freeFall Theatre to Wrap Up 2023/2024 Season With NOLLYWOOD DREAMS

freeFall Theatre will wrap up their 2023/2024 season with a new play by Jocelyn Bioh. Multi-hyphenate Erica Sutherlin directs Nollywood Dreams. Erica is an award winning filmmaker/writer/theatrical director/producer and recently accepted the new position of Incoming Artistic Executive Director of The Studio@620. Tampa Bay audiences will recognize Erica’s work which includes smash-hit runs of The Color Purple (Stageworks Theatre), Ragtime (American Stage in the Park) and In the Blood (USF).

The cast features Fahnlohnee Reeves (freeFall debut), Hillary Scales (freeFall’s The Night Before, Marie and Rosetta) with Clinton C.H. Harris (freeFall’s Peter and the Starcatcher), Shelby Ronea (freeFall debut, American Stage’s Crimes of the Heart), and Milton Lyles (freeFall debut). Nollywood Dreams also stars Tampa Bay favorite Andresia Moseley as Adenikeh, the Oprah of Lagos. 

It’s the 1990s and in Lagos, Nigeria, the Nollywood film industry is exploding and taking the world by storm. Ayamma (Fahnlohnee Reeves) dreams of stardom while working at her parents’ travel agency alongside her lovable and celebrity-obsessed sister Dede (Hillary Scales). When Ayamma lands an audition for a new film by Gbenga Ezie (Clinton C.H. Harris), Nigeria’s hottest director, she comes head-to-head with Gbenga’s former leading lady, Fayola (Shelby Ronea). Tensions flare just as sparks start flying between Ayamma, the aspiring ingénue, and Wale (Milton Lyles), Nollywood’s biggest heartthrob, in this hilarious new play about dreaming big.

Jocelyn Bioh

(Playwright) is an award winning Ghanaian-American writer/performer from New York City. Her written works for theatre include: Merry Wives (Public Theater/Shakespeare in the Park, PBS Great Performances), Nollywood Dreams(MCC Theater), Goddess (Berkeley Rep), Jaja’s African Hair Braiding (Manhattan Theatre Club), and the multi award winning School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play which was originally produced at MCC Theater in 2017/2018 and has gone on to have over 50 regional productions. She is a former TOW playwriting fellow (2017) and has been commissioned by MTC, Atlantic Theater Co., Williamstown Theatre Festival and Second Stage. Jocelyn has also written for TV on “Russian Doll”, Spike Lee’s “She’s Gotta Have It”, the upcoming Hulu series “Tiny Beautiful Things” and is also writing the live screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Once On This Island for Disney+. She was this year’s recipient of the Outstanding Adaptation Drama Desk Award.

Book tickets now at freefalltheatre.com or by calling 727-498-5205. Nollywood Dreams runs April 12 through May 12, 2024. Tickets range from $45 - $55. freeFall matinees are always at 2pm and evening performances are always at 7pm. 

Located in West St Petersburg, freeFall Theatre Company is one of Tampa Bay’s most exciting professional theater companies. freeFall was founded in 2008 and moved into its current space at 6099 Central Avenue in 2011. freeFall presents a varied range of classical and new works that are bold, daring, and diverse and presented in ways that invite, entertain, and challenge audiences. All freeFall productions are produced and presented locally using acclaimed theater professionals from across the country including many that make Tampa Bay their artistic home. In addition to a full season of shows, freeFall also presents an award-winning series of cabarets, concerts, and special programming as part of their Tandem Series.

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