WP Theater Announces World Premiere of WHERE WE STAND

WP Theater, under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Lisa McNulty and Managing Director Michael Sag, has announced that the world premiere of playwright and performer Donnetta Lavinia Grays' Where We Stand, co-presented by WP Theater and Baltimore Center Stage, will star Grays [Men on Boats, In The Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)], who will alternate select performances with David Ryan Smith (One Man, Two Guvnors; Passing Strange) beginning February 15. Directed by Tamilla Woodard (Hadestown Broadway associate director), previews begin Off-Broadway on Friday, January 31 at WP Theater with an opening night of February 11, 2020. The limited engagement at WP Theater will run through March 1, 2020 before playing Baltimore Center Stage April 2-26.

In a town running low on compassion, an exile seeks forgiveness, forcing the community to decide between mercy or justice. A storyteller spins a tale of a lonely soul tempted by the devil's kindness on a fateful trip to the crossroads. Where We Stand is an epic fable of penance filled with humor, heart, and music. This world premiere production brings together two WP Lab alums: rising-star playwright/performer Donnetta Lavinia Grays (Last Night and the Night Before) and director Tamilla Woodard, whose smash hit 3/fifths The New York Times called "extraordinary" and "relentlessly provocative."

The creative team for Where We Stand includes scenic design by Claire DeLiso (Jagged Little Pill - Assoc), costume design by Ntokozo Fuzunina Kunene (Sunday at The Atlantic), and music dramaturgy by Nehemiah Luckett (Broadway Bounty Hunter). Norman Anthony Small is the production stage manager.

Tickets for Where We Stand are on sale now via www.wptheater.org or by calling (212) 352-3101. The Performance schedule is as follows: Tuesday-Thursday at 7PM, Friday at 8PM, Saturday at 2 & 8PM, and Sunday at 3PM. From February 15 to March 1, Smith will perform Tuesday evenings, Saturdays at 2pm, and Sundays at 3pm. All other performances will be performed by Grays.

BIOGRAPHIES:

Donnetta Lavinia Grays (Playwright & "Man"), raised in Columbia, South Carolina, is a Brooklyn-based Playwright and actor. Her plays include Last Night and the Night Before (World Premiere - Denver Center for the Performing Arts Winter 2019. 2017 Kilroys List. 2017 Colorado New Play Summit. 2015 National New Play Network New Play Showcase. 2015 Todd McNerney National Playwriting Contest Winner. 2014 Eugene O'Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference Semifinalist), Laid to Rest (2018 Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow Finalist, 2018 Eugene O'Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference Finalist. 2017 Kilroys - List Honorable Mention. 2017 Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep. 2017 Space on Ryder Farm Creative Residency.), The Review or How to Eat Your Opposition (2018 WP Pipeline Festival. 2013 Eugene O'Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference Finalist.) Other works: The New Normal and The Cowboy Is Dying.

Donnetta is a 2018 Space on Ryder Farm Working Farm Resident Playwright, a 2016-2018 Time Warner Foundation WP Playwrights Lab Member and is the inaugural recipient of the Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award. She is also a Civilians R&D Group, an Actors Studio Playwright/Directors Unit and terraNova Collective Groundbreakers Playwright group alumna. Her work has been supported by The Public Theater, New Harmony Project, Berkeley Rep, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, The LAByrinth Theater Company, New York Theater Workshop, Orlando Shakespeare Theater, Portland Stage Company, Pure Theatre Company, [the claque], Naked Angels, Classical Theater of Harlem, Slant Theater Project, terraNova Collective, Theatre 4 the People, TOSOS, The Group Lab and Coyote REP. Donnetta is currently under commission from The Denver Center for the Performing Arts and WP Theater. She is a Staff Writer on the television show "Manhunt: Lonewolf". www.gaptoothedgriot.com

