Tickets On Sale to the World Premiere of THE SIBLINGS PLAY at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and piece by piece productions, in association with Rising Phoenix Repertory, have announced that tickets are on sale to the world premiere Ren Dara Santiago's The Siblings Play, which marks the professional debut of the Fila-Rican playwright. Directed by Jenna Worsham (Agnes), The Siblings Play gives voice to multicultural New Yorkers rarely seen on the stage with breathtaking theatricality, stinging poignancy, biting humor, and deep empathy. The Siblings Play runs March 4-April 5, 2020, at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (224 Waverly Place) with an opening night of March 18.

Set inside a rent-stabilized Harlem apartment in 2014, The Siblings Play delves deep into the psyche of a teenage girl and her two brothers left to raise each other in their parents' absence. The play looks at the ways these three teenagers protect, love, fight, and diminish in the wake of their family history and the complexity of growing up with parents who are too young to be parents in the first place.

Ren Dara Santiago, the 2019-2020 Tow Playwright-in-Residence at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, has had an untraditional path to playwriting and a long history with Rattlestick. A self-taught playwright, she first came to Rattlestick with MCC Youth to see the Rattlestick production of Annie Baker's Aliens. Shortly thereafter, Santiago worked with Lucy Thurber and other theater makers to form Middle Voice, Rattlestick's apprentice company. Over the past seven years working with Middle Voice, Santiago has developed many of her own projects as well as performed in projects written by her peers. In 2014, she became Middle Voice's co-Artistic Director.

"I like subverting familiar narratives; focusing on heroes adjacent to the ones we know. The Siblings Play is a coming-of-age tale most don't see," said playwright Santiago. "I grew up with kids who did the parenting in their families. We cooked the meals for our siblings. We innovated ways to generate income. We did so at the expense of our education. We rose earlier and fell to bed last, so we were often tired in class. I know those kids. And for them, I want to be a resource. With this production of The Siblings Play, I want them to hear: you are visible, and your value can never be wasted.

Santiago's mentor, the award-winning playwright Lucy Thurber, writes, "Ren is truthful, kind, generous, hard-working and fierce. Her characters move me, and I find her ability to be lyrical with her language one minute and brutal the next, gorgeous. She is brave. She handles ugly, hard subjects with real humanity. She has a wonderful sense of humor. She writes work that is generous to her actors. I think she is going to be a brilliant force in American theater and beyond."

"The Siblings Play is a love letter to one's home, written with blood and sweat and touched by Ren's wild imagination," said director Jenna Worsham. "Ren loves where she comes from, but she is also not afraid to challenge her own communities - a fairness you can sense in all of her plays. And she has that rare ability of the playwright: to capture the voice of her people, in both their beauty and their violence."

The cast for The Siblings Play includes Dalia Davi, Cindy De La Cruz, Mateo Ferro, Andy Lucien, and Ed Ventura.

The creative team for The Siblings Play includes Angelica Borrero (set designer), Andy Jean (costume designer), Zach Blane (lighting designer), Michael Costagliola (sound designer), Rhys Roffey (props master), Gerardo Rodriguez and Sean Griffin (fight choreographers), Ludmila "ludji" Brito (assistant director), Ignacia Delgado (dramaturg), Telsey + Company / William Cantler, CSA, Destiny Lilly, CSA (casting), and P. Tyler Britt (production stage manager).

Performances of The Siblings Play will take place March 4 - April 5, 2020 (see schedule above) at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, 224 Waverly Place, Manhattan. Critics are welcome as of March 12 for an official opening on March 18. Ticketsa??-priced $45 general admission, $60 premium reserved seats, $30 for seniors, artists, and $20 for students-can be purchased by visiting rattlestick.org or by calling 212-627-2556. Standard ticketing fees apply to all orders. For group sale, please call 212-627-2556.

The Siblings Play is working with six Community Partners (Counseling in Schools, The Drama Club, Healing Tree, New York Foundling, The Possibility Project, and Student Leadership Network) on a series of post-show conversations and student matinees along with involving young ambassadors with lived experience into the production process.

The Siblings Play was funded in part with a grant from the NYC & Company Foundation; with additional funding by William Holtzman and the Axe-Houghton Foundation. It has been developed through Cherry Lane's Mentor Project and the Ojai Conference. Ren Dara Santiago is 2019-2020 Tow Foundation Playwright-in-Residence.

Visit rattlestick.org for more information.

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