Reimagined LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT Features Actors Of Color at Hibernian Hall in Roxbury

Long Day's Journey into Night opens on March 17th 2020 at Hibernian Hall in Roxbury, featuring actors of color and exploring Eugene O'Neill's Pulitzer Prize-winning play through the lens of African-American experiences.

The play, which won a Pulitzer Prize posthumously for its author, Eugene O'Neill, is a semi-autobiographical memoir of his self- destructive Irish-American family and the binding power of memories.

Directed by Boston director, Fort Point Theatre Channel's Amy S. West, the production presents a unique and relevant perspective by casting actors of color as the Tyrone family, and infusing O'Neill's play with African-American music and movement, revisiting the question of who gets to play canonical American theater roles, and particularly focusing on Mary Tyrone and the way gender and race impact portrayals of struggle, strength, and survival.

The cast includes local Boston favorites Dayenne CB Walters as Mary Tyrone (The Crucible/Central Square Theatre; With Glittering Eyes/Hibernian Hall), Paul Benford-Bruce as James Tyrone (The Convert/Central Square Theatre; Three Sisters/Apollinaire Theatre), Dominic Carter as Jamie Tyrone (Fences/The Umbrella Arts Center; Jesus Hopped the "A" Train/Hovey Players), Ciera-Sade Wade as Cathleen (for colored girls.../Hibernian Hall), and Zair Silva as Edmund Tyrone (Coriolanus,/Praxis Stage; Smoked Oysters,/TC Squared.) Music is composed and performed by Akili Jamal James.

Long Day's Journey Into Night takes place over the course of one sultry day in August 1912, at the Connecticut vacation home where the Tyrone family gathers every summer. Small arguments begin right after breakfast between James, a former "matinee idol" and Mary, his stay-at-home wife who nurses her own secrets under the watchful eye of the entire household. Petty quarrels be- come verbal attacks and the cruel ghosts of the past emerge when the couple is joined by their sons Jamie, a ne'er do well playboy/actor and Edmund, a seafaring, sometime- newspaper-writer with a poet's soul.

WaltersWest Projects and Fort Point Theatre Channel present a unique and relevant perspective on the play, holding this American classic under the pressure of contemporary scrutiny, providing new insights, and exploring the play's continued relevance within larger questions of what it means to be alive, to be human, to be a family and to thrive, not just survive.

In addition to seeking out social parallels with our work, our mission is to champion diversity and collaboration, foster new audiences of color, and to strive to create a space where all are welcome and all voices can be heard.

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