NYTW's NAT TURNER IN JERUSALEM to Host Post-Show '...And Justice For All?' Discussion

NAT TURNER IN JERUSALEM, the first production of the New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) 2016/17 Season, will host a post-performance discussion entitled "...And Justice for All?" on Sunday, October 2 following the 7pm performance with leaders from the faith-based, legal, political, social justice, and artistic communities.

The discussion will be moderated by award-winning journalist Katti Gray, who will be joined by Rev. Anthony L. Trufant (Senior Pastor, Emmanuel Baptist Church in Brooklyn), Angel Harris (Esq. Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense Fund), Jonathan McCrory (Director of Theatre Programs, National Black Theatre), Rev. Dr. Gail Davis (Associate Minister, Berean Baptist Church), and Esmeralda Simmons (Founding Director, Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College).

Panelists will discuss current social justice movements, such as Black Lives Matter and North Carolina's Moral Mondays, and how those movements connect with the themes of the journey to justice illuminated in NAT TURNER IN JERUSALEM.

NAT TURNER IN JERUSALEM features Phillip James Brannon (Bootycandy) as "Nat Turner" and Rowan Vickers (The Sensuality Party) as "Thomas R. Gray."

In August 1831, Nat Turner led a slave uprising that shook the conscience of the nation. Turner's startling account of his prophecy and the insurrection was recorded and published by attorney Thomas R. Gray. Nathan Alan Davis makes his New York debut with a timely new play that imagines Turner's final night in a jail cell in Jerusalem, Virginia, as he is revisited by Gray and they reckon with what has passed and what the dawn will bring. Woven with vivid imagery and indelible lyricism, NAT TURNER IN JERUSALEM examines the power of an individual's resolute convictions and their seismic reverberations through time.

NAT TURNER IN JERUSALEM features scenic design by Susan Zeeman Rogers (Thumbprint), costume design by Montana Blanco (War), lighting design by Mary Louise Geiger (The Constant Wife), sound design by Nathan Leigh (Icarus), fight direction by Thomas Schall (The Crucible), and Dawn-Elin Fraser (Waitress) will serve as dialect coach.

Previews for NAT TURNER IN JERUSALEM began on Wednesday, September 7, 2016, with an official opening on Monday, September 26 for a limited engagement through Sunday, October 16, 2016. Tickets are $69 and are on sale now at nytw.org. The performance schedule is as follows: Tuesdays at 7pm, Wednesdays at 7pm, Thursdays at 8pm, Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 2pm and 8pm, Sundays at 2pm and 7pm. Exceptions: There will be no 7pm performance on Sunday, October 9.

In addition to NAT TURNER IN JERUSALEM, the 2016/17 season will include OTHELLO, directed by Tony Award-winner Sam Gold and featuring Daniel Craig (Betrayal, Spectre) as 'Iago' and David Oyelowo (Royal Shakespeare Company's The Histories, Selma) in November/December 2016; THE OBJECT LESSON, by NYTW Usual Suspect Geoff Sobelle (all wear bowlers), directed by NYTW Usual Suspect David Neumann (Restless Eye), with scenic installation design by Steven Dufala in Spring 2017; and NYTW Usual Suspect Mfoniso Udofia's SOJOURNERS and HER PORTMANTEAU, presented in repertory, directed by NYTW Usual Suspect and former NYTW 2050 Fellow Ed Sylvanus Iskandar (The Mysteries) in Spring 2017.

New York Theatre Workshop, now in its fourth decade of incubating important new works of theatre, continues to honor its mission to explore perspectives on our collective history and respond to the events and institutions that shape all our lives. Each season, from its home in New York's East Village, NYTW presents four new productions, over 80 readings and numerous workshop productions for over 45,000 audience members. NYTW supports artists in all stages of their careers by maintaining a series of workshop programs, including work-in-progress readings, summer residencies and artist fellowships. Since its founding, NYTW has produced over 100 new, fully staged works, 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; Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest, Far Away, A Number and Love and Information; Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen's Aftermath; Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová and Enda Walsh's Once; Rick Elice's Peter and the Starcatcher; David Bowie and Enda Walsh's Lazarus; and seven acclaimed productions directed by Ivo van Hove. NYTW's productions have received a Pulitzer Prize, seventeen Tony Awards and assorted Obie, Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Awards.

