Signature Theatre Presents Dominique Morisseau's SUNSET BABY, Directed by Steve H. Broadnax III, January 30- March 10

Signature Theatre presents Signature Premiere Resident, Tony Award nominee, and MacArthur Fellow Dominique Morisseau's Sunset Baby, directed by Steve H. Broadnax III.

A “smart and bracing” play that “covers vast acres of social and political ground” (The New York Times), Sunset Baby highlights the collision of ideological conviction with the complexities of everyday survival in the story of a Black revolutionary's fraught reunion with his adult daughter. The production kicks off Signature's Winter/Spring 2024 season, with performances running January 30 through March 10 (official opening February 20) in The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre at the Pershing Square Signature Center (480 W. 42nd Street).

Set in East New York, Sunset Baby explores the relationship between Nina and her estranged father Kenyatta. A former Black revolutionary and political prisoner, Kenyatta reappears to claim a coveted piece of Nina's late Mother's legacy. While Kenyatta had visions of changing the world, his daughter became everything he feared. Now he's at her mercy for his own redemption. This is a story about love, political action, and one woman's journey from a brutal existence to her own liberation.

In Signature's production, Russell Hornsby (at Signature: King Hedley II; Fences on Broadway & 2016 film; “Lincoln Heights,” “BMF”) plays Kenyatta, Emmy Award nominee Moses Ingram (“The Queen's Gambit,” “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth) plays Nina, and J. Alphonse Nicholson (at Signature: Paradise Blue; A Soldier's Play on Broadway; “P-Valley”) plays Damon, Nina's boyfriend. The creative team is Wilson Chin (Scenic Designer), Emilio Sosa (Costume Designer), Alan C. Edwards (Lighting Designer), Curtis Craig (Co-Sound Designer), Jimmy Keys aka “J. Keys” (Co-Sound Designer), Katherine Freer (Projection/Video Designer), Ann C. James (Intimacy Coordinator/Cultural Specialist), Caparelliotis Casting (Casting), and Mars Wolfe (Production Stage Manager).

Morisseau's morally complex plays lie along the fault lines of America's stratified socio economic landscape. In Sunset Baby, she contrasts the limited options the symbiotic systems capitalism and racism create: to risk everything as a revolutionary attempting to explode those systems, or to do whatever necessary to save the little one has been given to simply survive within—and perhaps even escape—them.

Morisseau says, “Sunset Baby is about activism and the traumas that come with having spoken out — the backlash and bullying and intimidation, and even imprisonment, that come from attempting to have a cause you believe in. How does that rebound across generations? In asking this question, it also becomes a play, in its purest essence, about parenting.”

Each cast-member comes into the production process with a longtime appreciation for, and familiarity with, Morisseau's writing. In 2017, Ingram was in a regional production of Detroit ‘67, directed by Steve H. Broadnax III, after which she reached out to Morisseau while preparing excerpts of Sunset Baby for her Yale senior presentation. Nicholson made his Off-Broadway acting debut in Morisseau's Paradise Blue after having played drums in a production of Morisseau's Autumn Harvest (for Lincoln Center Education). “Both Moses and I and Alphonse and I have come a long way,” says the playwright. Hornsby and Morisseau expressed a mutual interest in working together when they first met following Hornsby's attendance at a 2016 performance of Morisseau's Skeleton Crew; that long-standing goal is now actualized in this production.

In her Signature Premiere Residency, Sunset Baby follows Morisseau's Confederates (2022), for which she was praised for “pull[ing] audacious shifts of timeframe and tone with power and finesse” (Time Out) and her “powerful” and “truthful portrait of human suffering, awakening, and transformation” (New York Magazine), and Paradise Blue (2018). This new production re-teams Broadnax III both with Morisseau (he directed the world-and-NY premieres of Blood at the Root) and with Signature (where he staged the world premiere production of Katori Hall's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Hot Wing King).

