Brown/Trinity Rep Devotes Spring to Coming of Age Stories

The Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Programs end their 2018-19 season with two plays in rep, How We Got On by Idris Goodwin, and She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen. She Kills Monsters, directed by Tatyana-Marie Carlo ('20) tackles grief through one of the most popular role-playing games, Dungeons & Dragons. How We Got On, directed by Josiah Davis ('20), is a coming-of-age story for three young hip hop artists in the suburbs growing up alongside a new genre of music. All performances will take place in rep from May 3 - 19 at the Pell Chafee Performance Center, 87 Empire Street, Providence. Tickets are on sale now at Trinity Rep's box office, by phone (401) 351-4242, or online at www.TrinityRep.com/MFAShows.

Both set in the suburbs of the Midwest, these shows send their characters on a journey of self-discovery, but through vastly different circumstances. These plays are directed by second-year directing class and feature the Brown/Trinity Rep MFA class of 2020 acting students. This marks the Rhode Island premiere of How We Got On and the first production of She Kills Monsters at Brown or Trinity Rep, an exciting prospect to Providence audiences.

She Kills Monsters

She Kills Monsters is a story of loss, love, and lore told through one of the world's most popular role-playing games, Dungeons & Dragons. When Agnes loses her younger sister, Tilly, in an untimely car accident, she discovers a new side of her sister's life in her role-playing notebook. After enlisting the help of a Dungeon Master named Chuck, Agnes must play through Tilly's campaign with her team of mighty warrior women in an imaginative and action-packed saga to preserve Tilly's memory.

Performances for She Kills Monsters are May 3, 5, 6, 11, and 17 at 7:30 pm, with 2:00 pm matinee performances on May 12 and 18.

Tatyana-Marie Carlo is a theater director from Miami, FL and the former Associate Director of Seminole Theatre, a performing arts center that she helped to reopen after a 40-year closure. Previously, she was the Artistic Director of Microtheater Miami, where she integrated bilingual productions in Spanish and English and spearheaded the Micro Theater for Kids, a children's theater initiative. She continues to dedicate herself to Latinx theater performance, spending much of her time with Rhode Island Latino Arts and Trinity Rep's summer programming, Teatro en El Verano. Teatro en El Verano produces bilingual productions of Shakespeare that are free to the public, touring throughout Rhode Island and Southern New England.

How We Got On

The second part of the rep is Idris Goodwin's How We Got On. Hank, Julian, and Luann are three talented musicians hoping to become the next big hip-hop stars of the 1980s. Their suburban community isn't suited to fulfill their dreams, though. They must endure the pangs of high school, rivalries, and family dysfunction in order to chase their dreams of making music. A break beat DJ narrates while she spins their lives on stage in this coming-of-age story about the roots of rap.

Performances for Prowess are May 5, 11, 13 at 7:30 pm, and 2:00 pm matinee performances on May 5, 11, and 18.

Josiah Davis is a recent graduate from the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television. Based in Los Angeles, CA, Josiah is a member of the On The Verge Theatre Company in Santa Barbara. He has been nominated by Broadway World for his direction of Sweet Child by Roxie Perkins, From White Plains by Michael Perlman, and for his role of Joseph in Darlene Craviotto's Footprints at Laetoli. He has worked with The Geffen Playhouse, RedCat Theatre, Los Angeles Theatre Center, the Moments Playhouse, and appeared on screen in Glee (Fox), Idiotsitter (Comedy Central), Killer Kids (Lifetime), and several Buzzfeed videos.

The Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Programs provide a three-year professional training program for eighteen students under the auspices of an Ivy League university and Rhode Island's Tony Award-winning theater company. Brown University's Department of Theater and Performance Studies is internationally recognized for the quality of its faculty and instruction. Trinity Rep, with its deep tradition of resident artists, provides powerful artistic assets and creates a firm foundation for a new generation of theater artists.

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