BERNARDA'S DAUGHTERS Celebrates Haitian Flag Day With Special Event This Week

Bernarda's Daughters celebrates Haitian Flag Day with a post-show panel and reception following the 7:30pm performance on Thursday, May 18, when The New Group and National Black Theatre host "Tout Moun Se Moun," a panel featuring Haitian-American artists and cultural workers in discussion about the presence of Haitian art and culture in New York City and elsewhere in the diaspora. Following the panel, the audience is invited to a reception in the lobby featuring Haitian food and special cocktails. This event is FREE and open to all ticket holders on May 18. Audience members attending the event will receive a drink ticket, redeemable at the Signature Café + Bar after the performance and panel.

Panelists include artists tasha dougé and Madjeen Isaac, and Wynnie Lamour, the founder and managing director of The Haitian Creole Language Institute of New York. The panel will be moderated by playwright Diane Exavier. "Tout moun se moun" is a Haitian proverb which translates to "Every person is a human being." Haitian Flag Day commemorates Haiti's independence from France and the adoption of the Flag of Haiti on May 18, 1803. A national holiday in Haiti that is also observed in a number of US cities, Haitian Flag Day celebrates Haitian patriotism and cultural heritage.

Previews for Bernarda's Daughters began May 4 in advance of an Official Opening Night on Tuesday, May 23 at The Pershing Square Signature Center (The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre, 480 West 42ndStreet).

Amid gentrifying construction, street protests and a sweltering summer in Flatbush, the five Abellard sisters take refuge in their family home. Simmering in the losses of their father and their neighborhood, they clash over how to contend with the legacy of their Haitian parents in a city that is no longer theirs. Inspired by Federico García Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba but with a breathtaking immediacy, playwright Diane Exavier brings to life a powerful ensemble of women to create this sensual and entrancing portrait of a family at a crossroads.

Bernarda's Daughters features Pascale Armand (Eclipsed, Tony Award nominee), Alana Raquel Bowers (What to Send Up When It Goes Down), Kristin Dodson (Flatbush Misdemeanors), Malika Samuel (Our Dear Dead Drug Lord), Taji Senior (Off-Broadway debut) and Tamara Tunie (Law & Order: SVU; Familiar, Obie Award winner).

This production includes Scenic Design by Carlos J. Soto, Costume Design by Rodrigo Muñoz, Lighting Design by Marika Kent and Sound Design by Kathy Ruvuna. The Dramaturg is Nissy Aya. Dialect Coach is Cherie Rice. Movement Coordinator is Ashley Chavonne. Casting Director is The Telsey Company/ Destiny Lilly, CSA. Production Stage Manager is Rachel Denise April. Assistant Stage Manager is Sydneii Colter.

This co-production from The New Group and National Black Theatre marks the world premiere of Bernarda's Daughters, which debuted as an audio play from The New Group Off Stage with Audible Originals in March 2022.

The New Group was most recently represented by the world premiere of The Seagull/Woodstock, NY, by Thomas Bradshaw, adapted from Chekhov, with David Cale, Ato Essandoh, Patrick Foley, Hari Nef, Daniel Oreskes, Parker Posey, Bill Sage, Aleyse Shannon, Amy Stiller and Nat Wolff, directed by Scott Elliott, which enjoyed an extended run. In Fall 2022, the company was represented Off-Broadway by Will Arbery's Evanston Salt Costs Climbing, directed by Danya Taymor. Also ahead from The New Group Off Stage, the world premiere of Lypsinka: Toxic Femininity, a new film written and performed by John Epperson and directed by Chloë Sevigny.

National Black Theatre's 55th season, NBT: Beyond Walls: Love, A Ritual of Repair, serves as a platform to uplift and amplify the transformative and healing power of the love emanating from within the Black community. On June 18, 2023, NBT will host Hidden Conversations in partnership with Park Avenue Armory - a celebration of Juneteenth and National Black Theatre's Founder's Day, centering new work by Claudia Rankine, and complete with an investigation of a lost interview between Audre Lorde and James Baldwin. From June 15 through June 25, 2023, NBT will celebrate the debut of Black Mother Lost Daughter (BMLD) - a co-production with The Flea - a searing and haunted play from the mind of playwright Fedna Jacquet that invites viewers to consider the gap between justice and responsibility. Intimate and emotional, Black Mother Lost Daughter details how a national reckoning echoes in the lives of three women.