Dominique Morisseau is the author of The Detroit Project (A 3-Play Cycle): Skeleton Crew (Atlantic Theater Company), Paradise Blue (Signature Theatre), and Detroit '67 (Public Theater, Classical Theatre of Harlem and NBT). Additional plays include: Pipeline (Lincoln Center Theatre), Sunset Baby (LAByrinth Theatre), Blood at the Root (National Black Theatre), and Follow Me To Nellie's (Premiere Stages). She is also the TONY nominated book writer on the Broadway musical Ain't Too Proud – The Life and Times of the Temptations (Imperial Theatre). TV/Film projects: She most recently served as Co-Producer on the Showtime series “Shameless.” She's currently developing projects with Netflix, HBO, and A24, and wrote the film adaptation of the documentary STEP for Fox Searchlight. Awards include: Spirit of Detroit Award, PoNY Fellowship, Sky-Cooper Prize, TEER Trailblazer Award, Steinberg Playwright Award, Audelco Awards, NBFT August Wilson Playwriting Award, Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama, OBIE Award (2), and the Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellowship, named one of Variety's Women of Impact for 2017-18 and a recipient of the 2018 MacArthur Genius Grant.

Steve H. Broadnax III. Thoughts of a Colored Man (Broadway); Suzan-Lori Parks's Sally and Tom at the Guthrie Theatre (World Premiere) and The Public Theatre; Katori Hall's 2021 Pulitzer Prize Premiere The Hot Wing King at The Signature Theatre; Lee Edward Colston's The First Deep Breath at Chicago's Victory Garden Theatre (Premiere and Winner of Jeff Awards Best New Work) and Geffen Theatre; Dominique Morisseau's Blood at the Root at the National Black Theatre (Winner of Kennedy Center's Hip Hop Theater Creator Award); and William Jackson Harper's Premiere Travisville at NYC Ensemble Studio. Ensemble Studio Theatre member and serves as the Associate Artistic Director at People's Light Theatre and a Professor of Theatre at Penn State University; Co-Head of MFA Directing.

Russell Hornsby (Kenyatta) most recently starred as Don King in the Hulu limited series “Mike” and leads the hit Starz series “BMF” as patriarch Charles Flenory, which will see its season 3 premiere next spring. In 2016, he appeared opposite Denzel Washington and Viola Davis in the Oscar-winning Fences, reprising his critically acclaimed performance from the 2010 Tony-winning Broadway revival. Hornsby's credits also include The Hate U Give, Creed II, Netflix's “Seven Seconds,” “Lost in Space,” and Showtime's “The Affair.” Up next, he will star in the Searchlight film The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat opposite Aunjanue Ellis and Uzo Aduba. Hornsby is represented by Independent Artist Group, Cohn/Torgan Management and Hansen, Jacobson.

Moses Ingram (Nina) made her television debut in Netflix's “The Queen's Gambit,” for which she received her first Emmy nomination. She recently completed filming on Neon's “The End,” directed by Joshua Oppenheimer. Ingram recently wrapped on Apple's “Lady in the Lake.” Ingram simultaneously shot Apple's “The Big Cigar.” Ingram also stars in the Star Wars series “Obi-Wan Kenobi.” Ingram can currently be seen in A24's "All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt,” directed by Raven Jackson. Ingram's film credits also include “The Tragedy of Macbeth” directed by Joel Coen, “The Same Storm” directed by Peter Hedges, and “Ambulance” directed by Michael Bay. Ingram has been named one of The Hollywood Reporter's 2022 Next Gen recipients, Variety's 10 Actors to Watch for 2021, and one of ELLE's 2021 Young Hollywood honorees. A Baltimore native, Ingram attended the Yale School of Drama where she won the Princess Grace Award and the Herschel Williams Prize.

