Pages

Monday, February 15, 2016

SECOND SEASON OF WNET’S “THEATER CLOSE-UP” CONTINUES WITH CROSSROADS THEATRE PRODUCTION

WNET THEATER CLOSE-UP: REPAIRING A NATION

WHEN: Thursday, February 18 at 9 p.m. with an encore presentation on Friday, February 19 at 2 a.m. The play will also air on WLIW21 Sunday, February 21 at 9 p.m. with an encore Thursday, February 25 at 1 a.m.
WHERE:
THIRTEEN (WNET-TV)

Second Season of Theater Close-Up Showcasing the Best of Off-Broadway and Regional Theater Continues with Repairing a Nation

Tony Award-winning Blythe Danner hosts production from Crossroads Theatre Company

Theater Close-Up — the unique collaboration between THIRTEEN and the large community of New York City area non-profit Off-Broadway theaters — will present its first regional production, Nikkole Salter’s Repairing a Nation, from Crossroads Theatre Company in New Brunswick, New Jersey, captured live on-stage, in THIRTEEN’s signature “up-close” style. (Top: L to R Stephanie Berry, Chantal Jean Pierre and Landon Woodson. Photo by William M. Brown)

Beginning Friday, February 19, the play will be available online in the tri-state area (www.thirteen.org/topic/programs/theater-close-up/).

The broadcast will again be hosted by Blythe Danner, Tony Award-winning star of stage, screen, and television. No stranger to public television, Danner memorably starred in the Great Performances productions of Chekhov’s The Seagull and Tennessee Williams’Eccentricities of a Nightingale.

Repairing a Nation – directed by Marshall Jones III, Crossroads’ producing artistic director — chronicles a holiday celebration of the Davis family in their native Tulsa, Oklahoma. All goes awry when the family matriarch insists they join a lawsuit seeking reparations for the Tulsa Race Riots that devastated their family 80 years ago. The cast includes Chantal Jean-Pierre, Angel Moore, Landon Woodson, Stephanie Berry, and Phil McGlaston. (Above: Phil McGlaston and Landon Woodson. Photo by William M. Brown)

“We are delighted and proud that new audiences throughout New York, New Jersey and Long Island will be able to see Repairing a Nation, a searing new play by a truly gifted writer who reveals a little-known tragic episode in American history — the Tulsa Race Riots,” said Jones who also directed the original stage production. “Nikkole Salter deftly uses the Davis family to capture the lasting impact of this historic event in the conflicts within contemporary family life.” (Right: Landon Woodson and Angel Moore. Photo by William M. Brown)

Founded in 1978 by Ricardo Khan and L. Kenneth Richardson, Crossroads Theatre Company embraces the vision that African-American theater is intended for a broad-based, diverse audience. As a major force in the development of new ideas and the introduction of formerly marginalized writers, Crossroads produces works that enrich and diversify the representation of African American culture on the American stage. Crossroads was the winner of the 1999 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theater in the United States.

In her review of the production last year, Ronni Reich of the Newark Star-Ledger posited the question: “What if you knew an injustice had been done, and you had it in your power to make it right? ‘Repairing a Nation,’ an ambitious new play by Nikkole Salter at Crossroads Theatre Company deals with the question on three levels: in a country, in a family, and in a relationship. Marshall Jones III directs an engaging production…In maintaining some lightness and focusing on family, the play becomes relatable rather than didactic as it asks difficult questions…Salter addresses worthy issues in an accessible way, and at least one of them gets a satisfying resolution.”

Theater Close-Up’s second season will continue this spring (airdate TBA) with Signature Theatre’s Off-Broadway revival of Incident at Vichy, by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Arthur Miller.

Last October, THIRTEEN debuted nine plays on Theater Close-Up, encompassing works ranging from vintage playwright John Van Druten to today’s Richard Nelson, and drawing on the resources of some of New York’s finest theater companies.

The second season of Theater Close-Up on THIRTEEN has thus far featured Rasheeda Speaking from The New Group, Fashions for Men from Mint Theater and Wiesenthalfilmed at the Acorn Theatre at Theatre Row.

THIRTEEN is using its unrivaled expertise in producing national PBS arts programming – which began with such classic series as Theater in America, part of the award-winning series Great Performances and special limited series such as Stage on Screen — to provide New Yorkers with unparalleled access to one of the City’s greatest underexposed cultural assets.

Theater Close-Up is a production of THIRTEEN Productions LLC for WNET. The plays were directed for television by David Horn. Mitch Owgang is producer; Bill O’Donnell is series producer; and David Horn is executive producer. Executive-in-charge: Neal Shapiro.

Major support for Theater Close-Up, Season Two is provided by the Howard Gilman Foundation, Bernard and Irene Schwartz, the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, the President’s Innovation Fund and Leo Shull and Family.  Major support for the Crossroads Theatre broadcast of Repairing a Nation is provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Health System, Anthony & Wendy Carter, John Hinds, Juanita Jones and M. Ishmael Griffin, MD.