Grantham Coleman, Shirine Babb, Callie Holley & More to Star in PERICLES Benefit Reading at Red Bull Theater

RED BULL THEATER today announced the complete cast for its online Benefit Reading of Shakespeare's Pericles featuring a company Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) voices.

The event will star Grantham Coleman (Much Ado About Nothing for Shakespeare in the Park, The Great Society with Brian Cox, Choir Boy at Manhattan Theatre Club, and starred opposite Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys in "The Americans"). Joining Mr. Coleman will be Shirine Babb (Broadway: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Macbeth; Timon of Athens - RSC/TFANA; Napoli, Brooklyn - Long Wharf/Roundabout); Kimberly Chatterjee (The Tempest - Classical Theatre of Harlem; Life Sucks - Acorn Theater); Caroline Clay (Bway: The Little Foxes, The Royal Family; The Bandaged Place - NY Stage and Film); Callie Holley (Giving Voice - Netflix); Mahira Kakkar (Miss Witherspoon - Playwrights Horizons; The Headlands - LCT3; The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui - CSC; Henry VI - NAATCO); Jordan Mahome (Breath, Boom - Yale Rep; Born of Conviction - Irondale Center); Anthony Michael Martinez (Romeo & Juliet - CSC; Antony and Cleopatra - Folger Theatre); Edward O'Blenis (RBT: The White Devil, Coriolanus); Bhavesh Patel (Bway: War Horse, Present Laughter; Indian Ink - Roundabout; The Nap - Manhattan Theatre Club); Michele Shay (Bway: Seven Guitars - Tony Award nomination, A Raisin in the Sun; War - LCT3; The Waiting Room - Vineyard Theatre); Timothy D. Stickney (King Lear - Theatre for a New Audience, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew - Public Theater/Delacorte Theatre); and Craig Wallace (A Christmas Carol, Fences, Twelve Angry Men - Ford's Theatre, The Great Society - Arena Stage). Celebrated director Kent Gash helms the evening.

The Benefit Reading is the highlight of PERICLES 2021, a multi-faceted online endeavor of Red Bull Theater to provide an opportunity for the entire community to explore William Shakespeare's Pericles - the founding production of Red Bull Theater (in 2003) - this time with even more Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) voices.

"Pericles was the first play we ever produced, featuring a wonderful and diverse cast, led by Daniel Breaker in the title role. I've always loved the idea of this play as a hero journey, and a play about the healing power of storytelling itself. As the play that began the life of our theater company, it seems most appropriate that we explore this play anew, continuing our journey towards our 20th year of existence as a company, re-emerging out of the pandemic shut down, and inviting new voices to be in creative conversation with the play and the Western classical canon-something we have been very actively working to invigorate over the past few years at Red Bull Theater," said Jesse Berger, Red Bull Founder and Artistic Director.

In Pericles, a poet returns from the dead to tell the tale of Pericles, Prince of Tyre--the touching and hopeful tale of loss and reconciliation about a hero whose adventures take him through the turbulent waters of both the literal seas and the tumultuous challenges of life itself. His odyssey is an epic journey of discovery, loss, and, ultimately, redemption. Pericles will premiere LIVE on Monday October 25th at 7:30 PM EDT. A recording of that livestream will be available until 7PM EDT on Friday, October 29 - then it disappears.

All of Red Bull Theater's PERICLES 2021 offerings are FREE, but advance reservations are recommended. Tax-deductible donations are encouraged to support Red Bull and invest in the vitality of classical theater for a contemporary audience. For details visit https://www.redbulltheater.com/pericles-2021.

On Thursday, October 28th at 7:30 PM EDT, there will be a free online Bull Session: An interactive discussion with director Kent Gash, scholar Noémie Ndiaye, and members of the company. Noémie Ndiaye is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Chicago. She works on theatre and performance culture in Renaissance England, France, and Spain. Her first monograph, Scripts of Blackness: Early Modern Performance Culture and the Making of Race, is forthcoming with the University of Pennsylvania Press.

For more information about any of Red Bull Theater's programs, visit redbulltheater.com.

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