Central Square Theater to Present Danai Gurira's THE CONVERT

Underground Railway Theater are proud to present the Danai Gurira's The Convert January 28 - February 28, 2016. The Convert is directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian. The press performance is Monday, February 1 at 7:30PM.

Family or Freedom? Southern Africa, 1895: A young Shona girl escapes an arranged marriage by converting to Christianity, becoming a servant and student to an African Evangelical. As anti-European sentiments spread throughout the native population, she is forced to choose between her family's traditions and her newfound faith. Danai Gurira's (In the Continuum and TV's The Walking Dead) rich play examines the cultural and religious clashes that shaped the post-colonial world, and are still being felt in Zimbabwe today.

About Danai Gurira

Danai Gurira is an award-winning playwright and actress. Her play Eclipsed starring Lupita Nyong'o will open in Broadway in February. Most recently, she has been cast as Tupac Shakur's mother, Afeni Shakur, in the new biopic All Eyez on Me. As a playwright, her works include In the Continuum (OBIE Award, Outer Critics Award, Helen Hayes Award), Eclipsed (NAACP Award; Helen Hayes Award, Best New Play; Connecticut Critics Circle Award, Outstanding Production of a Play), and The Convert (six Ovation Awards, Los Angeles Outer Critics Award). Danai's new play Familiar received its world premiere at Yale Rep in 2015 and will premiere in New York at Playwrights Horizons in Winter 2016. All her works explore the subjective African voice. She is the recipient of the Whiting Award, is a former Hodder Fellow, and has been commissioned by Yale Rep, Center Theatre Group, Playwrights Horizons, and the Royal Court. She is currently developing a pilot for HBO. As an actor, she has appeared in the films The Visitor, Mother of George, 3 Backyards, and the television show Treme, among others. She currently plays Michonne on AMC's The Walking Dead. She is the co-founder of Almasi Collaborative Arts, which works to give access and opportunity to the African Dramatic Artist. almasialliance.org.

About Megan Sandberg-Zakian

Megan Sandberg-Zakian, director, is a theater-maker based in Somerville, MA. She is a current recipient of the Princess Grace Foundation Theatre Fellowship, which places her as Director-in-Residence at Merrimack Repertory Theater in Lowell, MA, with a focus on nurturing and developing new work. She has directed and developed work nationally and internationally from Seattle to Kansas City to the Dominican Republic. Favorite projects with Underground Railway Theater include the Boston-area premieres of Katori Hall's The Mountaintop and Lydia Diamond's Harriet Jacobs (Elliot Norton Nominee: Best New Play; IRNE Nominee: Best Ensemble, Best Actress), and a site-specific staged reading of Our Town at Cambridge's Mt. Auburn Cemetery. Megan has previously served as the Associate Artistic Director of Underground Railway Theater, the Providence Black Repertory Company (RI), and The 52nd Street Project (NYC). She is a recipient of the TCG Future Leaders grant, a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, and holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College. MeganSZ.com

About the Cast & Creative Team

Liana Asim (Mai Tamba) is a playwright/actor. She was last seen on stage as Marcus Lycus in the Stoneham Theatre production of A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum. She was also chosen as a 2015 BCA and Company One PlayLab Fellow. Her full-length plays include Bedfellows, The King of Love Is Dead, Slut Walk or A Play About Marilyn Monroe, The Hairy Scary (musical co-written w/J. Asim and Joshua Stephen Kartes.) Her work has been developed at BCA/Company One, Boston Theatre Marathon, Fresh Ink Theatre, Davenport Studios NYC, Playwright's Platform and Emerson College in Boston, MA. She has studied performance art at Northwestern University and screenwriting and playwriting at Emerson College. She is the proud wife of author Jabari Asim, and mother to five brilliant children.

