Alexandra Silber, Jason Bowen & More to Star in THE HALF-GOD OF RAINFALL at New York Theatre Workshop

New York Theatre Workshop has announced the full cast and creative team for The Half-God of Rainfall, a co-production with American Repertory Theater by Hay Festival Medal for Poetry winner Inua Ellams (Barber Shop Chronicles), directed by Obie Award winner and NYTW Usual Suspect Taibi Magar (Help), with movement direction by Orlando Pabotoy (Henry VI, Part 1, 2, 3). The Half-God of Rainfall will begin previews July 13, 2023, at New York Theatre Workshop (79 E 4th Street), with opening night set for July 31, for a run through August 20, 2023.
 
The cast of The Half-God of Rainfall will include Jason Bowen (The Play That Goes Wrong) as Sàngó, Mister Fitzgerald (On Sugarland) as Demi, Patrice Johnson Chevannes (In Old Age) as Osún, Michael Laurence (Coal Country) as Zeus, Lizan Mitchell (On Sugarland) as Elegba, Jennifer Mogbock (Merry Wives) as Modúpé and Alexandra Silber (Fiddler on the Roof) as Hera.
 
The Half-God of Rainfall will feature scenic design by Riccardo Hernandez (Light Shining in Buckinghamshire), costume design by Linda Cho (Endlings), lighting design by Stacey Derosier (How to Defend Yourself), sound design by Mikaal Sulaiman (On Sugarland), and projection design by Tal Yarden (Lazarus). Ann James (How to Defend Yourself) serves as Intimacy Director with Dawn-Elin Fraser (How to Defend Yourself) as Voice and Dialect Director, and Caroline Englander (runboyrun/In Old Age) as Stage Manager.
 
When Demi, the half Nigerian-mortal, half Greek-god, is angry, rain clouds gather. When he cries, rivers burst their banks. And the first time he takes a shot on a basketball court, the deities of the land wake up. 
 
From award-winning poet and playwright Inua Ellams comes a new myth that spans continents and millennia. The Half-God of Rainfall is a contemporary epic that weaves poetry and storytelling in a majestic journey that transports us from a tiny village in South West Nigeria to an NBA arena in the United States to the hallowed halls of Mount Olympus, where the mothers, daughters and goddesses take a stand against the fragile, furious and entitled gods. 
 
The Half-God of Rainfall details but does not depict sexual violence.
 
The performance schedule for The Half-God of Rainfall is as follows: Tuesday-Thursday at 7pm; Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm & 8pm; Sunday at 2pm & 7pm. Exceptions: there will be no performances Saturday July 15 at 2pm; Tuesday August 1; and Sunday August 20 at 7pm. There will be an added performance Wednesday August 16 at 2pm.
 
Single tickets for The Half-God of Rainfall start at $35 and vary by performance date and time. $25 tickets will be available for the first two CHEAPTIX performances on July 13th and 14th. Single tickets for The Half-God of Rainfall are on sale now at NYTW.org or by calling 212-460-5475.
 
In order to provide access to those in their surrounding community and those with income limitations, NYTW launched CHEAPTIX, an affordable ticket program. At the first two performances of every NYTW production, tickets are sold to the general public for just $25. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis, online at NYTW.org or by phone from the NYTW Box Office at 212-460-5475. Standard ticketing fees apply.
 
Additionally, a $25 day-of CHEAPTIX RUSH will be available for young people, seniors, artists and Lower East Side residents. Rush tickets are subject to availability and are sold cash-only, limit two per person. Proper identification is required for all rush tickets. Youth (ages 25 and under) and seniors (ages 65+) may present an ID indicating date-of-birth; Artists may present an ID and a program or union card; Lower East Side residents may present an ID that includes your address.
 
The NYTW 2022/23 season began with american (tele)visions by Tow Playwright-in-Residence Victor I. Cazares (Pinching Pennies with Penny Marshall), directed by NYTW Usual Suspect Rubén Polendo (); followed by Merrily We Roll Along, featuring music & lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, a book by George Furth, and based on the original play by George S. Kaufman & Moss Hart. Directed by Olivier Award winner Maria Friedman and choreographed by Tim Jackson, Merrily We Roll Along was presented by special arrangement with Sonia Friedman Productions, the Menier Chocolate Factory (Artistic Director, David Babani), and Patrick Catullo. The season continued in 2023 with the 2019 winner of the Yale Drama Prize, How to Defend Yourself by Liliana Padilla (Born 1000 Times), co-directed by Tony Award winner and NYTW Usual Suspect Rachel Chavkin (Hadestown), Liliana Padilla and Helen Hayes Award winner Steph Paul (The Last Match).
 
 
American Repertory Theater at Harvard University is a leading force in the American theater, producing groundbreaking work that is driven by risk-taking and passionate inquiry to catalyze dialogue and transformation. Led by Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director Diane Paulus and Executive Director Kelvin Dinkins, Jr., A.R.T.’s Tony Award-winning and nominated productions include Jagged Little Pill; Waitress; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812; All the Way; The Glass Menagerie; Pippin; Once; The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. West End: Waitress, Nice Fish, The Glass Menagerie. Other international: Waitress, Nice Fish, The Glass Menagerie, Once (West End); Waitress, Pippin (Japan); Jagged Little Pill, Pippin (Australia); Sleep No More (China). Currently: 1776 National Tour (following 2022/23 Broadway run); Jagged Little Pill North American Tour; Sleep No More in New York City. 
 
New York Theatre Workshop empowers visionary theatre-makers and brings their work to adventurous audiences through productions, artist workshops and education and community engagement programs. We nurture pioneering new writers alongside powerhouse playwrights, engage inimitable genre-shaping directors, and support emerging artists in the earliest days of their careers. We’ve mounted over 150 productions from artists whose work has shaped our very idea of what theatre can be, including Jonathan Larson's Rent; Tony Kushner's Slavs! and Homebody/Kabul; Doug Wright's Quills; Claudia Shear's Blown Sideways Through Life and Dirty Blonde; Paul Rudnick's The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told and Valhalla; Martha Clarke’s Vienna: Lusthaus; Will Power’s The Seven and Fetch Clay, Make Man; Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest, Far Away, A Number and Love and Information; Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen’s Aftermath; Rick Elice’s Peter and the Starcatcher; Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová and Enda Walsh’s Once; David Bowie and Enda Walsh’s Lazarus; Dael Orlandersmith’s The Gimmick and Forever; Heidi Schreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me; Jeremy O. Harris’s Slave Play; Kristina Wong’s Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord; Aleshea Harris’s On Sugarland; and eight acclaimed productions directed by Ivo van Hove. NYTW’s productions have received a Pulitzer Prize, 25 Tony Awards, 2 Grammy Awards and numerous Obie, Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Awards. NYTW is represented on Broadway with Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown, developed with and directed by Rachel Chavkin; and the upcoming Broadway engagement of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Merrily We Roll Along, directed by Maria Friedman and choreographed by Tim Jackson.
 
Alongside its artistic and community engagement activities, NYTW is engaged in the essential, sustained commitment of becoming an anti-racist organization in support and affirmation of Black people, Indigenous people and People of Color in its community. In June of 2020, NYTW published its Core Values statement and initial action and accountability steps. In an effort to provide greater transparency, NYTW shares progress updates, further commitments and next steps at nytw.org/accountability.
 

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