Durham's Bartlett Theater to Present CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE OF JOY

Bartlett Theater announces complete casting today for CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE OF JOY by Lynn Nottage. Directed by Karen Dacons-Brock, CRUMBS begins performances on Friday, March 3rd.

CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE OF JOY follows an African-American family's move from the American South to Brooklyn in 1950. Told through the memories of 17 year-old Ernestine Crump, the ravishing play weaves together an emotional story about the struggle for a better life and the journey towards comfort.

The play folds into Bartlett Theater's mission of presenting the creative world of one playwright throughout each season. CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE OF JOY is a continuation of the Tennessee Williams-centered season that started with The Glass Menagerie in Fall 2015. Like Williams' The Glass Menagerie, Nottage explores a family's history through the lens of memories and sends a powerful message that only in our reflections do we realize what our actions should have-or could have-been.

The production will take place on March 3rd-5th and 10th-12th at the Durham Arts Council PSI Theater. CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE OF JOY includes scenic design by Amanda Warriner, costume design by Pamela Bond, and lighting and sound design by Stevan Dupor. Savannah Core serves as assistant director and Kate Gulden is stage-managing the production.

This project was supported by gifts to the Durham Arts Council Annual Arts Fund and the N.C. Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural & Cultural Resources.

Crumbs from the Table of Joy will play a limited run of only six performances. Show times are as follows: Friday, March 3 at 7:30 PM, Saturday, March 4 at 7:30 PM, Sunday, March 5 at 3 PM, Friday, March 10 at 7:30 PM, Saturday, March 11 at 7:30 PM and Sunday, March 12 at 3 PM

To purchase tickets - or for more information about working with, volunteering for, or supporting Bartlett Theater - call 919-808-2203, visit www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2806411 or BartlettTheater.org.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Karen Dacons-Brock (Director) is a former professor of theatre at North Carolina Central University where she taught performance courses, developed and promoted new plays, and directed numerous theatrical productions. During her tenure at NCCU, Dacons-Brock was a recipient of the University of North Carolina Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the Kennedy Center-American College Theatre Festival's Meritorious Achievement Award for Excellence in Theatre Direction. In the Triangle community, she has directed plays for Raleigh Little Theatre, Burning Coal Theatre, Walltown Children's Theatre, and the former Durham Theatre Guild. She received the Hillside High School Drama Department's Phenomenal Woman in the Arts Award for her extensive work in theatre education. Dacons-Brock is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she received her BFA and MFA degrees.

Lakeisha Coffey (Ernestine Crump) is a Raleigh resident who made Durham debut in The Overwhelming at Manbites Dog Theatre. Other Manbites Dog appearances include The Best of Enemies, brownsville song: a b-side for Tray, and Spirits to Enforce. Some of her favorite roles include I Love My Hair... and I Love My Hair...the Remix (FORTY/AM), The Mountaintop (Justice Theater Project), For Colored Girls... (SheCow Productions/Burning Coal Theatre Second Stage), A Raisin in the Sun (Raleigh Little Theatre), The Waiting Room (Raleigh Little Theatre), and Boston Marriage (Ghost & Spice). As a Little Green Pig company member, she has performed in productions such as Night Beast, The Jade City Chronicles Vol. 1, Richie, Our Town and Tarantino's Yellow Speedo. She also served as stage manager for Black Ops Theatre Company's production of The Typographer's Dream.

Moriah Williams (Ermina Crump) is a native of Durham and a recent graduate of North Carolina Central University. Her theatrical appearances include Taylor in Stickfly (Raleigh Little Theatre), Penola in The Bluest Eye (NCCU), Tracy Ada in Steal Away (NCCU), and Nephi in By a Black Hand (NCCU). She received an ACTF nomination for her role in The Bluest Eye.

Jade Arnold (Godfrey Crump) resides in Durham, N.C. and is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where he earned his BFA in Theatre. He is the Co-Founder of the Triangle Readers Theatre Ensemble, a company member of the Burning Coal Theatre, a member of the Artistic Committee for Justice Theatre Project. Some acting credits include Anthony in Sweeney Todd (Playmakers), Abraham Galloway in Fire of Freedom (Carrboro Arts Center's Redbird Festival), Marc Antony in Julius Caesar (Justice Theater Project). Jade also played Mozart in Leviathan Theatre Company's Amadeus and Hamlet in Little Green Pig's HMLT. With Theatre Raleigh, Carousel!, A Few Good Men, and Dreamgirls.

Melanie Matthews (Lily Ann Green) is a Greensboro native who attended North Carolina A&T and UNCG. She has performed in the Downtown Urban Theater Festival and the Planet Connections Theater Festival in New York City and with numerous theater companies in Philadelphia, PA.

Emily Rieder (Gerte Schulte) is an actress and teaching artist originally from Raleigh, NC. She received her MFA in Acting from Northern Illinois University and her BFA in Acting from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She has also trained at The Moscow Art Theatre, The Barrow Group (NYC) and Upright Citizens Brigade (NYC). Some of her favorite roles include Kyra in Skylight ( Burning Coal Theatre Co.), Ruth in Blithe Spirit (Northern Illinois University), Beth in A Lie of the Mind (Northern Illinois University), Myrrhine in Lysistrata (Phare Play Productions NYC) and Brooke in Noises Off! (Triad Stage).

Lynn Nottage (Playwright) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and screenwriter whose plays have been produced widely in the U.S. and throughout the world. Most recently, her play Sweat (Susan Smith Blackburn Award) premiered at OSF and Arena Stage. Her other plays include, By The Way, Meet Vera Stark (Lilly Award, Drama Desk nom.); Ruined (Pulitzer Prize, OBIE, Lortel, NY Drama Critics' Circle, Audelco, Drama Desk, and OCC Award); Intimate Apparel (American Theatre Critics and NYDCC Awards); Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine (OBIE); Crumbs from the Table of Joy; Las Meninas; Mud, River, Stone; Por'knockers; and POOF!. She recently developed her play Intimate Apparel into a new opera with composer Ricky Ian Gordon commissioned by MET/LCT. She is co-founder of Market Road Films, whose recent projects include The Notorious Mr. Bout, First to Fall and American Warlord, in addition to original projects for HBO, Showtime, and Harpo. Nottage is the recipient of a PEN/Laura Pels Master Dramatist Award, Doris Duke Artist Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, MacArthur "Genius Grant" Fellowship, Steinberg "Mimi" Distinguished Playwright Award, Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Award, the inaugural Horton Foote Prize, Lilly Award, Helen Hayes Award, Lee Reynolds Award, and Jewish World Watch iWitness Award. Her other honors include the National Black Theatre Fest's August Wilson Playwriting Award, a Guggenheim Grant, PEN/Laura Pels Award, Lucille Lortel Fellowship and Visiting Research Fellowship at Princeton University. She is a graduate oF Brown University and the Yale School of Drama, and is an Associate Professor at Columbia School of the Arts. Member of the Dramatists Guild.

Bartlett Theater's mission is to significantly broaden the perspectives of audience members by giving voice to a diverse chorus of playwrights in a provocatively entertaining and educational way. It does this by dedicating itself to exploring and presenting the creative world of one playwright each season. As the only theater in the Southeast, and one of just a handful nationwide, with such an immersive focus, Bartlett Theater produces bold works that challenge and empower its audience by finding the powerful connections between the words and stories of modern playwrights and the contemporary playwrights they inspired. With the goal of becoming a regional theater presence, Bartlett Theater intends to firmly plant itself in downtown Durham, further enriching a vibrant local culture.

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