Paul S. Benford Bruce (Uncle) is thrilled to make his debut with the Underground Railway Theater. Other credits include: August Wilson play reading series, UMass, Boston, (Eddie), Duck And Cover at The West End Studio Theatre, Portsmouth, NH, (Crime Scene Witness) PBS Documentary, Brains On Trial, hosted by Alan Alda, (Imam) in The Moment at The Apollinaire Theater, Chelsea Ma. (Father) in Write Something for Me, The Apollinaire Theater, (Cheswick) in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest at The Player's Ring, Portsmouth, NH, (Judge Rufus B. Hayes) in Oy Yea, Oy Vey, Boston Playwrights' Theatre, (won best play in the 2010 Playwrights' Platform 38th Annual Festival of New Plays, (Chuck) in Stories I Never Told My Daughter at Players' Ring, (Crooks) in Of Mice and Men at the Players' Ring, (The Teacher) in The Visit, Apollinaire In The Park, (Midge) in I'm Not Rappaport at the MillPond Center for The Arts, Durham, NH. Love you Tanishpas.

Nehassaiu DeGannes (Prudence); Recent credits include: "Cordelia" King Lear, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre; "Mrs Muller" Doubt (Oldcastle Theatre); "The Angel" Marisol (Luna Stage); "Kate" Good People (Hampton Theatre Co.); "Nurse" EQUUS with Alec Baldwin (Guild Hall); and in Canada "Mustapha Mond," Brave New World (Litmus Theatre), "Gertrude" Hamlet (Driftwood Theatre); "Lady Capulet" Romeo & Juliet (directed by Tim Carroll), "Queen Anne" The Three Musketeers and The Merchant of Venice (Stratford Festival); Off-Off Broadway Credits include: Celia, Three Gifts for Lenny Bruce (Target Margin Theatre), Room For Cream (La MaMa ETC). Nehassaiu is a graduate of Brown University and Trinity Rep Conservatory, joined Trinity's Resident Acting Company (Proof, The Skin Of Our Teeth, Cider House Rules) and acted at The Providence Black Rep (Jar The Floor, House of Bernarda Alba) and The GAMM (Top Girls) before moving to NYC.

Adobuere Ebiama (Jekesai/Ester) is very excited to be making her Central Square Theater debut with The Convert. Adobuere began her professional acting career at 19 with Boston's Company One in The Bluest Eye (Pecola-IRNE Nom). She also appeared in Company One's New England premiere of She Kills Monsters. Adobuere's recent stage credits include Where the Mountain Meets the Moon with Wheelock Family Theatre, The Black-Jew Dialogues with Dialogues on Diversity, Dreaming Again with the New Hampshire Theatre Project. Adobuere has worked with The Boston Playwrights' Theater, The Boston Actor's Theater, Raw Fruit, and Nollywood America to name a few. In 2011 Adobuere landed a role in Nollywood film Unwanted Guest, which premiered in movie theaters in Lagos, Nigeria. Adobuere can also be seen playing the role of Maité in the new comedic web series, The Pineapple Diaries. She is also Founder & Artistic Director of Theatre Arts company, Can't Wait Productions. Adobuere is a proud member of the Actor's Equity Association.

Ricardy Charles Fabre (Tamba) is originally from New York and is a resident actor at the Flea Theatre (NYC). Ricardy is ecstatic about making his debut at Central Square Theater. Some past credits include The System (The Flea), Weekend Cottage (The Flea) Regionally: Our Town (Portland Center Stage), Belleville (Third Rail Rep). Ricardy would like to thank his friends and family for their support and hopes you all enjoy this wonderful theatre experience.

