‘Slave Play’ Coming Soon

Casting has been announced for the West Coast premiere of playwright Jeremy O. Harris’ unflinching new work “Slave Play” coming to Los Angeles at the Center Theatre Group / Mark Taper Forum February 9 through March 13, 2022, opening February 16, 2022.
Two-time NAACP and Obie Award winner and the recipient of Center Theatre Group’s inaugural Sherwood Award, Robert O’Hara returns to direct “Slave Play,” which earned a record 12 Tony nominations, the most for any play in the history of those awards. The original creative team from the Broadway engagement will bring the acclaimed new work to Los Angeles direct from Broadway for its first production outside of New York.

The cast of “Slave Play,” the most Tony Award-nominated play in history, features Broadway company members, Antoinette Crowe-Legacy, Jonathan Higginbotham, Devin Kawaoka, Chalia La Tour, Irene Sofia Lucia, Paul Alexander Nolan, Jakeem Dante Powell and Elizabeth Stahlmann. Understudies include Jordan Lis Cooper, Rashaad Hall, Kineta Kunutu, James Patrick Nelson and Galen J. Williams. Williams was also involved in the Broadway production.

The creative team for the West Coast premiere of “Slave Play” includes Clint Ramos (scenic design), Dede Ayite (costume design), Jiyoun Chang (lighting design), Lindsay Jones (sound design and original music), Cookie Jordan (hair and wig design), Byron Easley (movement) and Teniece Divya Johnson (intimacy and fight direction – based on the original intimacy and fight direction by Claire Warden and Teniece Divya Johnson). Casting is by Taylor Williams and Victor Vazquez. Kelly A. Martindale is the production stage manager.
Hailed as “the single most daring thing I’ve seen in a theater in a long time” by Wesley Morris of The New York Times and “a fascinating explosive-device of a play” by Peter Marks of The Washington Post, “Slave Play” takes place at the MacGregor Plantation, where nothing is as it seems, and yet everything is as it seems. It’s an antebellum fever-dream as three interracial couples converge to rip open history at the intersection of race, love, sex and sexuality in 21st century America. Soraya Nadia McDonald of The Undefeated said, “wisdom and timeliness ripple through ‘Slave Play,’” adding, “this play is lit.”

“Slave Play” received the Rosa Parks Playwriting Award, the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, The Lotos Foundation Prize in the Arts and Sciences, and the 2018 Paula Vogel Award. The play was nominated for the Outer Critics Circle’s John Gassner Playwriting Award and the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play.

Tickets for “Slave Play” are currently on sale for production at Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre and start at $30. They are available through CenterTheatreGroup.org, Audience Services at (213) 972-4400 or in person at the Center Theatre Group Box Office (at the Ahmanson Theatre at The Music Center, 135 N. Grand Avenue in Downtown L.A. 90012).