BRIANNA BUCKLEY, CHRISTIANA CLARK, RONALD L. CONNER AND ANEISA J. HICKS CAST IN CHRISTINA ANDERSON’S THE RIPPLE, THE WAVE THAT CARRIED ME HOME, JANUARY 13 – FEBRUARY 12, 2023, IN THE OWEN THEATRE. TICKETS GO ON SALE FRIDAY NOVEMBER 18
Goodman Theatre kicks off the new year with a new play: Christina Anderson’s poignant, transporting and quietly subversive story of racial justice, political legacy and family forgiveness, The ripple, the wave that carried me home—winner of the prestigious 2022 Horton Foote Prize, awarded to “an original work of exceptional quality.”
Jackson Gay directs the cast of four, featuring Brianna Buckley(Gayle/Young Chipper Ambitious Black Woman), Christiana Clark (Janice), Ronald L. Conner (Edwin) and Aneisa J. Hicks (Helen); understudies for the production will be announced soon.
A co-production with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the ripple, the wave that carried me home appears January 13 – February 12, 2023 in the 350-seat flexible Owen Theatre; opening night is Monday, January 23. Tickets ($15 –$45, subject to change) are available starting November 18 at GoodmanTheatre.org/Ripple or by phone at 312-443-3800.
The Goodman is grateful for the support of the Goodman Women’s Board (Major Production Sponsor), Russell Reynolds Associates (Contributing Sponsor) and The Elizabeth Morse Charitable Trust (Lead Funder of IDEAA Programming).
In the ripple, the wave that carried me home, it’s 1960s Kansas, and Janice’s parents are prominent activists fighting for the integration of public swimming pools. After Janice grows apart from her family and starts a new life far away, she is asked to return to her hometown to speak at a ceremony honoring her father. She must decide whether she’s ready to reckon with her political inheritance—and a past she’s tried to forget.
The creative team includes Todd Rosenthal (Set Design); Montana Levi Blanco (Costume Design); Jason Lynch (Lighting Design); Noel Nichols (Original Music and Sound Design). Casting is by Lauren Port, CSA and Rachael Jimenez, CSA. Kaitlyn Kitzmiller is the Stage Manager.
Christina Anderson is a 2022 Tony Award nominee for Outstanding Book of the Broadway musical for Paradise Square. She is a playwright, screenwriter, educator, and creative. Plays include How to Catch Creation, pen/man/ship, Man in Love, and Good Goods.
Her work has appeared at the Goodman Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Public Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre, Kansas City Repertory, and other theatres in the United States and Canada.
Awards and honors include: 2022 Horton Foote Prize, 2021 Prince Prize, 2020 United States Artists Fellow, MacDowell Fellowship, Lily Awards Harper Lee Prize, Herb Alpert Award nomination, Barrymore nomination, and New Dramatists Residency. She taught playwriting at the David Geffen School of Drama, Wesleyan University, Rutgers University, SUNY Purchase College, and served as the interim Head of Playwriting at Brown University. Current projects: a collection of plays to be published by Tripwire Harlot Press in the fall of 2022, Public Theater commission for the stage adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston’s Barracoon, and Ericka Huggins’s biographical screenplay.
Jackson Gay’s recent credits include Wait Until Dark (Dorset Theatre Festival); Karen Hartman’s Goldie, Max & Milk (Volt Festival 59e59); Endless Loop of Gratitude with New Neighborhood (New Ohio’s Ice Factory); Lucy Thurber’s Transfers for Audible, MCC, and New York Stage & Film; When Harry (Chicago’s Greenhouse Theater); Lover Beloved with Suzanne Vega and Duncan Sheik (Alley Theatre); God’s Ear and The Seagull (Juilliard); Kleptocracy by Kenneth Lin (Arena Stage); These Paper Bullets! by Rolin Jones with music by Billie Joe Armstrong (New Neighborhood, Atlantic, Geffen, Yale Rep – Critics Pick Time Out NY, Best Production and Adaptation LA Sage Awards, Time Out Los Angeles, Connecticut Critics Circle Award Best Production and Best Director). Jackson is co-producing artistic director of New Neighborhood (newneighborhood.net).
Jackson and New Neighborhood recently joined forces with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and The Commissary to produce Why Would I Dare: The Trial of Crystal Mason. In collaboration with Dan Butler and DMNDR, New Neighborhood produced the first 24-hour reading of Filibustered and Unfiltered: America Reads the Mueller Report, which inspired more than a dozen other events across the country and was featured everywhere from the Los Angeles Times (“a live-theater summer sensation!”) to Breitbart News (“the single most boring and pointless way to waste your time!”). MFA Directing Yale School of Drama.
