DUTCHMAN By LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka to Be Revived At Access Theater

Henry Lombino and Those Guilty Creatures are thrilled to announce a new production of DUTCHMAN by LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka will play at Access Theater (380 Broadway) for three performances on November 7, 8, and 9 at 8:00pm.

Director Ryan Dobrin (Assoc. Producing Artistic Leader of The Movement Theatre Company) and actors Sierra Berkeley Fisher (St. Ann's Warehouse: Oklahoma!) and Keyonne Session are excited about the place of vulnerability revealed by Baraka's work. In DUTCHMAN, a Black man named Clay rides the subway alone late at night. He is approached by Lula, a young white woman who seems to know everything about him. As the two travel through the night, Lula's charged conversation with Clay slowly reveals a troubling undercurrent to their meeting. Suddenly, Clay's perilous existence as a Black man in a white-dominated society becomes impossible to ignore. This production of DUTCHMAN examines the piece through 2019's point of view - has anything really changed?

It is the last play written by famed writer and activist Amiri Baraka under his given name, LeRoi Jones. After the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, Baraka changed his name and founded the Black Arts Movement, becoming an increasingly active and vocal supporter of Black Nationalism. The play represents a turning point for Baraka as it delves into the limits of black freedom within the history of America. Its 1964 world premiere at Cherry Lane Theatre earned an Obie Award.

The ensemble also includes Xander Browne, Tim Creavin (Williamstown Theatre Festival: Lempicka), Zora Iman Crews, and Carina Goebelbecker (New York City Players: Paradiso). Additional casting to be announced.

This production of DUTCHMAN by LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka features scenic and costume design by Tekla Monson (The Neon Coven: OSCAR at The Crown), lighting design by Zack Lobel (The Tank: In the Penal Colony), sound design by Connor Wang (Broadway: Hadestown), props design by Emily Zimmerman, and dramaturgy by Bisa McDuffie-Thurmond. "Dutchman" is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc., a Concord Theatricals Company.

DUTCHMAN is produced by Henry Lombino, Cynthia Tong, Those Guilty Creatures (Ryan Dobrin and Carina Goebelbecker), and Keyonne Session.

Tickets are now on sale at https://ci.ovationtix.com/35267/production/1020296.

SIERRA BERKELEY FISHER (Lula) is a recent NYU Tisch School of the Arts graduate. She studied at the New Studio on Broadway, the Experimental Theater Wing and Stonestreet Studios. Her recent productions include Oklahoma! at St. Ann's Warehouse as a dream ballet dancer, and It's Not Rare But It's Small at NYU Tisch's ETW. She is excited to come full circle artistically and work on this production of the Dutchman with Keyonne and Ryan, two of her friends from high school and can't wait to get started with the rest of the creative team!

KEYONNE SESSION (Clay) is a graduate of Wesleyan University where he majored in Theater and Psychology and earned the Rachel Henderson Theater Prize for Acting. Upon graduating and relocating to Denver, Keyonne worked as a Directing Apprentice for the show Body of An American by Dan O'Brien, Assistant Directed Sanctions by Bruce Graham, and served as a theater collaborator for their Curious New Voices summer theater program. In Keyonne's senior year at Wesleyan, he worked on a production of Dutchman as a way to examine black masculinity on stage. He chose this play due to the polar opposite characters - not only in deposition, but in stark appearance. He's thrilled to be examining this work again in 2019.

RYAN DOBRIN (Director) is a New York-based theatre-maker and collaborator. He is the Associate Producing Artistic Leader at the Obie Award-winning The Movement Theatre Company and a Directing Fellow at Playwrights Horizons and Manhattan Theatre Club. He is an alumnus of the Emerging Leaders Group at Ars Nova. He graduated from Wesleyan University, where he received both the Rachel Henderson Theater Prize and the Outreach & Community Service Prize in Theater. Recent work includes credits on: What to Send Up When It Goes Down (on tour at Woolly Mammoth and the A.R.T. with The Movement), Wives (Playwrights Horizons), OSCAR at The Crown (The Neon Coven), Mrs. Murray's Menagerie (Ars Nova), and directing projects with National Queer Theater, The Tank, and the Cathedral School of St. John the Divine. For more: ryandobrin.com.

HENRY LOMBINO (Lead Producer) is a producer, choreographer, and theatre artist based in New York. After graduating from Wesleyan University, he had the pleasure of working on Lempicka at the Tony Award-winning Williamstown Theatre Festival as a choreography assistant to Raja Feather Kelly. Since then, he has been involved in multiple off-Broadway productions, including Catch as Catch Can (Page 73), Infinite Hotel (Prototype), and Proof of Love (New York Theatre Workshop/Audible Theater). Outside of theatre, he recently completed an internship at Mark Morris Dance Group and has worked on fundraising campaigns for American Ballet Theatre, Lincoln Center, and Yale Repertory Theatre.

 

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