J. Alphonse Nicholson (Damon) is an American born actor/percussionist. Notable TV/Film credits include: series regular on “P-Valley” (STARZ), Just Mercy (Warner Bros. Pictures), “Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker” (Netflix), “Blue Bloods” (CBS), “Mr. Robot” (USA), “Shots Fired” (FOX), Marvel's “Luke Cage” (Netflix), “Tales” (BET), “The Blacklist” (NBC), and “Chicago PD” (NBC). Notable Theater credits include: Tony award for Best Revival: A Soldier's Play on Broadway (Roundabout), Signature Theatre's Off-Broadway production Paradise Blue, Freight: The 5 Incarnations of Abel Green (NFT), and Days of Rage (2nd stage). Next up for J. Alphonse are “The Sterling Affairs” (FX), Black Spartans (Buffalo 8 Productions), and Albany Road. Recently seen in the remake of White Men Can't Jump (Disney/20th Century Studios) and They Cloned Tyrone (Macro/Netflix).

Wilson Chin (Scenic Designer). Broadway: Cost of Living, Pass Over (Drama Desk, Lortel, Hewes Award nominations), Next Fall. Off-Broadway: A Bright New Boise (Signature Theatre), Jonah (Roundabout), The Animal Kingdom (The Connelly), This Land Was Made (Vineyard), Space Dogs (MCC, Lortel Award nomination), Teenage Dick (Ma-Yi/Public), Sakina's Restaurant (Audible). Opera: Turandot (Washington National Opera), Lucia di Lammermoor (Lyric Opera of Chicago), Eine Florentinische Tragödie/Gianni Schicchi (Canadian Opera, Dora Award). Film/television: Pass Over (dir. Spike Lee), “Game Theory with Bomani Jones” (HBO), “Blindspot” (NBC).

Emilio Sosa (Costume Designer). Chair, American Theatre Wing. Signature Theatre: Hot Wing King, Venus, f-ing A. Broadway: Purlie Victorious, Good Night Oscar (Tony Nomination), Sweeney Todd, A Beautiful Noise, 1776, Ain't No Mo (Tony Nomination), Trouble in Mind (Tony Nomination), Skeleton Crew, On Your Feet!, Motown: The Musical, Lady Day, Porgy and Bess (Tony Nomination), Topdog/Underdog. TV and film: Annie Live! (NBC), Red Hook Summer (Spike Lee), Descendants: Rise of Red (Disney+). Recipient of the NAACP Theater & Lucille Lortel Awards and a Drama Desk nominee. Usher's Las Vegas Residency, The Rockettes, Diana Ross, Mariah Carey and Wynton Marsalis.

Alan C. Edwards (Lighting Designer). Off-Broadway: Kill Move Paradise (National Black Theatre), Scene Partners, Harry Clarke (Vineyard), Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (Signature NYC & A.R.T), Fires in the Mirror, The Hot Wing King (Signature NYC), Twelfth Night (Classical Theatre of Harlem). Regional: Sally & Tom (world premiere by Suzan-Lori Parks at The Guthrie), Paradise Blue, Lights Out: Nat King Cole (Geffen Playhouse). Dance: Chasing Magic and Where We Dwell by Ayodele Casel; In The Same Tongue by Dianne McIntyre; Lifted by Christopher Rudd for American Ballet Theatre. Broadway: Associate to Jennifer Tipton on The Testament of Mary. Awards: Lucille Lortel and Audelco Awards, Drama Desk nomination. He is a graduate of Yale School of Drama, where he is also an assistant professor of lighting.

