Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company to Stage World Premiere of LIGHTS RISE ON GRACE, 3/30-4/26

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company announces its next production in Season 35: Lights Rise on Grace, a world premiere by acclaimed playwright Chad Beckim. Woolly Company Member Michael John Garcés, who helmed recent Woolly shows including We Are Proud and The Convert, will direct the new production. Lights Rise on Grace will run from Monday, March 30 to Sunday, April 26, 2015.

Lights Rise on Grace won the Outstanding Play Award for a reading at the 2007 New York Fringe Festival under Woolly Company Member Robert O'Hara's direction. The play is a gritty modern love story, but also an examination of race, sexuality, and family as unconventional as the relationship at its heart.

Lights rise on Grace, the shy daughter of Chinese immigrants. Lights rise on Large, the charismatic young black man she loves. Lights rise on Riece, the sole bright spot in Large's dark new world as a prison inmate. Lights rise on an unlikely family, bound by forgiveness but threatened by Large's new desire. Lights fade on three souls, more than the sum of their stories and the past that won't let go.

"Chad Beckim's complex romance shines a light on the invisible people we often overlook-people below the poverty line, people struggling to keep up, people on the outside trying to get in," says Woolly Mammoth Artistic Director Howard Shalwitz. "It's unabashedly a love story, with a deep sense of longing and radiant language. But everything about this love story is unusual, from the form in which it is told, to the characters it represents, to the unpredictable conclusion it reaches."

The cast of Lights Rise on Grace is comprised of three New York actors appearing on the Woolly stage for the first time: Jeena Yi*, DeLance Minefee, and Ryan Barry*.

More information about Lights Rise on Grace and Woolly's 35th Anniversary Season can be found at woollymammoth.net.