EXCEPTION TO THE RULE by Dave Harris Begins Final Two Weeks at Roundabout Underground

Roundabout Theatre Company will conclude the Roundabout Underground world premiere of Exception to the Rule by Dave Harris (2022 Outer Critics Circle Award nominee, Tambo & Bones), directed by Roundabout Resident Director Miranda Haymon on Sunday, June 26.

Exception to the Rule features Mayaa Boateng as "Erika," Malik Childs as "Tommy," Mister Fitzgerald as "Abdul," Toney Goins as "Dayrin," Amandla Jahava as "Mikayla," and Claudia Logan as "Dasani."

At the time of closing, Exception to the Rule will have played 24 preview performances and 47 regular performances. Previews began Thursday, April 28, 2022 and opened on Wednesday, May 18, 2022 at the Black Box Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (111 West 46th Street). All tickets for Roundabout Underground productions are $30.

How do you make it through detention? In the worst high school in the city, six Black students are stuck in Room 111. They flirt. They fight. They tease. Should they follow the rules and stay put, or find an escape? Are the walls keeping them in, or are stronger forces at play? Dave Harris's new work crackles with humor and suspense-confronting the tactics for surviving institutions that were not built for you.

This production of Exception to the Rule comes from a combination of several of Roundabout's emerging-artists programs, including the New Play Initiative and the Roundabout Directing Fellowship.

Now in its 14th season, Roundabout Underground is part of Roundabout's New Play Initiative, discovering new writers, producing their New York debuts, and providing them long-term development and production support. In addition to the Black Box production, every Underground playwright gets a commission for a future play. Roundabout's Associate Artistic Director Jill Rafson serves as Artistic Producer.

Roundabout launched its Directing Fellowship in 2017, to create long-term relationships with a new generation of directors, and Miranda Haymon was its second Fellow, serving for the 2017-18 season. With Exception to the Rule, Haymon becomes the first participant to direct a full production-and is one of the youngest directors in the company's history-for Roundabout. Haymon first directed this play for the 2019 Roundabout Underground Reading Series and is currently a Resident Director at Roundabout.

The playwrights who made their New York debuts at Roundabout Underground are Stephen Karam (Speech & Debate, 2007), Steven Levenson (The Language of Trees, 2008), Adam Gwon (Ordinary Days, 2009), Kim Rosenstock (Tigers Be Still, 2010), David West Read (The Dream of the Burning Boy, 2011), Andrew Hinderaker (Suicide, Incorporated, 2011), Joshua Harmon (Bad Jews, 2012), Meghan Kennedy (Too Much, Too Much, Too Many, 2013), Jeff Augustin (Little Children Dream of God, 2015), Lindsey Ferrentino (Ugly Lies the Bone, 2015), Jenny Rachel Weiner (Kingdom Come, 2016), Mansa Ra (Too Heavy for Your Pocket, 2017), Martín Zimmerman (On the Exhale, 2017), Ming Peiffer (Usual Girls, 2018), Alex Lubischer (Bobbie Clearly, 2018), Selina Fillinger (Something Clean, 2019), Daniel Zaitchik (Darling Grenadine, 2020), Sanaz Toossi (English, 2022), Dave Harris (Exception to the Rule, 2022). Ra's commission ....what the end will be premiered at the Laura Pels Theater this spring, performances began May 12 and opened on June 2, 2022.

The creative team for Exception to the Rule includes: Reid Thompson and Kamil James (Sets), Sarita Fellows (Costumes), Cha See (Lighting), and Lee Kinney (Sound).