Nathan Louis Jackson's Broke-ology opens tomorrow night at Kansas City Repertory Theatre's Copaken Stage. Kyle Hatley, assistant artistic director for the Rep, directs.
Broke-ology is an absorbing family drama that speaks to our times. Written with crackling dialogue and a light comic touch, Jackson draws on his own family's dynamics to create a character study about two brothers who are trapped between their dreams and their obligations. When they are called upon to care for their ailing father, difficult choices are set in motion: who will follow the life he dreams of and who will stay behind?
Broke-ology premiered in 2008 at the
Williamstown Theatre Festival and had its New York premiere in October 2009 at
Lincoln Center Theater. Kansas City Rep artistic director
Eric Rosen, while in New York last year to stage the Lincoln Center run of his hip-hop musical Clay, negotiated for the Rep to produce Broke-ology immediately following the show's New York debut.
A native of Kansas City, Kansas, Jackson attended Kansas State University and trained at The Juilliard School. In addition to Broke-ology, he has written When I Come to Die, The Mancherios and The Last Black Play. He has participated in the Kennedy Center Summer Playwriting Intensive, the
William Inge 24-Hour Play Festival, Ebony Theater's "The Word" (monthly poetry slam) and was on the Kansas State University Speech Team. He is a two-time AFA Prose Interpretation champion, a two-time
Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award winner, a
Mark Twain Comedy Playwriting Award winner and a recipient of the Kennedy Center's Gold Medallion. He currently is writing for NBC's "Southland".
At Kansas City Rep, Hatley directed The Borderland in 2009, and this season has served as assistant director for Moisés Kaufman on Into the Woods and for
Eric Rosen on the world premiere of A Christmas Story, The Musical!, and also assisted New York's Tectonic Theatre Project on a series of Kansas City workshops for The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later (An Epilogue). He has written and directed for the Kansas City Fringe Festival and Chatterbox Audio Theater, of which he is artistic director, and a recipient of the Silver Ogle Award for excellence. Hatley was recently named Best Director for 2009 in The Best of Kansas City Pitch Awards.
The all-
Actors' Equity cast of Broke-ology includes
Shamika Cotton (Sonia) who has performed in New York in the premiere of Missives, Ain't Supposed to Die..., Iphigenia and A Midsummer Night's Dream. She has appeared on "Law & Order", "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" and HBO's "The Wire", in which she portrayed the controversial Raylene Lee.
Larry Powell (Malcolm) was a member of
The Acting Company for the Lincoln Center production of Broke-ology. He earned his B.F.A. in acting from
Carnegie Mellon University.
Postell Pringle (Ennis) appeared Off-Broadway in The Seven, Romeo and Juliet, Song for New York and Hoodoo Love and in Chicago in Funk It Up About Nothin' at the
Chicago Shakespeare Theatre (
Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Ensemble), which also ran at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. His film and television credits include Odd Man Out, Unknown Soldier, Edge of Town, "Law & Order" and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent".
David Emerson Toney (William) returns to Kansas City Rep, having appeared in Two Trains Running and the 1991 production of King Lear. In New York, he has acted on Broadway in Juan Darien at Lincoln Center and Off-Broadway in Richard III, Once on this Island and Dennis. His regional credits include productions at Contemporary American Theatre Festival,
Arena Stage,
Old Globe Theatre and the Utah Shakespearean Festival. He also has acted in the films The Thomas Crown Affair and Lonely in America and on television in "Law & Order" and "The Cosby Show".
The creative team is made up of set designer Meghan Raham (KC Rep and Lincoln Center runs of Clay, Kyle Hatley's The Borderland, recipient of 2009 Princess Grace Theatre Honoraria); costume designer Nadine Grant (KC Rep: The Borderland); lighting designer Victor En Yu Tan (many KC Rep, Broadway, Off-Broadway and international productions); sound designer Merlin James Alexandre Salisbury (KC Rep: assistant sound designer, Into the Woods and The Borderland) and composer Tim Munger (KC Rep design debut).
All performances and events will take place at Copaken Stage located downtown at 13th and Walnut streets in the H&R Block World Headquarters. Tickets for Broke-ology cost $15-$55; youth tickets (18 years and younger) are $15. For information about performance times and ticket options, call the Rep Box Office at 816-235-2700 or visit
www.KCRep.org.
about kansas city repertory theatre
Now in its 45th year, Kansas City Repertory Theatre is one of the nation's leading professional theatres and a member of the League of Resident Theatres. The Rep produces a full season of plays and events at Spencer Theatre on the UMKC campus, where the Rep is the professional theatre in residence, and at Copaken Stage downtown. Its diverse repertoire includes new works, musicals and classics of literature. The theatre serves approximately 100,000 patrons annually and employs more than 250 professional artists, technicians and administrators. This year, more than 8,500 students from 150 schools in the two-state region will attend special matinee performances, and more than 1,200 students will experience the Rep's classroom programming and workshops.
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