KATTI GRAY. For dot.coms, newspapers and magazines, Gray has covered hard news and soft: Presidential hopefuls. Statehouse lawmakers. Time-honored and pop celebrities. A fight for running water in rural Mississippi. Memphis, Tennessee's battle against obesity. Appalachia's floundering schools. A first-of-its-kind criminal justice think tank run by formerly incarcerated PhDs. She has written essays on gratitude and the allure of home ... and much more. Criminal justice, education and health are her reporting specialties, though I also handle general reporting and ghostwriting assignments. She shoots still photos and video. For the New York City-based Center on Media, Crime and Justice, Gray coordinated 44 journalists for the Health Behind Bars Fellowship and An Imprisoned Mind: Reporting on the Mentally Ill and the Criminal Justice System Fellowship. As a Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellow, I covered innovative jail-, prison- and community-based programs for veterans with mental illness. She is a Hunter College Department of Film & Media adjunct journalism professor and directs the New York University Urban Journalism Workshop for high school journalists.

REV. ANTHONY L. TRUFANT has served as the Senior Pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church of Brooklyn, NY (www.ebcconnects.com) since November of 1990. He is a graduate of Morehouse College (B.A.), Colgate Rochester Divinity School(M.Div.), and Seton Hall University (M.A). He has completed coursework towards a doctorate in Pastoral Counseling at Hebrew Union College of New YorkCity. Currently, he is a doctoral student at Bakke Graduate School, where he is pursuing a degree in Transformational Leadership. His biblically-based, Christ-centered preaching seeks to hold together spiritual formation, pastoral counseling, and social justice. He is married to Muriel Goode-Trufant, the Managing Attorney for NYC Law Department, and is the proud father of two young adult daughters, Sharise and Toni. The Brooklyn, New York-based preaching, teaching and outreach ministry of the Rev. Anthony L. Trufant stretches from New York City to New Orleans, from Haiti's hovels to the up-from-apartheid townships of South Africa and beyond.

ANGEL HARRIS joined NAACP Legal Defense Fund's staff in 2015 as an Assistant Counsel. Angel works in various areas of criminal justice including capital defense, juvenile life without the possibility of parole, felon disenfranchisement, and police reform. Prior to joining LDF, Angel served as a Staff Attorney in the ACLU's Capital Punishment Project in Durham, NC, where she represented death-sentenced prisoners in states with a history of racial discrimination and/or inadequate resources for indigent people charged with or convicted of capital crimes. Angel also contributed to the ACLU's "Blog of Rights" and the Huffington Post. Between 2009-2013, Angel was a felony trial attorney with the Calcasieu Parish Public Defender's Office in Lake Charles, LA and the Orleans Public Defenders in New Orleans, LA. In that time, she represented hundreds of men and women charged with crimes ranging from distribution of narcotics to capital murder. Angel graduated from Georgetown University Law Center. In the spring of 2008, Angel studied at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, where she volunteered with the University's Refugee Clinic. Angel graduated summa cum laude from Hampton University with a B.A. in English. She is a member of the Louisiana State Bar.

JONATHAN MCCRORY is an Obie Award-winning, Harlem-based artist who has served as Director of Theatre Arts at Dr. Barbara Ann Teer's National Black Theatre since 2012. He has directed numerous productions, including Dead and Breathing, HandsUp, Hope Speaks, Blacken The Bubble, Asking for More, Last Laugh and Enter Your Sleep. In 2013, he was awarded the Emerging Producer Award by the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston Salem, North Carolina and the Torch Bearer Award by theatrical legend Woodie King Jr. He is a founding member of the collaborative producing organization Harlem9, Next Generation National Network and The Movement Theatre Company. McCrory sits on the National Advisory Committee for Howlround.com and was a member of the original cohort for ArtEquity. A Washington, DC native, McCrory attended Duke Ellington School of the Arts and New York University TISCH School of the Arts. To learn more, please visit www.jonathanmccrory.com.

REV. DR. GAIL DAVIS is a native of Brooklyn, New York. She is a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology with an Associate in Applied Science degree in Fashion Buying and Merchandising, Baruch College of the City of New York with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Marketing, a Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees from New York Theological Seminary. Her dissertation introduced constructing a theology of the intangible clothing. In November 2008, Gail was licensed to preach the gospel and ordained in May 2009.

For over twenty years, Rev. Gail (as she is affectionately known) achieved high levels of success in marketing and public relations which includes owning an award winning graphic design and marketing company, The Winning Image. Some of her other accomplishments include effectively developing and implementing large marketing campaigns and public relations programs such as the inaugurations of the Micah Institute at New York Theological Seminary, the Berean Community and Family Life Center (the first of its kind faith-based medical facility in New York City); the 150th Church Anniversary of Berean Baptist Church, and the 30th Anniversary of the Local Development Corporation of East New York to name a few. Her designs can be seen in the street banners in the East New York Industrial Park and displayed in and on The House of the Lord Church in Brooklyn.