Equiano Mosieri (Chancellor) is very excited to be working with Central Square Theater for the first time. After receiving an MFA from Brandeis University, he has performed in First Suburb by Chana Porter at Cloud City, NY. Also recently seen in the piece The Fall of The Kings at The Andrew Freeman mansion. Last summer saw him at the Fairbanks Shakespeare Festival as teacher/ director with the summer drama camp and as a lead in Two Gentlemen of Verona. He was a lead and team writer in Summer Blue (named "most innovative show of 2015" winner) at the NY Fringe Festival. Other credits include the powerful off-Broadway play In Fields Where They Lay at The New Ohio Theater. He has performed at B.A.M's Next Wave Festival in The Parables Conference, Romeo and Juliet at Shakespeare & Company, Macbeth at The Berkshire Theatre Festival plus others. He directed the NY premiere of The Clark Doll: A Bedtime Story at Manhattan Rep, The Merry Wives of Windsor with FST (Alaska), and was the artistic director of Pistarckle Theater's Shakespeare Festival in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. MREquiano.com

Maurice Emmanuel Parent (Chilford) is overjoyed to be returning to Underground Railroad Theater with The Convert after making his URT debut playing Dr. King in The Mountaintop. Most recently Maurice was seen in The Snow Queen at New Rep Theatre. A Resident Company Member of the Actors' Shakespeare Project, he has appeared in Measure for Measure (Angelo), Romeo & Juliet (Mercutio - IRNE Nom), Troilus & Cressida (Troilus), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Puck), Coriolanus (Junius Brutus), and King John (Louis the Dauphin). Other local credits include King Lear (Duke of Cornwall) and Coriolanus (Tullus Aufidius) with Commonwealth Shakespeare Company; Shrek (Donkey) with Wheelock Family Theatre; Far From Heaven (Raymond Deagan), The Color Purple (Mister - 2015 IRNE Award for Best Supporting Actor), and Motherf**cker with the Hat (Ralph D - IRNE and Elliot Norton Nom) with SpeakEasy Stage; Camelot (Sir Lionel), Rent (Tom Collins), Passing Strange (Mr. Franklin et al), Cabaret, and Ragtime (Coalhouse - IRNE Nom) with New Rep; Into the Woods (Wolf / Cinderella's Prince), On the Town and Man of La Mancha with Lyric Stage Company; A Raisin in the Sun with Huntington Theatre Company. Maurice received a 2008 Elliot Norton Award for Some Men (Angel Eyes et al, SpeakEasy Stage Co.), Angels in America (Belize / Mr. Lies, Boston Theatre Works) and The Wild Party (Black, New Rep). Other Credits include The Rink starring Leslie Uggams and Janet Metz at the Cape Playhouse and The Good War (dir. David H. Bell and Craig Carnelia) at the York Theatre. After The Convert Maurice will be seen playing the role of Sutter in the play Booty Candy with SpeakEasy Stage Co. By day Maurice is a Boston Public School teacher and adjunct faculty at Boston University.

The production team includes Jenna McFarland-Lord (Scenic Designer), Devorah Kengmana (Lighting Designer), Miranda Giurleo (Costume Designer), Nathan Leigh (Sound Designer), Kat Nakaji (Properties Master), Christine Hamel (Dialect Designer) and Andrew Kenneth Moss (Fight Director). Dominique D. Burford is the Stage Manager.

The Convert plays at Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, Thursday, January 28 through Sunday, February 28, 2016. Tickets may be purchased by calling 617.576.9278, at the Central Square Theater box office, or online at CentralSquareTheater.org.

Central Square Theater (CST) opened in 2008 through a groundbreaking partnership between The Nora Theatre Company (The Nora) and Underground Railway Theater (URT). This collaboration has been called a model for the arts community (The Boston Foundation, Culture is our Commonwealth, and The National Collaboration Prize), as it has paired two like-minded performing arts organizations in a strategic alliance with the City of Cambridge and MIT, resulting in the development of a state-of-the-art performing arts center in the heart of Central Square. CST has a mission to support its two theaters-in-residence while maintaining a shared vision of artists and audiences creating theater vital to their communities. The Nora and URT have a combined track record of over 50 years producing award-winning theater. Located in Central Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and steeped in its multiracial, intergenerational, ethnically and economically diverse neighborhoods, the CST theater experience exudes a democratic energy where classes, races and age groups come together to be inspired, entertained and energized.

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