The Acting Company Announces Casting For SPELL #7
This bold play examines the irony of Black performers in a white-led entertainment industry.
By: A.A. Cristi Oct. 09, 2024
The Acting Company has announced the casting for their reading of Spell #7, a choreopoem written by Ntozake Shange (for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf). Ann C. James (Broadway's Sunset Blvd, The Outsiders, Lempicka, Sweeney Todd, Pass Over, and Hamilton) will direct.
A striking choreopoem by one of the most important voices in modern poetry, this bold play examines the irony of Black performers in a white-led entertainment industry. Written in the 1960s, its language, rhetoric, and intent are blisteringly relevant to this day.
Artistic Director Kent Gash said “The Acting Company is pleased to bring this important work back to The Public where it premiered as part of Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival in 1979. Ntozake Shange's mastery of heightened language and her deep understanding of Black women is on full display in Spell #7. I am thrilled to see this lyrical, wry, honest and comically prosaic theatrical experience brought to life by Ann James and this extraordinary cast.”
The cast for Spell #7 features Rodrick Covington (Broadway's Once on this Island, The Lion King, Off-Broadway's Rock & Roll Man, Cats: The Jellicle Ball), Jovan E'Sean (Cats: The Jellicle Ball), Sydney Harcourt (Broadway's Hamilton, American Idiot, Off-Broadway's The Girl from the North Country, Cats: The Jellicle Ball), Dava Huesca (Cats: The Jellicle Ball), Roger Q. Mason (Lavender Men), Lizan Mitchell (Broadway's Ohio State Murders, Off-Broadway's The Half-God of Rainfall, shadow/land, On Sugarland (Obie), Cullud Wattah, for colored girls…), The Acting Company alumna Roslyn Ruff (Broadway's The Skin of our Teeth, All the Way, Romeo and Juliet), and Garnet Williams (Cats: The Jellicle Ball). Additional casting will be announced soon.
Each season, The Acting Company hosts a series of staged readings. A mixture of new texts, classics of the canon, and forgotten favorites, these readings are a showcase of The Acting Company's alumni and a chance to explore other works by playwrights and directors featured in the company's National Tours. The Acting Company gratefully recognizes the generous supporters of The Louanna O. Carlin and John McDonald Reading Series, including Ann C. James (Underwriter, Spell #7), Ro Spaziani, (Underwriter, Orlando and Virginia) and Richard J. Reilly, Jr. (Series Producing Sponsor).
The Acting Company's Louanna O. Carlin & John McDonald 2024-2025 Reading Series includes:
Spell #7
Directed by Ann C. James
Produced in association with Hedgepig Ensemble Theatre as part of Expand the Canon's 4th Season
Monday, October 21, 2024
7:00 pm
425 Lafayette Street (at Astor Place), New York
A striking choreopoem by the playwright of for colored girls..., this bold play examines the irony of Black performers in a white-led entertainment industry. Written in the 1960s, its language, rhetoric, and intent are blisteringly relevant to this day.
The Shadow of a Gunman
By Seán O'Casey
Directed by Ian Belknap
Monday, November 4, 2024
7:00 pm
425 Lafayette Street (at Astor Place), New York
Set against the backdrop of the Irish War of Independence, this is a tale of a young poet who lets the rumor that he is an IRA assassin run wild as he enjoys the mysterious allure this lends him in the eyes of his neighbors, including a young woman. Moving from the comedic to the tragic, this is one of O'Casey's Dublin Trilogy, exploring conflict, national identity, and the human cost of revolution.
The Tragedy of Hoffman, or Revenge for a Father
By Henry Chettle
Directed by Nathan Winkelstein
Produced in association with Red Bull Theater
Monday, January 27, 2025
7:30pm
Symphony Space's Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre
2537 Broadway (at 95th St), New York
The captivating story of a young man seeking to avenge the murder of his father with the help of a diabolical servant. He joins the household of his enemies, enacting convoluted plots of deceit, betrayal, poisoning and violence to pursue his ends. But unchecked vengeance has a way of catching up with you. This is a gripping tale of revenge, and betrayal that sweeps an audience along to a conclusion not to be missed.
Orlando and Virginia
Adapted and Directed by Kevin Kuhlke
Music is by Heather Christian
Monday, February 17, 2025
7:00pm
425 Lafayette Street (at Astor Place), New York
This music infused, open hearted play interfaces aspects of the novel Orlando with the life of Virginia Woolf. While staging an open rehearsal, Virginia's characters from Orlando take over and lead her on a wild, joyous and loving adventure. Fact and fiction collide in a play that celebrates theater's ability to embrace the fluidity of identity, location and time and the ways in which an artist both creates and is created by her art.
A Clockwork Orange
Directed by Artistic Director Kent Gash
Monday, March 17, 2025
7:00pm
425 Lafayette Street (at Astor Place), New York
A theatrical adaptation of the controversial and provocative book by the author, Anthony Burgess, himself, this authoritative theatrical text is filled with "ultra-violence," capturing the chaotic tone of the novella in a dramatic experience both dystopian and satirical.
Reserved and General Admission Single Tickets and Series Ticket packages are now available. Seating is subject to availability. Visit theactingcompany.org/reading-series or call 212-258-3111 to learn more and reserve tickets. For more information, visit www.theactingcompany.org.
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