SUGAR IN OUR WOUNDS Begins Performances April 20 At Richmond Triangle Players

Richmond Triangle Players continues its 29th season with Donja R. Love's powerful and evocative Sugar in Our Wounds. The show will preview on Wednesday and Thursday April 20 and 21st, open on April 22, and will run through Saturday May 14.

It's summer 1862. On a plantation somewhere down South - maybe not far from Richmond - a mystical tree reaches up toward heaven. Generations of slaves have been hanged on this tree, and their voices can still be heard when the stars align just right. The tree protects James, a young slave, while he reads newspapers about the imminent possibility of freedom, while the Civil War rages on. When a brooding stranger arrives, James and his makeshift family take the man in. Soon, an unexpected bond leads to a striking romance, and everyone is in uncharted territory. But is love powerful enough to set your true self free?.

Jónel Jones plays the central role of James in Triangle Players' production. Durron Marquis Tyre plays the brooding Henry, James' family includes Dorothy "Dee D." Miller (Aunt Mama), and Tyra Huckaby (Mattie) and Charlotte Grace Smith is the plantation owner's daughter Isabel. Directing the production is Lucretia Marie, with set design by William Luther, costume, hair and make-up design by Margarette Joyner, lighting design by Steven Koehler and Sound Design by Kyle Epps. The stage manager is Shawanna Hall.

Donja R. Love is an Afro-Queer playwright, poet, and filmmaker from Philadelphia. He's the recipient of the 2018 Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award, the 2017 Princess Grace Playwriting Fellowship, The Lark's 2016 Van Lier New Voices Playwriting Fellowship, The Playwrights Realm's 2016-2017 Writing Fellowship, and the 2016 Arch and Bruce Brown Playwriting Award. His work has been developed at Manhattan Theatre Club, Rising Circle Theater Collective, The Lark, and The Playwrights Realm. He's the co-founder of The Each-Other Project, an organization that helps build community and provide visibility, through art and advocacy, for LGBTQ People of Color. Select stage-plays include: The Love* Plays (Sugar in Our Wounds, Fireflies, and In the Middle), a trilogy which explores Queer Love* during pivotal moments in Black History; and Soft. Select film work includes: "Modern Day Black Gay" (web series), and "Once A Star" (short film).

RTP will continue to play to full capacity for this production, while complying with current CDC-recommended safety protocols. All staff, artists and volunteers involved with the production are fully vaccinated; RTP patrons will be required to show proof of vaccination prior to entering the building. Those unable to be vaccinated must show a negative PCR test taken no more than 48 hours prior to attending. Masks are required to be worn by everyone inside the building. RTP's fabled bar will be in operation for all performances, utilizing a new mobile ordering system which eliminates standing in line to order, and provides easy contactless pick-up.

Tickets for all performances are on sale now. The production takes place at Richmond Triangle Players' home at the Robert B. Moss Theatre at 1300 Altamont Avenue in Scott's Addition, just northwest of the intersection of Arthur Ashe Boulevard and West Broad Street. Reserved seat tickets can be purchased online at RTP's web site at www.rtriangle.org, through RTP's Facebook page, or by leaving a message on the RTP Ticket hotline at 804-346-8113. Reserved seat tickets are $35 for Friday and Saturday evenings, and $30 for Wednesday and Thursday evenings, and Sunday matinees. The lower-priced previews are $18; and student tickets are always $10 at any performance.

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