January 2021
Now streaming on demand
It is 1941, and Kay and Chris are in love. Yet the letters they exchange are not tender professions, but painful reminiscences—of Chris’ wealthy white father who laid the architecture for local segregation, of Kay’s brutalized Black mother whose death remains a mystery, and of the myriad forces that separate them. Written in 2018, Adrienne Kennedy’s newest work is a brief but expansive memory play that conjures “dread, romance and a tragic surrealism all at once” (New York Times). He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box is a heartbreaking collage of family memories, historical specters, and theatrical allusions, hypnotically woven together with a poetry that is distinctively Kennedy’s own.
https://www.roundhousetheatre.org/On-Stage/Explore/He-Brought-Her-Heart-Back-in-a-Box
Directed by Nicole A. Watson
with Round House Theatre
from November 14, 2020 through February 28, 2021https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/01/18/the-restlessly-inventive-plays-of-adrienne-kennedy on He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box
...the story of a fraught romance between Kay (Maya Jackson), a Black woman of mixed ancestry, and Chris (Michael Sweeney Hammond)... The harrowing stakes of their courtship are clear from the start, but Kennedy’s mode of narration—a series of dreamy dispatches that never quite settle into dialogue—shows just how misty this doomed matter of the heart really is.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/17/theater/adrienne-kennedy-round-house.html on He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box
In 1941 Georgia, a young biracial woman named Kay (an elegantly spellbinding Maya Jackson) and a young white man named Chris (a fetching Michael Sweeney Hammond), the son of a landowner who segregated their town, plan to marry once Chris makes it as an actor in New York.”
April 2019
In 1993, unbeknownst to the rest of the world, an audacious husband-and-wife team of Norwegian bureaucrats assembled a motley band of would-be diplomats from the Middle East to attempt the unimaginable: negotiate peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Operating only through back-channels—in secrecy, and without any official bargaining power—the group struggles to find middle ground as political tensions reach a fever pitch. But at the heart of diplomacy lies empathy, and these peacemakers must rely on the strength of the surprising personal bonds they have forged if they want to succeed. Artistic Director Ryan Rilette helms this thrilling nail biter, based on the true events surrounding the Oslo Peace Accords, that swept the 2016-2017 awards season.
Directed by Ryan Rillette
with Round House Theatre
from April 24, 2019 through May 19, 2019December 2018
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October 2014
April 2014
Gabriel, an Afghanistan War Vet, returns to the comfortable life he built with his partner of eight years Vaughn. When they’re asked to become the black gay poster couple for a same-sex marriage campaign, issues in their past and present are unearthed threatening their seemingly happy reunion. Can we create our own dreams when our community and loved ones want us to live out their own?
http://theatre.ucsd.edu/season/NPF2014/index.html
Directed by Joshua Kahan Brody
with UCSD/Graduate Acting
from May 9, 2014 through May 13, 2014February 2014
Because her suitor Charles Marlow is a nervous wreck around upper-class women, Miss Kate Hardcastle pretends to be an innkeeper in an effort to get him to woo her.
Directed by Penny Metropulos
with UCSD/Graduate Acting
San Diego Reader on She Stoops To Conquer
As Marlow and Kate, Michael Hammond and Emily Shain demonstrate admirable flexibility when they shift from up-market formality to down-home rascality.”
November 2013
When their homestead dries up in the Dust Bowl, the Joads set out for California, overcoming severe hardships in their search for better lives and spiritual rejuvenation. Galati’s adaptation won a Tony Award when it debuted in 1990 at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre. Director Michael Moran explores the paradoxical relationship between family and landscape in his vision of Frank Galati’s adaptation of Steinbeck’s Great American Classic.
Directed by Michael Moran
with UCSD/Graduate Acting
May 2013
A major story is brewing in a 1939 Chicago press room when ace reporter Hildy Johnson stops by for one last visit before leaving the newspaper game for good. But when her former editor and ex-husband entices her with the promise of the scoop that could break the story, the lure of fame and rekindled romance prove more than she can resist. Renowned playwright John Guare (Six Degrees of Separation) and Playhouse Artistic Director Christopher Ashley (Memphis) team up to deliver a fast-talking comedy that exposes the unsavory politics of tabloid journalism.
http://www.lajollaplayhouse.org/his-girl-friday
Directed by Christopher Ashley
with La Jolla Playhouse