Curtis Craig (Co-Sound Designer). NYC: Signature Theater, Classical Theatre of Harlem, Apollo Theater, New York Fringe. REGIONAL: Geffen Theater, People's Light, Cleveland Playhouse, Lantern Theater, Syracuse Stage, Denver Center Theater Company, Philadelphia Theater Company, Baltimore Center Stage, Actors' Theatre of Louisville, Seattle Rep, Detroit Public Theater, American Stage, Clarence Brown Theatre, Chautauqua Theater Company, Dallas Theater Center. World Premieres: Suzan-Lori Park's Sally and Tom at the Guthrie, Dominique Morisseau's Confederates at Signature Theater, Mud Row at PLTC and Lauren Yee's The Great Leap, Denver Center. In 2022 his composition & sound design for the American premier of Frankenstein won the Gold Medal for Sound Design at the World Stage Design expo in Calgary. Associate Professor of Sound Design, Penn State.

Jimmy Keys aka “J.Keys” (Co-Sound Designer) is a Hip Hop artist, music producer, and composer who worked in the music industry for many years in Marketing and Promotions, curating programs for top DJs in the country, and working with brands including Universal Records, BET, and Bad Boy Records. As a composer and producer, Jimmy has worked in Theatre on various projects, including: Skeleton Crew (MTC/ Broadway; Atlantic Theatre Company); Soul Train Musical (American Conservatory Theatre); Third Grade, Jezelle the Gazelle, Revelations, and A Human Experiment (Playing On Air). Jimmy is also currently developing a show for TV and releasing an EP with Cultural Bastards entitled, “The Drawing Board.”

Katherine Freer (Projection/Video Designer) is a multimedia artist, filmmaker, organizer, and educator whose artistic practice lives at the intersection of storytelling, technology, and civic engagement. Frequent collaborators include Ping Chong, Ty Defoe, Kamilah Forbes, Steve H. Broadnax III, Lux Haac, Porsche McGovern, Liza Jessie Peterson, Talvin Wilks, and Tamilla Woodard. She is a proud member of Wingspace Theatrical Design and United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829. Katherine is a core collaborator in All My Relations Collective and Director of the MFA in Integrated Media at University of Texas at Austin.

Ann C. James (Intimacy Coordinator/Cultural Specialist) made her debut as the first Black Intimacy Coordinator of Broadway in 2021 for Antoinette Nwandu's Pass Over. James serves as an intimacy and sensitivity consultant for Hamilton (USA) and Hamilton (UK), for Tony Award winning Parade and Sweeney Todd, White Girl in Danger, How to Defend Yourself, The Comeuppance, Evanston Salt Costs Climbing and upcoming Broadway productions of The Outsiders and Lempicka, both originating at regional powerhouse LaJolla Playhouse. James' company, Intimacy Coordinators of Color recently received an Obie Award Special Citation and has partnerships with Adelphi University, New York University, Columbia University, American Conservatory Theater, Brown University, Trinity Repertory Theater, A.R.T./New York, and The American Repertory Theater at Harvard.

Caparelliotis Casting (Casting). Select Broadway: Jaja's African Hair Braiding, Grey House, Ohio State Murders, Cost of Living, Macbeth, The Minutes, Skeleton Crew, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, King Lear, The Waverly Gallery, The Boys in the Band, A Doll's House, Part 2, Jitney, The Glass Menagerie. Additional theater includes: MTC, The Old Globe, Atlantic Theater Company. TV/Film: “New Amsterdam” (NBC), "The Boys in the Band" for Netflix (Original Casting)

Mars Wolfe (Production Stage Manager) (they/them). Broadway: Kimberly Akimbo, Good Night, Oscar. Off-Broadway: The Peculiar Patriot, The Black Clown, The New Englanders. Film/TV: MTV's Video Music Awards, “The View”, VH1's Trailblazers Honors. Mars moonlights as the genderf*** drag queen 11 o'Clock and their one-person show, Bill, Bill, Billz premiered in Ars Nova's ANT FEST. Mars was a Sundance Episodic Lab Fellow and they are currently a tall poPpy apprentice, studying with composer Jeanine Tesori. Education: DePaul University, Juilliard Apprentice Program.

