SURELY GOODNESS AND MERCY Announced as Part of NNPN's Rolling Premieres
By: Julie Musbach Feb. 16, 2018
National New Play Network, the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, celebrates the continuation of the Rolling World Premiere (RWP), Surely Goodness and Mercy by Chisa Hutchinson, at Redtwist Theatre. The play, commissioned by Writers Theatre of New Jersey, will receive a total of three distinct NNPN RWP productions, rolling through Member Theaters Salt Lake Acting Company (September 6-October 15, UT), Writers Theatre of New Jersey (September 28-October 15, Madison, NJ), and Redtwist Theatre (February 17-March 18, Chicago, IL). Surely Goodness and Mercy is NNPN's 73rd Rolling World Premiere.
ABOUT SURELY GOODNESS AND MERCY
In an under-funded public school in Newark, New Jersey, a motherless, bible-toting boy with a photographic memory and a tender heart befriends the cantankerous woman who works in the cafeteria. Against all odds, they help each other through the bullshit of growing up and growing old.
Chisa Hutchinson's socially probing plays, which include She Like Girls, Sex on Sunday, The Subject, Dead & Breathing, and Somebody's Daughter among others, have been presented by such venues as Second Stage Theater, City Parks' Summerstage, the Lark, the National Black Theater, the Contemporary American Theater Festival, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and Atlantic Theater Company. She's won a GLAAD Award, the John Golden Award for Excellence in Playwriting, a Lilly Award, a New York Innovative Theatre Award, the Paul Green Award, a Helen Merrill Award, the Lanford Wilson Award, and has been a finalist for the highly coveted PoNY Fellowship. She's also been a Lark Fellow, a Dramatists Guild Fellow, a resident at the William Inge Center for the Arts, a New York NeoFuturist, a staff writer for the Blue Man Group, a Humanitas Fellow, and most recently, Resident Playwright at Second Stage Theater. In addition to venturing into screenwriting, Chisa is currently a proud fourth-year year member of New Dramatists and a Creative Writing Professor at the University of Delaware. (B.A. Vassar College; M.F.A NYU - Tisch School of the Arts.) chisahutchinson.com
Salt Lake Acting Company (SLAC)'s mission is to engage and enrich community through brave contemporary theatre. Founded in 1970, SLAC is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 professional theatre dedicated to producing, commissioning, and developing new works and to supporting a community of professional artists. SLAC has been nationally recognized by the Shubert Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Edgerton Foundation, among others. SLAC operates under a SPT Actors Equity Association contract and is a Constituent Member of Theatre Communications Group (a national organization for non-profit professional regional theatres), and the National New Play Network (a national alliance of non-profit professional theatres that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays). saltlakeactingcompany.org ABOUT WRITERS THEATRE OF NEW JERSEY
Founded in 1986 as Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, Writers Theatre is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, professional theatre and arts education organization dedicated to developing new works, writers, and a creative community. Every year since 2003, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts (NJSCA) has designated Writers Theatre as a Major Arts Institution. This means that the Council considers Writers Theatre to be "an anchor institution that contributes vitally to the quality of life in New Jersey." wtnj.org ABOUT REDTWIST THEATRE
Redtwist Theatre produced its first full season of plays in '04-'05, and has been staging powerful drama-from bold new work to American classics-in the great tradition of Chicago storefront theatre. The intimate and flexible space, used as a thematic asset for every production, is specifically designed and tailored to close the gap between actor and audience, thus blurring the line between seating and staging. The size and warmth of a cozy living room with 35 seats, Redtwist provides a unique theatre experience that is simultaneously intimate, comfortable, and safe, yet intense, edgy, and thrilling, at a distance only inches away. Redtwist, a not-for-profit 501(c)3, is a member of the League of Chicago Theatres, and an Associate Member of the National New Play Network (a national alliance of non-profit professional theatres that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays). redtwist.org
ABOUT NNPN
National New Play Network (NNPN) is the country's alliance of non-profit professional theaters dedicated to the development, production, and continued life of new plays. Since its founding in 1998, NNPN has supported more than 250 productions nationwide through its innovative National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere program, which provides playwright and production support for new works at its Member theaters. Additional programs - its annual National Conference, National Showcase of New Plays, and MFA Playwrights Workshop; the NNPN Annual and Smith Prize commissions; its residencies for playwrights, producers and directors; and the organization's member accessed Collaboration, Festival, and Travel banks and online information sessions - have helped cement the Network's position as a vital force in the new play landscape. NNPN also strives to pioneer, implement, and disseminate ideas and programs that revolutionize the way theaters collaborate to support new plays and playwrights. Its most recent project, the New Play Exchange, is changing the way playwrights share their work and others discover it by providing immediate access to information on more than 17,500 new plays by living writers. NNPN's 30 Core and 80 Associate Members - along with the more than 250 affiliated artists who are its alumni, the thousands of artists and artisans employed annually by its member theaters, and the hundreds of thousands of audience members who see its supported works each year - are creating the new American theater. nnpn.org | newplayexchange.org
Photo: Devin Losser and Yolanda Wood Stange/Jahir Wheeler Weaver and Gha'il McIntosh in the NNPN Rolling World Premiere of Surely Goodness and Mercy by Chisa Hutchinson at Salt Lake Acting Company/Writers Theatre of New Jersey (Photos: dav.d photography/ Walter F. Rodriguez)
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