PRESENT
the Local Lab staged reading of
maybe the saddest thing
written by
HARRISON DAVID RIVERS
directed by
JOSIAH DAVIS
***
Friday, February 18, 2022
NYC
SYNOPSIS
In a city in the South, Deshaun sells drugs, Frankie cleans hotel rooms and Noble makes sandwiches. They’re smart. Black. And stuck. Maybe the Saddest Thing is a play about that most American of phenomena – the rut – and what it takes to get out.
CREATIVE TEAM
HARRISON DAVID RIVERS
Playwright
Harrison David Rivers is the winner of the 2018 Relentless Award for THE BANDAGED PLACE. His other plays include WHEN LAST WE FLEW (GLAAD Media Award), SWEET (AUDELCO nom), WHERE STORMS ARE BORN (Berkshire Theatre Award nom), THIS BITTER EARTH (Jeff nom, MN Theatre Award for Exceptional New Work), FIVE POINTS (BroadwayWorld Minneapolis Award for Best New Work) and BROADBEND, ARKANSAS (Antonyo Award nom). He is the recipient of McKnight, Jerome, and Van Lier Fellowships and residencies with NYS&F, NYTW, Duke University and the Williamstown Theater Festival. Harrison is a member of the Playwrights’ Center's Board of Directors. harrisondavidrivers.com
JOSIAH DAVIS
Director
Josiah Davis (he/him) is a multi-disciplinary artist from Dallas. A director, choreographer, designer and actor, his work intersects expressive movement, live music, emerging technology, and ritual to breathe new life to physical storytelling. Asking, is it possible create space for people to be in sync when we are pulled apart by invisible systems? He is a graduate from the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television, and Brown MFA Directing 2020, a company member of Theatre Lumina, a NYTW 2050 fellow, National Black Theatre Soul Directing Resident, Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellow, and Associate Artistic Director of On The Verge Theatre Festival in Santa Barbara.
CAST
DESHAUN - Beau Thom
FRANKIE - Susan Heyward
NOBLE - Omari K. Chancellor
PRESS - Sam Encarnacion
GLORIA - Denise Manning
JUNE - Kyle Beltran
STAGE DIRECTIONS - Yonatan Gebeyehu
Roundabout Theatre Company gratefully acknowledge the Roundabout Leaders for New Works: Alec Baldwin, James Costa and John Archibald, Linda L. D’Onofrio, Peggy and Mark Ellis, Jeanne Hagerty, Sylvia Golden, Angelina Lippert, K. Myers, Katheryn Patterson and Tom Kempner, Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater, Ira Pittelman, Mary Solomon, Lauren and Danny Stein, and the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.
Readings and workshops at Roundabout are supported, in part, by the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation.
LOCAL THEATER COMPANY TEAM
Founding Artistic Director - Pesha Rudnick
Producer - Misha S. Zimmerman
Associate Artistic Director & Marketing Manager & Local Lab 11 Co-Director - Nick Chase
Development & Business Affairs - Alison Palmer
Local Lab 11 Co-Director - Betty Hart
Marketing Associate - Kevin Douglas
Resident Dramaturg - Jordan Lichtenheld
Land Acknowledgement
Every community owes its existence and vitality to generations from around the world that contributed their hopes, dreams and energy to making the history that led to this moment. Some of the people from the history of this spot were brought here against their will, some were drawn to leave their distant homes in hope of a better life and some have lived on this land for more generations than can be counted. Truth and acknowledgment are critical to building mutual respect and connection across all barriers of heritage and difference. We begin this effort to acknowledge what has been buried by honoring the truth.
Local Theater Company acknowledges, with deep respect, that we are located on the traditional and ancestral homelands of the Ute, Cheyenne and Arapaho Nations and Peoples. We pay respect to their elders both past and present. We ask that you consider the many legacies of violence, displacement, migration and settlement that bring us here today.
Appearing through an Agreement between Local Theater Company and Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