All performances take place at The Pershing Square Signature Center's (480 W 42nd St) in The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre. Performances are January 30 & 31, February 1, 2, 4, 6–9, 11, 13–16, 22, 23, 25, 27–29, and March 1, & 5–8 at 7:30pm; February 3, 10, 17, 24, and March 2 & 9 at 8pm; and February 3, 4, 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, 25, and March 2, 3, 9 & 10 at 2pm. The February 2 performance at 7:30pm is a Black Theatre Night; the February 11 performance at 7:30pm is a Student Night. The February 24 performance at 2pm will be audio described, and the February 25 performance at 2pm will be open captioned. The March 1 performance at 7:30pm is ASL Night.

Press dates are:

Wednesday, February 14 at 7:30pm

Thursday, February 15 at 7:30pm

Friday, February 16 at 7:30pm

Saturday, February 17 at 2pm

Signature Theatre is an artistic home for storytellers. By producing several plays from each Resident Writer, Signature continues its deep dive into their bodies of work.

Signature serves its mission by hosting distinctive resident playwrights and cultural communities at its permanent home at The Pershing Square Signature Center, a three-theater facility on West 42nd Street designed by Frank Gehry Architects. At the Center, which opened in January 2012, Signature continues its original Playwright-in-Residence model with Spotlight Residency, an intensive exploration of a single writer's body of work. The Premiere Residency, the only program of its kind, supports playwrights as they build a body of work by guaranteeing each writer three productions over a five-year period. The Legacy Program, launched during Signature's 10th Anniversary, invites writers from both residencies to premiere or restage earlier plays. Inaugurated in 2022, the LaunchPad Residency seeks to advance an early-career playwright's voice, body of work, and professional development. In 2020, Signature launched SigSpace, to bring free artistic programming to the Center's public spaces and more fully activate Signature's lobby as a free public workspace and social hub for New York artists.

The Pershing Square Signature Center is a major contribution to New York City's cultural landscape. The Center supports and encourages collaboration among artists, cultural organizations and local communities by providing free, public access throughout the space. In addition to its three intimate theaters, the Center features a studio theater, a rehearsal studio and a public café, bar and bookstore.

Founded in 1991 by James Houghton, Signature Theatre is now led by Artistic Director Paige Evans and Executive Director Timothy J. McClimon. Signature's Resident Playwrights include: Edward Albee, Annie Baker, Lee Blessing, Martha Clarke, Will Eno, Horton Foote, María Irene Fornés, Athol Fugard, John Guare, Stephen Adly Guirgis, A.R. Gurney, Katori Hall, Quiara Alegría Hudes, Samuel D. Hunter, David Henry Hwang, Bill Irwin, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Adrienne Kennedy, Tony Kushner, Romulus Linney, Kenneth Lonergan, Dave Malloy, Charles Mee, Arthur Miller, Dominique Morisseau, Lynn Nottage, Suzan-Lori Parks, Sarah Ruhl, Sam Shepard, Anna Deavere Smith, Regina Taylor, Paula Vogel, Naomi Wallace, August Wilson, Lanford Wilson, Lauren Yee, The Mad Ones, and members of the historic Negro Ensemble Company: Charles Fuller, Leslie Lee, and Samm-Art Williams.

Signature and its artists have been recognized with Tony Awards, Pulitzer Prizes, MacArthur “Genius” grants, and Lucille Lortel, Obie, Drama Desk, AUDELCO, and Artios Awards as well as the 50/50 Award for Gender Parity in Theatre, among many other distinctions. In 2014, Signature became the first New York City theater to receive the Regional Theatre Tony Award for its body of work and accomplishments as an institution. For more information, please visit signaturetheatre.org.

The groundbreaking Signature Access (formerly the Signature Ticket Initiative), which in 2019 celebrated its one millionth ticket sold, guarantees affordable tickets to every Signature production through 2032. Serving as a model for theaters and performing arts organizations across the country, the Initiative was founded in 2005 and is made possible, in part, by Lead Partner The Pershing Square Foundation.

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