Karen Hartman And Kenny Leon's GOOD FAITH Completes Yale Rep's 18-19 Lineup

Yale Repertory Theatre (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director) will present the world premiere of GOOD FAITH: Four Chats about Race and the New Haven Fire Department, a new play by Karen Hartman, directed by Kenny Leon, February 1-23, 2019.

GOOD FAITH, a play inspired by the landmark labor case Ricci v. DeStefano, is an imaginative response to transcripts, interviews, and the many histories of New Haven.

The Yale Rep commission, GOOD FAITH, completes the 2018-19 season lineup, which includes the previously announced world premiere of EL HURACÁN by Charise Castro Smith, directed by Laurie Woolery, presented in collaboration with The Sol Project (September 28-October 20); the American premiere of THE PRISONER, with text and stage direction by Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne (November 2-17); a new production of William Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT directed by Carl Cofield (March 15-April 6); and the world premiere of CADILLAC CREW by Tori Sampson, directed by Jesse Rasmussen (April 26-May 18).

"It is a pleasure to welcome Karen Hartman and Kenny Leon, in their Yale Rep debuts, to a season that promises five thrillingly singular theatrical experiences for adventurous theatergoers," said Artistic Director James Bundy. "I am thrilled that Yale Rep audiences will be the first to see Good Faith, a remarkable new American play that speaks of and to New Haven and its place in national conversations about what is fair and just."

Can the stories of a small American city tell the truth of an entire nation? In 2009, the Supreme Court ruled that the City of New Haven violated the civil rights of a group of firefighters who were passed over for promotion. Two national election cycles later, the lead plaintiff, now an instructor at the Fire Academy, schools new recruits on the methods and values of the department. Across town in a Greek diner, two former Fire Department colleagues continue to debate the personal and political impact of the decision. Through distinct, at times directly oppositional, individual voices, GOOD FAITH reveals the soul of New Haven.

Karen Hartman had four productions of three world premieres in 2016-17, all of which continued around the country in 2017-18: Roz and Ray (Edgerton Foundation New Play Award), The Book of Joseph, and Project Dawn (NEA Grant, NNPN Rolling World Premiere). Other works include Goldie, Max, and Milkn (Steinberg and Carbonell Nominations), SuperTrue (Kilroy's List),
Goliath (Dorothy Silver New Play Prize), Gum, Leah's Train (Weissberger Finalist), Going Gone (NEA Grant), Girl Under Grain (Best Drama, NY Fringe), ALICE: Tales of a Curious Girl (Music by Gina Leishman, AT&T Onstage Award), and Troy Women. Regional: Center Stage, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Cincinnati Playhouse, Dallas Theater Center, People's Light, Seattle Repertory Theater, Victory Gardens, and elsewhere. New York: Women's Project, NAATCO, P73, Summer Play Festival. Publications: TCG, Dramatists Play Service, Playscripts, Backstage Books, NoPassport. Honors: McKnight Residency, New Dramatists alumna, Bellagio, Helen Merrill Foundation, Hodder Fellowship, Jerome Fellowship, Fulbright Scholarship. Prose: The New York Timesand The Washington Post. Ms. Hartman is Senior Artist in Residence at University of Washington, Seattle. She holds a BA and an MFA from Yale. karenhartman.org/

Kenny Leon is a Tony Award-winning Broadway and television director. His Broadway credits include the revival of Children of a Lesser God;the Tupac musical Holler If Ya Hear Me; A Raisin in the Sunstarring Denzel Washington (Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play and Best Revival of a Play); The Mountaintopstarring Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett; Stick Flyproduced by Alicia Keys; August Wilson's Fences(which garnered ten Tony nominations and won three Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Play), Gem of the Ocean,and Radio Golf; as well as A Raisin in the Sun starring Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, Phylicia Rashad, and Audra McDonald. He also directed Smart People for Second Stage. Leon's recent television work includes Hairspray Live!and The Wiz Live!on NBC. He is the recipient of the 2016 Mr. Abbott Award for Lifetime Achievement in Directing and the 2010 Award for Excellence in Directing from the Drama League. Mr. Leon serves on the board of New York's Public Theater and is Artistic Director of Atlanta's Kenny Leon's True Colors Theatre Company.

Yale Repertory Theatre, the internationally celebrated professional theatre in residence at Yale School of Drama, has championed new work since 1966, producing well over 100 premieres-including two Pulitzer Prize winners and four other nominated finalists-by emerging and established playwrights. Seventeen Yale Rep productions have advanced to Broadway, garnering more than 40 Tony Award nominations and ten Tony Awards. Yale Rep is also the recipient of the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre.

Established in 2008, Yale's Binger Center for New Theatre has distinguished itself as one of the nation's most robust and innovative new play programs. To date, the Binger Center has supported the work of more than 50 commissioned artists and underwritten the world premieres and subsequent productions of 30 new American plays and musicals at Yale Rep and theatres around the country--including next season's El Huracánby Charise Castro Smith, Good Faith by Karen Hartman, and Cadillac Crew by Tori Sampson.

Yale Repertory Theatre offers a variety of subscription packages, starting at less than $35 per ticket for the general public at $10 for students.

5-Play and 3-Play Subscriptions are available online at yalerep.org, by phone at (203) 432-1234, and in person at the Yale Rep Box Office (1120 Chapel Street). Individual and group tickets for the entire season will go on sale on August 28.

Yale Repertory Theatre is supported in part for the Connecticut Office of the Arts.

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