Throughout her ministry, Rev. Gail has served God with a spirit of excellence and creativity. She has written and produced several skits and drama presentations including the acclaimed The Trial of Jesus Christ for Maundy Thursday at Berean (that ran three years), and two skits at Blessed Trinity while completing her internship. She has published articles in online magazines including The African American Lectionary where she penned "Generation's Day/July 7, 2013, and is published in several books such as Souls of My Faithful Sisters edited by Dawn Marie Daniels, and The Lenten Journal, edited by Rev. Sylvia Kinard. In addition, she served as a research assistant for Dr. Peter Heltzel's book, Resurrection City: A Theology of Improvisation. Rev. Gail has provided leadership in other areas of the church as Servant Leader or Committee Chair. She helped write the curriculum for Christian Education, Discipleship Training and the Liturgical Dance Ministry.

Rev. Gail is the recipient of numerous awards including the Congressional Record presented by Congressman Edolphus Towns. She has been active in religious and community affairs and has provided leadership as a member of Community Board 5 in Brooklyn, a member of the Board of Directors for Brooklyn Community Services, as Chair of the Neighborhood Advisory Council in East New York and as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Local Development Corporation of East New York (for eight years). She is a member of Women of Faith Activating Change (WOFAC) and former member of The Women's Caucus for Congressman Ed Towns.

Rev. Gail has done missions work in George, South Africa at the Parkdene Baptist Church where she presented a conference for girls - "Girl Power God's Way!" - dedicated to help girls understand what God requires of them, and participated in a Bible Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Gail has one daughter Antanyah and two grandchildren Shania and Anthonie.

ESMERALDA SIMMONS is a prominent civil rights and human rights attorney who focuses on protecting the rights of African descendent people and the disenfranchised. She is a graduate of Hunter College, CUNY and Brooklyn Law School, and served as a Revson Fellow at Columbia University, NY.

She is the founding executive director of the Center for Law and Social Justice, which opened its doors in 1986. The Center is a community-based legal advocacy and research institution based in Crown Heights at Medgar Evers College of The City University of New York. As the director of the Center, Ms. Simmons oversees racial justice public policy campaigns and litigation on behalf of community organizations. She has had established a robust career as a highly respected attorney. Ms. Simmons specializes in racial justice issues such as voting rights, educational inequity, cultural rights, and human rights violations in the US. She has served as the First Deputy Commissioner for Human Rights for New York State, as a New York State Assistant Attorney General, as a New York City Assistant Corporation Counsel and has also served as a law clerk to a federal judge. Major civic appointments include: Vice Chair of the initial New York City Districting Commission (1990-1992), and as the citywide member of the New York City Board of Education (1993-1995).

A community activist and a leader, Simmons has been involved in political community empowerment movements and in progressive political causes for more than 40 years. She chooses to work locally using advocacy, community education, coalition-building and organizing methods as well as legal civil rights and human rights tools. In the media, she is a frequent guest on local, regional and national media outlets. The Root e-magazine named her as one of "America's 20 Leading Black Women Advocating for Change" in 2011. She is often called upon to moderate forums, lecture at colleges and conferences, and is the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions from local, state, and legal organizations. Recently, Ms. Simmons received the highly prestigious legal Ida B. Wells-Barnett Justice Award from the New York County Lawyers Assn. and the Metropolitan Black Bar Assn. (2016); the 47th Annual Malcolm X Black Unity Award from the International African Arts Festival and NAKO (2016); she was recognized as Courageous Activist by the Child Welfare Organizing Project (2015) and as a New York State Woman of Distinction by the New York State Senate (2014); she received: Black Agency Executives - Martin Luther King Community Service Award (2014); Medgar Wiley Evers Community Service Award from the Community Council of Medgar Evers College, CUNY (2014); the Mary McLeod Bethune Award by the Central Brooklyn Leadership Council of the First Church of God and Christ, Brooklyn NY (2014). She is very proud to have been named as the Public Interest Lawyer of the Year by the CUNY School of Law in 2005.

In addition to her groundbreaking legal work at CLSJ, Attorney Simmons also volunteers her skills by serving on the Board of Directors of nonprofit community institutions: UPROSE, a climate justice organization, the Council of Elders of Dance Africa NY, and Little Sun People, an early childhood educational institution. Ms. Simmons has also served on the boards of nationally focused organizations such as the Applied Research Center / RACE Forward, the Poverty and Race Research Action Council (PRRAC), , and the Vallecitos Mountain Refuge, Inc., and local organizations: NYCLU, the Fund for Social Change. She has also served as a selection committee member for several major philanthropic fellowships and grants for social justice activists, parents, and youth.

A proud native Brooklynite, Ms. Simmons is a deeply spiritual woman who is grounded in African culture. She is a Yoruba Lukumi priest of Shango in Ile Ase. She finds constant inspiration in the vision of her ancestors, her belief in peace, and her respect for life, and cultural diversity. She is the proud mother of three adult sons and the grandmother of seven. Ms. Simmons lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn with her husband, Lesly Jean-Jacques.

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