Unicorn Theatre Presents Nottage's Pulitzer Winning Play, RUINED, 4/16-5/1

Unicorn Theatre and UMKC Theatre partner again, this time to produce Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize Winning play, RUINED. This partnership, now in the third season, has great impact for both organizations. Graduate students pursuing their MFA in performance or design work right along professional actors, designer and directors to hone their crafts in a practical format. The Unicorn gains access to talented, young artists before they even start out their careers. Many students who have worked here as students, have since been hired back as professionals when they graduate.

Directed by Ricardo Khan, Ruined features Nedra Dixon, Caroline Gombe, Walter Coppage, John Rensenhouse, Damron Russel Armstrong, Mykel Hill, Chioma Anyanwu, Samra Teferra, Tosin Morohunfola, John L. Lewis, Rufus Burns, Bradley Turner, Kaevan Tavakolinia, Pablo Sanhueza and Richard Gumbel.

RUINED will play on the Unicorn's Mainstage located at 3828 Main Street, Kansas City, MO 64111. Previews are April 13, 14 and 15. The play runs April 16 - May 1. There will be no performance on Easter, April 24. Performances Tuesday through Thursday are at 7:30 pm, Friday and Saturday at 8:00 pm and Sunday at 3:00 pm. Join us for a talk back immediately after the show with the director, actors and real Congolese refugees on April 19 and 26.

To purchase tickets, call 816-531-PLAY (7529) EXT. 10, online at www.UnicornTheatre.org or in person at the box office located at 3828 Main Street, Kansas City, MO 64111. Regular run tickets start at just $27.50. Preview tickets start at just $22.50. Special discounts are available for seniors (60+), Students and Patrons Under 30.

From Lynn Nottage, the author of Intimate Apparel (produced by the Unicorn in 2007), comes this haunting, probing work about the resilience of the human spirit during times of war. Set in a small mining town in Democratic Republic of Congo, this powerful play follows Mama Nadi, a shrewd businesswoman in a land torn apart by civil war. But is she protecting or profiting by the women she shelters? How far will she go to survive? Can a price be placed on a human life? Inspired by her interviews with Congo refugees, Nottage has crafted an uncommonly human story with humor and song served alongside postcolonial and feminist politics.

Lynn Nottage is a playwright from Brooklyn. Her plays include Intimate Apparel, Fabulation or the Re-Education of Undine, Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Las Meninas, and Ruined. They have been produced and developed at theatres both nationally and internationally, including the Manhattan Theatre Club, the Goodman Theatre, the Roundabout Theatre Company, Playwrights Horizons, Center Stage, South Coast Rep., Second Stage, Freedom Theatre, Sundance Institute Theatre Lab, Unicorn Theatre, St. Louis Black Rep., Crossroads Theatre, Intiman, San Jose Rep., Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Steppenwolf, Yale Rep., The Vineyard Theatre, among many others.

The cast of RUINED includes Nedra Dixon as Mama Nadi (previously at the Unicorn: And Her Hair Went With Her, Bare and The Women of Brewster Place), Caroline Gombe as Sophie (Unicorn and Kansas City debut), Samra Teferra as Salima (Unicorn debut; UMKC Graduate Student), Chioma Anyanwu as Josephine (previously at the Unicorn: The Women of Brewster Place), Walter Coppage as Christian (recently at the Unicorn: The Clean House, Well and Permanent Collection), John Rensehouse as Mr. Harari (previously at the Unicorn: Art), Mykel Hill as Commander Osembenga (previously at the Unicorn: Intimate Apparel, Crowns and Blues for an Alabama Sky), Damron Russel Armstrong as Jerome Kisembe (recently at the Unicorn: Crowns, TopDog/UnderDog, and BatBoy: The Musical), Tosin Morohunfola as Fortune (previously at the Unicorn: Speech & Debate), Rufus Burns as Simon (Unicorn debut: UMKC Graduate Student), Bradley Turner as Laurent (Unicorn debut: UMKC Student), John L. Lewis IV as Soldier (Unicorn debut: UMKC Graduate Student), Kaevan Tavakolinia as Aid Worker (Unicorn debut: UMKC Student) with Richard Gumbel on Guitar (Unicorn debut) and Pablo Sanhueza on Drums (Unicorn debut).

Director Ricardo Khan is a Tony Award Winner and the Co-founder and Resident Director of the Crossroads Theatre Company in New Brunswick, NJ. Under his direction, Crossroads won the 1999 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theater in America, making it one of the nation's most acclaimed Black theater companies in history. Beyond the Crossroads stage, Ricardo Khan's creative reach extends globally to South Africa and London, where he has based his newest endeavor, an international writers' collective called The World Theatre Lab. Out of that Lab in Johannesburg came his most recent project, Train to 2010, which saw its first production at UMKC last year followed by the professional premiere at Crossroads. Mr. Khan is also a resident director at Lincoln Center Institute at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York, a visiting professor in the graduate theatre program for the University of Missouri in Kansas City, and an often active member of the Market Theatre in Johannesburg.

The creative team also includes Erin Walley for scenic design (Unicorn debut: UMKC Graduate Student), Latrice Lovett for lighting design (previously at the Unicorn: Green Whales; UMKC Graduate Student), Ryan Matthew Hall for sound design (Unicorn debut; UMKC Graduate Student), Megan Turek for costume design (previously at Unicorn: Grey Gardens), Kristin Yager for properties design (Unicorn debut; UMKC Graduate Student), Natalie Liccardello as dramaturg (Unicorn debut; UMKC Graduate Student), Erika Bailey as dialect coach (previously at Unicorn: 9 Parts of Desire and The Lieutenant of Inishmore)and Jinni Pike as Stage Manager (recently at the Unicorn: In The Next Room, Distracted, [title of show], And Her Hair Went With Her... and Grey Gardens).

*talk back performance with the director, actors and Congolese refugees.

Find more information online at www.UnicornTheatre.org

 

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