Philadelphia Premiere of CLYDE's Extends at Arden Theatre Company
Clyde’s, the most produced show in the country this season, is directed by celebrated theatre artist Malika Oyetimein.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Feb. 10, 2023
Arden Theatre Company will extend the Philadelphia premiere of Lynn Nottage's Clyde's through March 12. Clyde's, the most produced show in the country this season, is directed by celebrated theatre artist Malika Oyetimein who returns to The Arden to lead this smash hit that has audiences salivating over the food chatter and getting a look at the choices we make. Oyetimein directed August Wilson's How I Learned What I Learned in the 2019 season. All performances will be on the Arcadia Stage at the Arden. Tickets start at $28 and are available online at www.ardentheatre.org, by phone at 215.922.1122, or in person at the box office at The Arden Theatre Company at 40 N. 2nd Street.
"Philadelphia audiences have embraced Lynn Nottage's Clyde's, and we are thrilled to be able to share this production for another week," said Arden's Producing Artistic Director Terrence J. Nolen. "It is so exciting to have sold out houses loving this play and to be able to keep the kitchen open through March 12th!"
The extension week schedule is:
Wednesday, March 8, 2023, 2:00 PM
Wednesday, March 8, 2023, 6:30 PM
Thursday, March 9, 2023, 7:00 PM
Friday, March 10, 2023, 8:00 PM
Saturday, March 11, 2023, 2:00 PM
Saturday, March 11, 2023, 8:00 PM
Sunday, March 12, 2023, 2:00 PM
Sunday, March 12, 2023, 7:00 PM
"Clyde's is a show of this moment," said Oyetimein. "Clyde's is a show that deals with people who are stuck. People who are stuck in an uncertain point in time - where they must find the strength to make a difficult choice. This is the moment we are all in. We are coming out of a situation where we were all stuck and we have the choice to shape our future. Do we have the bravery to be better? Do we have faith and will we do the work to create a better tomorrow?"
Just outside of Reading, PA, a truck stop sandwich shop offers its formerly incarcerated kitchen staff a shot at redemption as they find purpose and inspiration in their shared quest to create the perfect sandwich. The regional premiere of the TONY-nominated play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Nottage, Clyde's is connected to Nottage's research in Reading. When Nottage went to the Berks County city to research Sweat, her play about struggling blue collar workers, she also spoke with many people who were trying to resurrect their lives after leaving prison. So, while the characters in Clyde's work a dreary, repetitive job, they dream of a better future... and a better sandwich. In an interview, Nottage said the comedy is about both mindfulness and the creative process. "A sandwich is very simple, but you can assemble it in such a way that makes those flavor combinations quite complicated," she explains. "And I like to think of that as a metaphor for what we do as artists."
Arden Theatre Company has a long history of working with our Old City Restauranteurs to partner with throughout the season. Clyde's provides the Arden with the opportunity to collaborate with local cafes and delis to bring our audiences and the Philadelphia community unique sandwiches inspired by the incredible work of Lynn Nottage. Over the run of Clyde's, Arden patrons and Old City residents will have the chance to stop by the new 3Js Café and experience an all-new sandwich inspired by the character Montrellous' "perfect sandwich". The Arden is beyond excited to also partner with one of the oldest delis in the city, Campo's, to bring the people a Clyde's x Campo's specialty Chicken Sandwich with the Clyde's classic Honey Drizzle. Chefs from 3Js Café stopped by a rehearsal to go over knife skills and behind the scenes details of what it is like to work in a kitchen. Chefs Alex, Lando and owner Yuli joined the cast and creative team of Clyde's to discuss the details veteran cooks will recognize from a mile away
Tiffany Barrett returns to the Philadelphia stage as Clyde, the tough owner of the sandwich shop. Her employees are played by: Walter DeShields as Montrellous, J Hernandez as Rafael, Kishia Nixon as Letitia, and Brian Cowden as Jason. DeShields, Hernandez, and Cowden are returning to The Arden. Nixon is making her Arden debut.
Oyetimein directs. Her design team is set to create the tight kitchen where the play takes place. Kyu Shin is the Set Designer. J. Dominic Chacon is the Lighting Designer. Ilycia Buffaloe is the Costume Designer. Stephon Dorsey is the Sound Designer. Alec E. Ferrell is the Stage Manager. Taylor J. Mitchell is the Assistant Director.
About the Playwright
Lynn Nottage is a playwright and a screenwriter. She is the first, and remains the only, woman to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice. Her plays have been produced widely in the United States and throughout the world. Most recently, Nottage premiered MJ the Musical, directed by Christopher Wheeldon and featuring the music of Michael Jackson, at the Neil Simon Theater on Broadway, Clyde's directed by Kate Whoriskey at Second Stage Theater on Broadway and an opera adaptation of her play Intimate Apparel composed by Ricky Ian Gordon and directed by Bart Sher, commissioned by The Met/Lincoln Center Theater.
