The Kennedy Center Present LOCOMOTION, 10/23

The Kennedy Center presents the world premiere Kennedy Center production of Locomotion which runs October 23-31, 2010 in the Family Theater. Co-commissioned with the Orlando Repertory Theatre, Newbery Honor Award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson adapts her book Locomotion into a family play. Locomotion is directed by Jennifer L. Nelson and the production is recommended for audiences aged nine and up.

Locomotion is a play about an 11-year-old boy whose life moves from tragedy to hope as he loses one family and gains a new one. Lonnie Collins Motion, nicknamed Locomotion due to his high energy, finds that the power of poetry provides the perfect outlet for expressing his feelings about his sister, his new life, and the fire that took his parents away.

The cast for Locomotion includes Nickolas Vaughan as Lonnie Collins Motion, Fatima Quander as Ms. Marcus, Mama and others, and G. Alverez Reid as Enrique and Daddy. The production features set design by HannaH Crowell, costume design by Diana Khoury, lighting design by Allen Lee Hughes, and sound design by Chas Marsh.

Author of numerous picture books, young adult, and middle-grade novels, Jacqueline Woodson is the only author to receive three Newbery Honor Awards. She is the recipient of the Coretta Scott King Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and is a two-time National Book Award Honor winner. In 2006, she was the youngest person ever to win the Margaret A. Edwards Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Young Adult Library Services Association.

Her novel Miracle's Boys was adapted into a mini-series on Nickelodeon directed by Spike Lee, among others. Born in Greenville, South Carolina and a long-time resident of Brooklyn, New York, where she lives with her family, Ms. Woodson was part of the founding faculty of the MFA Program in Writing for Young Children at Vermont College and has served as a writing teacher at Goddard College, Eugene Lang College, and as a Writer-in-Residence for the National Book Foundation. Her new picture book, Pecan Pie Baby, will be released in October 2010.

Director Jennifer L. Nelson has worked in professional theater for 37 years as an actress, administrator, educator, playwright, producer, and director. She was Producing Artistic Director of the African Continuum Theatre for 11 years and completed two terms as President of the League of Washington Theatres. For African Continuum, Ms. Nelson produced 26 plays, including several world premieres. She is currently Director of Special Programming at Ford's Theatre and has directed at many theaters throughout the Washington area including Round House, Woolly Mammoth, Everyman, Rep Stage, Theatre of the First Amendment, Source, Imagination Stage, Young Playwrights, and Tsunami. Ms. Nelson has also directed at Manhattan Class Company, the Taper and LATC (Los Angeles), Penumbra Theatre Company, Oregon Shakespeare, Virginia Commonwealth University, and University of South Carolina. Prior to African Continuum, she was an actress and Associate Director of the Living Stage Theatre Company at Arena Stage. Ms. Nelson serves an adjunct professor in theater at Georgetown University.

Performances for Locomotion run in the Kennedy Center Family Theater from October 23-31,
2010. Tickets cost $18 and can be purchased online at kennedy-center.org or by calling Instant
Charge at (202) 467-4600. Patrons living outside the Washington metropolitan area may dial toll-
free at (800) 444-1324.

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