee.

For this Boston premiere, Pascale has assembled a powerhouse Boston cast featuring Dom Carter, Lindsay Allyn Cox, Yewande Odentoyinbo, and Victoria Omoregie.

The design team is Erik D. Diaz (scenic); Becca Jewett (costumes); Aja M. Jackson (lighting); and James Cannon (sound). Maegan A. Conroy is the Production Stage Manager.

FAIRVIEW will run for four weeks, from February 17 through March 11, 2023, in the Roberts Studio Theatre in the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street in Boston's South End.

Ticket prices start at $25, with discounts for students, seniors, veterans, and people age 25 and under. For tickets or more information, the public is invited to call BostonTheatreScene Ticketing Services at 617.933.8600 or visit www.SpeakEasyStage.com.

About the Playwright

Jackie Sibblies Drury

(Playwright) is a Brooklyn-based playwright whose works include Marys Seacole (Obie Award); Fairview (2019 Pulitzer Prize); Really; Social Creatures; and We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Nambia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915. The presenters of her plays include Lincoln Center Theater, Soho Rep, Berkeley Rep, New York City Players & Abrons Arts Center, Victory Gardens Theatre, Trinity Rep, Woolly Mammoth, Undermain Theatre, InterAct Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Company One, and Bush Theatre. Drury has developed her work at Sundance, the Bellagio Center, The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, Soho Rep. Writer/Director LAB, New York Theatre Workshop, the Bushwick Starr, The Lark, and The MacDowell Colony, among others. She has received the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, a Jerome Fellowship at The Lark, a United States Artists Fellowship, a Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, and a Windham-Campbell Literary Prize in Drama. (she/her)

About the Director

PASCALE FLORESTAL

(Director) returns to SpeakEasy having previously directed Once on This Island, which was nominated for six Elliot Norton Awards including Best Musical, and TJ Loves Sally 4 Ever. She is a director, educator, dramaturg, writer, and collaborator based in Boston. Recent directing credits: Spring Awakening (Brandeis University); The Colored Museum (The Umbrella); This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing (Emerson Stage); Everybody (Boston Conservatory at Berklee). Pascale serves as the Associate Director for the National Broadway Tour of Jagged Little Pill and is the Education Director and Associate Producer for the Front Porch Arts Collective. She is also an Assistant Professor of Theater at Boston Conservatory at Berklee. (she/her)

About the Cast

DOM CARTER*

(Dayton) returns to SpeakEasy having previously been a part of BLKS. Recent credits include OTP (Boston Playwrights' Theatre); Dracula: A Feminist Revenge (The Umbrella); The Light, Twelfth Night (Lyric Stage); Greater Good (Company One); The Mountaintop, Mothers and Sons, Violet (Lexington Players); Jesus Hopped the A Train, Race (Hovey Players). Dom is a graduate of The Atlantic Acting School and was the winner of the 2021 AACT National Theater Best Actor Award. (he/him)

LYNDSAY ALLYN COX*

(Jasmine) is pleased to return to SpeakEasy having previously appeared in Men on Boats. Regional: Common Ground Revisited; Our Daughters, Like Pillars; Witch (The Huntington); Fabulation; Barbecue; By The Way, Meet Vera Stark (Lyric Stage); Bright Half Life (Actors' Shakespeare Project); The Three Musketeers (Greater Boston Stage Company); Caroline, or Change (Moonbox Productions); Winter People (Boston Playwrights' Theatre); Leftovers, The Overwhelming (Company One). Directing: Chicken & Biscuits (The Front Porch Arts Collective); Tiny Beautiful Things (Gloucester Stage); Splash Hatch on the E Going Down (The Nora). Film: Consumed (directed by Sloane Turner). Education: BA in Theatre Performance with a minor in Vocal Music from Appalachian State University. Other: Named one of the ARTery 25 by WBUR's The ARTery. lyndsayallyncox.com. (she/they)

YEWANDE ODETOYINBO*

(Beverly) returns to SpeakEasy having previously appeared in Once on This Island and The View UpStairs, and co-choreographed Choir Boy. Area credits include: The Light, Breath & Imagination [co-production with Front Porch Arts Collective], The Wiz, Little Shop of Horrors (Lyric Stage); Passing Strange; Caroline, or Change; Parade (Moonbox Productions); Macbeth in Stride (A.R.T); Hair (New Rep); Show Boat (Reagle Music Theatre and Fiddlehead Theatre); Finish Line, The Gay Agenda (Boston Theatre Company); In the Heights, Seussical, Ragtime (Wheelock Family Theatre); Fannie Lou Hamer: Speak On It! (Merrimack Rep); Waitress (Barnstormers Theatre). Education: BFA, Musical Theater, Howard University; MFA, Musical Theater, Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Thank you to the SpeakEasy family and Pascale for having me back; Susan for the home away from home; and Mom, Dad, Yemisi, and the best friends who remain her biggest fans! (she/her)

VICTORIA OMOREGIE

(Keisha) is thrilled to make her SpeakEasy debut! Victoria grew up in Dorchester and holds a BA in Acting from Boston University '22. Some of her previous credits include: The Bomb-Itty of Errors (Actors' Shakespeare Project); Anthony and Cleopatra (New York Classical Theatre); LORENA: A Tabloid Epic (Boston Playwrights Theatre); The Legend Of Georgia McBride, In The Red and Brown Water (Boston University). Victoria believes in the power of identity; knowing where you come from, to know where you are going. She is excited to explore identity throughout Fairview. www.victoriaomoregie.com (she/her)

For tickets to or more information on FAIRVIEW the public can call BostonTheatreScene Ticketing Services at 617.933.8600 or visit www.SpeakEasyStage.com.

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