Acting credits include Broadway's In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) and Well. Notable NY performance credits: Twelfth Night (The Public Theater/Mobile Unit), O, Earth (The Foundry Theatre), Men on Boats (Playwrights Horizons and Clubbed Thumb), Shipwrecked! (Primary Stages) and In the Footprint and Be the Death of Me with The Civilians as an Associate Artist. Regionally she is a two-time Connecticut Critics Circle Award recipient and Helen Hayes Award nominee. Additional regional: American Conservatory Theater, Portland Stage Company, Westport Country Playhouse, Arena Stage, Hartford Theaterworks, Centerstage, The Huntington Theatre, Barrington Stage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival and The Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company. Film/TV credits include "High Maintenance", "New Amsterdam", "Happy!", Mating, Book of Henry, Wild Canaries, The English Teacher, The Wrestler, "The Night Of", "Blue Bloods", "The Blacklist", all "Law & Order"s, "Mercy", "Rubicon", "The Sopranos" and "A Gifted Man". Proud member of SAG-AFTRA, AEA and The Dramatist Guild of America. Learn more at www.donnettagrays.com.

David Ryan Smith ("Man"): Broadway: One Man, Two Guvnors; Passing Strange. Off Broadway: Passage (Soho Rep); A Midsummer Night's Dream, Henry V, Twelfth Night, Romeo & Juliet, The Comedy of Errors, Pericles (The Public Theater/Mobile Shakespeare Unit), Gone Missing (City Center/Encores! Off Center), Mankind (Playwrights Horizons), The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World (Signature Theater), The Glory of the World (BAM), #9 (59E59); The Rover (NY Classical Theater); Marat/Sade (Classical Theater of Harlem). Regional: Repertory Theater of Saint Louis, Shakespeare Theater Company, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theater of Louisville, Barrington Stage, American Conservatory Theater, Dallas Theater Center, Triad Stage, Crossroads Theater Company, California Shakespeare Theater, etc. Film: The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Medal of Victory, Bee Season. Education: MFA, American Conservatory Theater, BFA University of Evansville.

Tamilla Woodard (Director) is the BOLD Theater Women's Leadership Circle Associate Artistic Director of WP Theater and the co-leader of WP's Directors Lab. As a director, her recent projects include Associate Director on Hadestown on Broadway, Top Girls and Men on Boats at American Conservatory Theater, James Scruggs' 3/Fifths at 3-Legged Dog, PolkaDots: The Cool Kids Musical at The Atlantic Theatre Company (Off-Broadway Alliance Award). She is the co-founder of PopUP Theatrics, a partnership creating immersive and participatory theatre for audiences in Europe, South America, Mexico and the US since 2007. She is a former Time Warner Foundation Fellow of the WP Directors Lab, Alumnus of The Lincoln Center Director's Lab, Audrey Fellow at New Georges and a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop. She is a graduate of The Yale School of Drama's Acting program where she currently teaches and is the recipient of The Josephine Abady Award from The League of Professional Theatre Women and The Charles Bowden Award from New Dramatists.

WP THEATER'S 41st SEASON

WP Theater's 41st season launched on September 11, 2019 with the world premiere of Alexis Scheer's Our Dear Dead Drug Lord, directed by Whitney White, in a co-production with Second Stage Theater. After rave critical reviews and multiple extensions, Our Dear Dead Drug Lord continues to run at WP's home at the McGinn/Cazale Theater through January 5, 2020.

WP's next production is the world premiere of WP Lab Alum Donnetta Lavinia Grays' Where We Stand, directed by WP Associate Artistic Director and Lab Alum Tamilla Woodard, in a co-production with Baltimore Center Stage. Where We Stand begins performances Saturday, January 31, 2020 and opens on February 11, 2020 at WP Theater.

WP will complete the season with its third biennial Pipeline Festival of New Plays, a festival of five plays in five weeks, written, directed and produced by the fifteen extraordinary artists of WP's celebrated two-year Lab Residency. The festival artists, WP's current Lab residents, are playwrights Vanessa Garcia, Sukari Jones, Christina Quintana (CQ), Charly Evon Simpson, and Bryna Turner; directors Victoria Collado, Sarah Hughes, Candis C. Jones, Rebecca Martínez, and Arpita Mukherjee; and producers Ilana Becker, Marie Cisco, Lucy Jackson, Stephanie Rolland, and Alyssa Simmons. Play details will be announced at a later date. The Festival opens on March 24, and runs through Saturday, April 25 at WP Theater. Past works that have premiered at the Pipeline Festival have included queens by Martyna Majok (LCT3), Kings by Sarah Burgess (Public Theater), and Power Strip by Sylvia Khoury (LCT3).

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