THE COMPANY OF the ripple, the wave that carried me home (in alphabetical order)
For images, bios and additional information about the artists, visit the Play Detail Page.
Gayle/Young Chipper Ambitious Black Woman…Brianna Buckley
Janice………………..Christiana Clark
Edwin…………………Ronald L. Conner
Helen…………………Aneisa J. Hicks
Set Design by Todd Rosenthal
Costume Design by Montana Levi Blanco
Lighting Design by Jason Lynch
Original Music and Sound Design by Noel Nichols
Casting is by Lauren Port, CSA and Rachael Jimenez, CSA. Kaitlyn Kitzmiller is the Stage Manager.
ENHANCED AND ACCESSIBLE PERFORMANCES
Visit Goodman theatre.org/Access for more information about Goodman Theatre’s accessibility efforts.
Touch Tour and Audio-Described Performance: Saturday, February 5, 12:30pm Touch Tour; 2pm performance – The action/text is audibly enhanced for patrons via headset. NOTE: Touch Tours for the 2022/2023 Season will not have access to the stage due to current health and safety protocols, but will feature alternate pre-show sensory introductions.
ASL-Interpreted: Saturday, February 11 at 2pm – An American Sign Language interpreter signs the action/text as played.
Spanish Subtitles: Saturday February 11 at 8pm.
Open-Captioned: Sunday, February 12 at 2pm – An LED sign presents dialogue in sync with the performance.
ABOUT GOODMAN THEATRE
Chicago ’s theater since 1925, Goodman Theatre is a not-for-profit arts and community organization in the heart of the Loop, distinguished by the excellence and scope of its artistic programming and community engagement. The theater’s artistic priorities include new play development (more than 150 world or American premieres), large scale musical theater works and reimagined classics. Artists and productions have earner two Pulitzer Prizes, 22 Tony Awards and more than 160 Jeff Awards, among other accolades. The Goodman is the first theater in the world to produce all 10 plays in August Wilson’s “American Century Cycle.” Its longtime annual holiday tradition A Christmas Carol, now in its fifth decade, has created a new generation of theatergoers in Chicago. The Goodman also frequently serves as a production and program partner with national and international companies and Chicago’s Off-Loop theaters.
Using the tools of the theatrical profession, the Goodman’s Education and Engagement programs aim to develop generations of citizens who understand the cultures and stories of diverse voices. The Goodman’s Alice Rapoport Center for Education and Engagement is the home of these programs, which are offered free of charge for Chicago youth—85% of whom come from underserved communities—schools and life-long learners.
As a cultural and community organization invested in quality, diversity and community, Goodman Theatre is committed to using the art of theater for a better Chicago. Goodman Theatre’s Action Plan for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Anti-Racism and Access (IDEAA) was born out of the belief that progress means action, which includes building on the decades-long commitment to using art, assets and resources to contribute to a more just, equitable and anti-racist society.
Goodman Theatre was founded by William O. Goodman and his family in honor of their son Kenneth, an important figure in Chicago’s cultural renaissance in the early 1900s.
The Goodman family’s legacy lives on through the continued work and dedication of Kenneth’s family, including Albert Ivar Goodman, who with his late mother, Edith-Marie Appleton, contributed the necessary funds for the creation on the new Goodman center in 2000.
Today, Goodman Theatre is led by Artistic Director Robert Falls (Susan V. Booth will assume that role this fall) and Executive Director Roche Schulfer. Theater leadership also includes the distinguished members of the Artistic Collective: Rebecca Gilman, Dael Orlandersmith, Henry Godinez, Steve Scott, Kimberly Senior, Chuck Smith, Regina Taylor and Mary Zimmerman. Jeff Hesse is Chairman of Goodman Theatre’s Board of Trustees, Fran Del Boca is Women’s Board President and Craig McCaw is President of the Scenemakers Board for young professionals.
ABOUT THE CO-PRODUCING THEATERS
Berkeley Repertory Theatre has grown from a storefront stage to an international leader in innovative theatre. The nonprofit has provided a welcoming home for emerging and established artists since 1968. Shows at Berkeley Rep, which have gone on to win six Tony Awards, seven Obie Awards, nine Drama Desk Awards, one Grammy Award, one Pulitzer Prize, and many other honors. Berkeley Rep received the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre in 1997.
To formalize, enhance, and expand the processes by which Berkeley Rep makes theatre, The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep’s Center for the Creation and Development of New Work was launched in 2012. The Berkeley Rep School of Theatre engages and educates some 20,000 people a year and features nationally recognized teen programs. Berkeley Rep’s bustling facilities—which also include the 400-seat Peet’s Theatre, the 600-seat Roda Theatre, and a campus in West Berkeley—are helping revitalize a renowned city.
Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
Email Ray Hanania at rghanania@gmail.com.
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