RTC's TOO HEAVY FOR YOUR POCKET Extends, Will Offer Special Shows for NYC Students

Roundabout Theatre Company has announced a one-week extension to the Roundabout Underground production of Too Heavy For Your Pocket by Jireh Breon Holder now through November 26, 2017.

The extension week will include three special performances reserved for NYC public school students from schools affiliated with Roundabout's expansive education program. Holder's play - a story about a group of young friends living in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement - has proven popular with the teachers and students who have studied and attended during the regularly scheduled run. Learn More.

Too Heavy for Your Pocket is directed by Margot Bordelon, and features Eboni Flowers (Evelyn Brandon), Hampton Fluker (Tony Carter), Brandon Gill (Bowzie Brandon) and Nneka Okafor (Sally-Mae Carter).

Too Heavy for Your Pocket opened officially on Thursday, October 5, 2017 at the Black Box Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (111 West 46th Street).

In Too Heavy For Your Pocket, Tennessee-born Holder takes us back to Nashville in the summer of 1961. The Freedom Riders are embarking on a courageous journey into the Deep South. When 20-year-old Bowzie Brandon gives up a life-changing college scholarship to join the movement, he'll have to convince his loved ones-and himself-that shaping his country's future might be worth jeopardizing his own.

Now in its 11th season, Roundabout Underground has proven an enormous success since the program debuted in 2007 with Stephen Karam's hit comedy Speech and Debate. Karam's first play commissioned by Roundabout-Sons of the Prophet-was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and his second commission, The Humans, won the Tony Award for Best Play after transferring from the Laura Pels Theatre to Broadway. Joshua Harmon also made his professional debut with Roundabout Underground with the hit Bad Jews. His play, Significant Other, premiered Off-Broadway at Roundabout and transferred to Broadway last season; his new play, Skintight, will premiere at the Laura Pels Theatre in Spring 2018 starring Idina Menzel. Fellow Underground alumnus Steven Levenson (The Language of Trees) won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for his Broadway debut with Dear Evan Hansen, while simultaneously debuting his new play, If I Forget, Off-Broadway at Roundabout. After the success of Too Much, Too Much, Too Many in 2013, Roundabout commissioned playwright Meghan Kennedy to write Napoli, Brooklyn. Lindsey Ferrentino, who made her Roundabout debut with Ugly Lies the Bone, will return with Amy and the Orphans at the Laura Pels Theatre in the spring.

Too Heavy for Your Pocket launches the 11th season of Roundabout Underground, with the goal of introducing and cultivating young artists in Roundabout's 62-seat Black Box Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre. Bobbie Clearly was presented as part of last year's Underground Reading Series at Roundabout, and is the second production in the Roundabout Underground's expanded two-play 2017-2018 season. Prior productions include the acclaimed world premieres of Stephen Karam's Speech & Debate (2007), Steven Levenson's The Language of Trees (2008), Adam Gwon's Ordinary Days (2009), Kim Rosenstock's Tigers Be Still (2010), David West Read's The Dream of the Burning Boy (2011), Andrew Hinderaker's Suicide, Incorporated (2011), Joshua Harmon's Bad Jews (2012), Meghan Kennedy's Too Much, Too Much, Too Many (2013), Jeff Augustin's Little Children Dream of God (2015), Lindsey Ferrentino's Ugly Lies the Bone (2015), Jenny Rachel Weiner's Kingdom Come (2016), and Marti?n Zimmerman's On the Exhale (2017).

Roundabout Underground showcases new plays that will either give a debut production to an emerging writer or director, or allow an experienced director to go back to his/her creative roots. Robyn Goodman (Artistic Consultant to the Roundabout) and Jill Rafson serve as Artistic Producers, with Associate Producer Josh Fiedler, for this initiative that continues to be a creative breeding ground for nurturing new talent.

The 62-seat Black Box Theatre, below the Laura Pels Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, allows Roundabout to take artistic risks that are better suited for a more intimate space.

The creative team for Too Heavy For Your Pocket includes: Reid Thompson (Sets), Vale?rie Therese Bart (Costumes), Jiyoun Chang (Lighting) and Ian Scot (Sound).

Major support for Too Heavy For Your Pocket and for Roundabout Underground is provided by Jodi Glucksman. Too Heavy For Your Pocket is a recipient of the 2017 Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award.

Roundabout's work with new and emerging playwrights and directors, as well as development of new work, is made possible by Katheryn Patterson and Tom Kempner.

Too Heavy for Your Pocket was also produced at the ALLIANCE THEATRE, Atlanta, GA (Susan V. Booth, Jennings Hertz Artistic Director /Mike Schleifer, Managing Director) in mutual arrangement with Roundabout Theatre Company.

Photo Credit: Jeremy Daniel