.jpg "Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts Present IN CASE YOU HADN'T HEARD")
Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts, in partnership with Eastville Community Historical Society and the Southampton African American Museum, has announced the online world premiere of In Case You Hadn't Heard: A Conversation Between America's Past And Its Promise, a provocative view of race in America, on Monday, February 22, at 8 p.m. EST at baystreet.org.
The theatrical presentation is adapted and directed by Reggie D. White and stars Darryl Gene Daughtry Jr, Crystal Dickinson, Jason Veasey, and Clarissa Vickerie. The evening will include a talkback between the director and the actors, led by Dr. Georgette Grier-Key of Eastville Community Historical Society. Tickets are $10 and are available for purchase online 24/7 at baystreet.org.
In Case You Hadn't Heard: A Conversation Between America's Past and Its Promise is a provocative and unvarnished look at issues surrounding race in America. The world-premiere theatrical presentation is adapted and directed by
Reggie D. White, and sources found text to draw on the words of twenty thought-leaders of the past and present. Their words are brought together to create a "conversation" between a group of four actors, as they candidly discuss what it means to be black in America. As words from the past and hopes for the future collide, a frank and forthright dialogue pours forth, sounding a call to action. This presentation includes language that may be upsetting to some viewers.
The content of In Case You Haven't Heard is drawn from speeches and writings of 20 influential African Americans:
"Bay Street is so excited to present this bold and frank theatrical piece," says Artistic Director Scott Schwartz, "Reggie D. White has created a fascinating conversation using the words of great thinkers, activists, and leaders, and we hope it will inspire further conversations among our audience and community."
"The fight for transformational racial justice in this country is an ongoing four-century-long endeavor," says adapter and director
Reggie D. White. "In that time, we've heard millions of souls raise their voices in spaces big and small. In Case You Hadn't Heard images a forward-looking conversation between those souls-with gratitude for the legacy they've left us and fully aware of how much work is left ahead. This piece lifts up the thoughts, hopes, and worries of 20 Americans who have given their voices, their time, and their lives to the cause of our collective liberation. In Case You Hadn't Heard is a love letter to the joy, passion, and brilliance that have been the lifeblood of our enduring fight to make America live up to the promises she made to herself."
Reggie D. White is a New York-based multidisciplinary artist and educator who most recently appeared in the
Vineyard Theatre's virtual piece, Lessons in Survival, which he co-conceived. Before Broadway began its indefinite shutdown, he also appeared in the 11-time Tony-nominated two-part epic, The Inheritance. Other acting credits include NYTW,
The Public Theater, 59E59, Arden Theatre, Berkeley Rep, and La Jolla Playhouse. As a director, his work has been featured at Bay Street Theater,
The Public Theater, Atlantic Acting School, New York Winterfest, Bay Area Children's Theatre, Berkeley Playhouse, AlterTheatre Ensemble, and more. He is an alumnus of the Atlantic Acting School, where he now serves as School Artistic Director, a recipient of the TBA TITAN Award, the TCG Fox Fellowship, and is a company member of The Williams Project, a living wage theatre company.
reggiedwhite.com.
Darryl Gene Daughtry, Jr hails from Pittsburgh and is an MFA graduate of the Juilliard Drama Program's Group 48. Prior to Juilliard, Darryl spent his undergraduate years at Temple University, earning a BA in Theater Studies. Beyond acting, Darryl dabbles in both fashion and music production. He also spent two summers in Botswana as a teaching artist, working alongside both students and the surrounding community. His Off-Broadway credits include
The Public Theatre's Shakespeare in the Park productions of Coriolanus, directed by
Dan Sullivan. Broadway credits include The Inheritance by
Matthew Lopez, directed by Stephan Daldry.
Crystal Dickinson is an actor, educator, and a New Jersey native. Her Broadway credits include the Tony Award-winning play, Clybourne Park, for which she received an illustrious Theater World Award, and the Tony-nominated play, You Can't Take It With You, alongside
James Earl Jones and
Rose Byrne. She has performed Off-Broadway at Lincoln Center,
The Public Theater, Playwrights Horizons, and The Signature Theater, and most recently Theater for A New Audience. Film and television credits include: I Origins, This Is Where I Leave You, The Good Wife, Feed the Beast, New Amsterdam, and recurring roles on Showtime's The Chi and ABC's For Life. Crystal has had an illustrious career teaching acting and coaching at Juilliard,
Stella Adler Studio, Spelman College, NYU, Princeton, Pace University, and both of her alumni schools, University of Illinois and Seton Hall University. A proud MFA graduate of The University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, she also studied at the London Academy for Music and Dramatic Art, and is an elite member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab.
Jason Veasey is a New York-based actor and singer who has been fortunate to do what he loves on stage and screen. Most notably on Broadway in The Lion King as well as the touring company. On Stage he was most recently seen in the critically acclaimed A Strange Loop at Playwrights Horizons. He's also been seen at
The Public Theater, Actors Theater of Louisville, The Denver Center, and many other theaters! On the big screen, he has been seen in American Gangster. Television credits include Chicago Fire, High Maintenance, and the upcoming Starling. Twitter and Instagram: @veaseyville
Clarissa Vickerie is a New York-based actress whose most recent works include Lordes at the New Ohio Theater, A Little Water Clears Us at the Wolfson Gielgud Studio in London, and stage-managing an Off-Broadway production entitled Over the Rainbow: The Rock Ballet. She is a graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where she received training at the Atlantic Acting School, and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. She has also trained with the Black Arts Intensive at the
Billie Holiday Theater in Brooklyn, New York. Instagram: @clarissa.vickerie.
Dr. Georgette Lovette Grier-Key is currently the inaugural Executive Director of Eastville Community Historical Society. Ms. Grier-Key is a National Trust for Historic Preservation Diversity Scholar and an Arcus Fellow, and is the President of the Long Island Historical Societies, previously called the Association of Suffolk County Historical Societies (ASCHS). Under her leadership the organization has expanded their geographic territory from Montauk to Brooklyn and successfully applied for an organization name change with approval from the New York State Board of Regents. As a founding member and lead organizer of the Pyrrhus Concer Action Committee her continued work led to the purchasing of the Concer property and continued rebuilding of the formerly enslaved Pyrrhus Concer's homestead in the heart of Southampton Village. Historic African-American communities Sag Harbor Hills, Azurest, and Ninevah (SANS) in Sag Harbor recently achieved national and state historic designations, to which she served as the lead advisor.
Eastville Community Historical Society is a Sag Harbor-based not-for-profit committed to preserving historic buildings within the Eastville area of Sag Harbor, New York, and to the research, collection, and dissemination of information regarding the history of the community. The historical area is recognized as one of the earliest known working-class communities composed of African Americans, Native Americans and European immigrants.
Founded in 2005, the Southampton African American Museum (SAAM) began under the name The East End African American Museum and Center for Excellence, and since its founding has functioned as a virtual museum, hosting events such as the annual Southampton African American Film Festival. Located at 245 North Sea Road in Southampton, in a building affectionately referred to as "The Barbershop," as it was a local gathering place for African Americans of the area from the 1940s until its closing. In 2010, the Village Historic Preservation Board designated it as the first African American historic landmark in the Village of Southampton.
Bay Street Theater is a year-round, not-for-profit professional theater and community cultural center, which endeavors to innovate, educate, and entertain a diverse community through the practice of the performing arts. It serves as a social and cultural gathering place, an educational resource, and a home for a community of artists.
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