Signature Premieres Athol Fugard's THE PAINTED ROCKS AT REVOLVER CREEK Tonight

Signature Theatre presents the world premiere of The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek, written and directed by Athol Fugard. The production began performances on April 21 and will now run through June 7 with the opening set for tonight, May 11, in The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues).

The cast includes Bianca Amato (LCT's Macbeth) as Elmarie, Leon Addison Brown (Signature's The Train Driver) as Nukain, Caleb McLaughlin (The Lion King) as Bokkie, Tony Award nominee Sahr Ngaujah (Fela!) as Jonathan.

Athol Fugard, Signature's 2012 Playwright-in-Residence and winner of the 2011 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, returns with a new play suggested by the life of outsider artist Nukain Mabusa. Aging farm laborer Nukain has spent his life transforming the rocks at Revolver Creek, South Africa, into a vibrant garden of painted flowers. Now, the final unpainted rock, as well as his young companion Bokkie, has forced Nukain to confront his legacy as a painter, a person and a black man in 1980s South Africa. When the landowner's wife arrives with demands about the painting, the profound rifts of a country hurtling toward the end of apartheid are laid bare.

The design team includes Christopher H. Barreca (Scenic Design), Susan Hilferty (Costume Design), Stephen Strawbridge (Lighting Design), Stowe Nelson (Sound Design), Barbara Rubin (Dialect Coach). Linda Marvel is the Production Stage Manager. Casting by Telsey + Company, Karyn Casl, CSA.

Supplemental programming has been set for The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek. There will be post-show talkbacks on April 28, May 14, 19, 26. Talkbacks brought to you by American Express. Signature will also continue its World of the Play series on May 16 at 4pm with Exploring Outsider Art. Athol Fugard's The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek is suggested by Nukain Mabusa, a farm laborer and artist who lived in South Africa. From the late 1960s to the early 1980s, Mabusa painted bright geometrical patterns on the rocks near his small village of Revolver Creek, which have since been recognized as important works of "Outsider Art." Outsider Artists, like the self-taught Mabusa, work outside the formal boundaries of the established art world, creating works for themselves without regard to exhibition, monetary compensation, or formal training. In this World of the Play panel, Signature will explore the men and women who make Outsider Art. Why do these artists create work in solitude? Is their work autobiographical in nature since it is made for the artists themselves? Why is there such an allure around the discovery of "authentic" art? What can Outsider Art teach us about our broader culture? What happens when this art passes from isolation to acceptance? These events are free and open to the public.

For more information, visit www.signaturetheatre.org.

Photo Credit: Joan Marcus

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