Her other work includes, Floyd's (retitled- Clyde's) (Guthrie Theater), the musical adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd's novel The Secret Life of Bees, with music by Duncan Sheik and lyrics by Susan Birkenhead (The Atlantic Theater), Mlima's Tale (Public Theater), By The Way, Meet Vera Stark (Lilly Award, Drama Desk Nomination- Second Stage/Signature Theater), Ruined (Pulitzer Prize, OBIE, Lucille Lortel, New York Drama Critics' Circle, Audelco, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Award- MTC/Goodman Theater); Intimate Apparel (American Theatre Critics and New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards for Best Play Center Stage/SCR/ Roundabout Theater); Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine (OBIE Award - Playwrights Horizons/Signature Theater); Crumbs from the Table of Joy; Las Meninas; Mud, River, Stone; Por'knockers; and POOF!
Her play Sweat (Pulitzer Prize, Evening Standard Award, Obie Award, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Tony Nomination, Drama Desk Nomination) moved to Broadway after a sold-out run at The Public Theater. It premiered and was commissioned by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival American Revolutions History Cycle/Arena Stage. Inspired by her research on Sweat, Nottage developed This is Reading, a performance installation based on two years of interviews, at the Franklin Street, Reading Railroad Station in Reading, PA in July 2017.
She is the co-founder of the production company, Market Road Films, whose most recent projects include the. award winning documentary Takeover (NY times, Op-doc) by Emma Francis Francis-Snyder, the Peabody nominated podcast Unfinished: Deep South (Stitcher) by Taylor Hom and Neil Shea, The Notorious Mr. Bout directed by Tony Gerber and Maxim Pozdorovkin (Premiere/Sundance 2014), First to Fall directed by Rachel Beth Anderson (Premiere/ IDFA, 2013) and Remote Control (Premiere/Busan 2013- New Currents Award). Market Road Films currently has a first look deal with SISTER. Over the years, she has developed original projects for Amazon, HBO, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, Showtime, This is That and Harpo. She was a writer and producer on the Netflix series She's Gotta Have It, directed by Spike Lee and a consulting producer on the third season of Dickinson (Apple +).
Nottage is the recipient of a MacArthur "Genius Grant" Fellowship, Steinberg "Mimi" Distinguished Playwright Award, PEN/Laura Pels Master Playwright Award, William Inge Festival Distinguished Playwright, TIME 100 (2019), Signature One Playwright, Merit and Literature Award from The Academy of Arts and Letters, Columbia University Provost Grant, Doris Duke Artist Award, The Joyce Foundation Commission Project & Grant, Madge Evans-Sidney Kingsley Award, Nelson A. Rockefeller Award for Creativity, The Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Award, the inaugural Horton Foote Prize, Helen Hayes Award, the Lee Reynolds Award, and the Jewish World Watch iWitness Award. Her other honors include the National Black Theatre Fest's August Wilson Playwriting Award, a Guggenheim Grant, Lucille Lortel Fellowship and Visiting Research Fellowship at Princeton University. She is a graduate of Brown University and the Yale School of Drama. She is also an Associate Professor in the Theatre Department at Columbia School of the Arts.
Nottage is a board member for BRIC Arts Media Bklyn, Donor Direct Action, Dramatist Play Service, Second Stage and the Dramatists Guild. She recently completed a three-year term as an Artist Trustee on the Board of The Sundance Institute. She is member of the The Dramatists Guild, WGAE, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is currently an artist-in-residence at the Park Avenue Armory.
About the Director
Malika Oyetimein received her MFA from The University of Washington's School of Drama. She is a member of the Directors Lab at Lincoln Center Theater and is in the cohort of the inaugural New Hope Colony Artist Residency, where she was nominated by stage, television and film director Liesl Tommy. She is also Merrimack Repertory Theatre's Artist-in- Residence. She recently joined the MFA directing faculty at Boston University.
She was featured in Seattle's City Art Magazine 2016 Future List and her productions of Booty Candy (2016) and Hoodoo Love (2017) were nominated for Gregory Awards: Best Production. She is also the co-adapter and director of Dr. Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Book-It Repertory Theatre) which garnered a Gregory Award nomination for Best Director.
Select directing credits: Teenage Dick (Seattle Repertory Theatre), PASSAGE (Boston University) Fannie Lou Hamer:Speak on it (Merrimack Repertory Theatre), One in Two (Playbill.com), August Wilson's How I Learned What I Learned (Arden Theatre Co). The workshop production of The First Deep Breath (National Black Theatre), The Bitter Game (Wallis Annenberg), Eclipsed (Southern Repertory Theatre), the world premiere of WHITE (Theatre Horizon), Barbecue and Bootycandy (Intiman Theatre Festival), and And in this Corner:Cassius Clay (Seattle Children's Theatre).
About The Arden Theatre Company
Celebrating its 35th Anniversary Season, Arden Theatre Company, founded in 1988, is a professional theatre company in Old City, dedicated to bringing to life great stories by great storytellers on the stage, in the classroom, and in the community. To date, the Arden has produced 44 World Premieres.
The Arden has developed four distinct educational programs: Arden for All, our in-school arts education program for elementary level students; Arden Drama School, our on-site, tuition-based theatre classes for pre-K through 12th grade students; Teen Arden, our theatre enrichment program for high school students; and the Arden Professional Apprentice program, a rigorous training program for young theatre professionals.
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