October 9 – November 9, 214
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Lines In The Dust by Nikkole Salter
A World Premiere by the Obie-Award Winning author of Carnaval
Directed by Reginald L. Douglas
When Denitra loses the charter school lottery for her daughter, she must find another way to escape from their underperforming neighborhood school. The answer seems like a risk well worth taking but may end up requiring a bigger sacrifice than she ever could have imagined. It’s been exactly 60 years since Brown Versus The Board of Education. Lines In The Dust questions how far we’ve come and more importantly, where we go from here.
Cast: Erin Cherry, Rick Delaney and Dorcas Sowunmi.
Production and Design: Production and Design: Julian Evans (Sound Design), Deborah Wheatley (Set Design), Mike Riggs (Lighting Design), Deborah Caney (Costume Design), Liz Cesario (Production Manager), and Dan Viola (Stage Manager).
Meet The Playwright
CLICK ON NIKKOLE’S PICTURE TO HEAR HER SPEAK ABOUT THE PLAY
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Nikkole Salter
Hailed by Variety as “thoroughly convincing,” Los Angeles-born, OBIE Award-winning actress and writer Nikkole Salter arrived onto the professional scene with her co-authorship and co-performance of the wildly successful play, IN THE CONTINUUM (ITC). For its Off-Broadway run and US State Department and Bloomberg sponsored international tour, Miss Salter received an OBIE Award (2006), and the NY Outer Critics Circle’s John Gassner Award for Best New American Play (2006), the Seldes-Kanin fellowship from the Theatre Hall of Fame, and the Global Tolerance Award from the Friends of the United Nations to name a few. Ms. Salter also received Helen Hayes and Black Theatre Alliance nominations for Best Actress for her performance. ITC, published by Samuel French, was pronounced – by New York Times, Newsday and New York Magazine – as one of the best plays of 2005 and was featured in numerous esteemed media outlets including Essence Magazine, American Theatre Magazine, the Los Angeles Times and NPR’s Leonard Lopate Show. ITC has received over 20 productions across the country to date. READ MORE.
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Meet The Cast
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Erin Cherry
Erin Cherry received her M.F.A in acting from Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts, where she studied under Bill Esper and Maggie Flanigan. She is also a private acting coach at Maggie Flanigan studios in NYC, and was last seen as Taylor in the Majestic’s Theatre production of Stick Fly. She has just currently Understudied When We Were Young and Unafraid at Manhattan Theatre Club starring one of her favorite actors Cherry Jones, and she has started her own production company called With A Cherry on Top Productions. Cherry is excited to be working at Luna Stage and gives a shout out to Nikkole and Reginald for this great opportunity. You can learn more about Cherry by checking out her website at Erincherry.com, and you can also follow her on twitter @cherrystiks and Instagram @Cherrynotes.
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Rick Delaney
Originally from Chicago, Rick Delaney has spent the past 20 years in the NY/NJ area – the last three as a Maplewood resident. He has played memorable roles in many nearby professional theaters, including WhatExit?, The Theater Project, Dreamcatcher Rep, 12 Miles West, and the Bickford, and is happy to add Luna Stage to that list at last. He is also happy to work once again with talented director, Reginald Douglas, with whom he worked on several developmental readings of the play THE BUS TEST. In Manhattan, he has performed at Metropolitan Playhouse, Inwood Shakespeare, The Seeing Place, The Midtown International Theater Festival, On the Square Productions, and The New York Fringe Festival, among others. Some of his favorite roles include Lord Edgar/Jane in THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP, Sam, et. al in FULLY COMMITTED, Butch in NEXT FALL, Barrymore in I HATE HAMLET, ST. Clare in UNCLE TOM’S CABIN, and the title role in HAMLET.
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Dorcas Sowunmi
Dorcas Sowunmi is a native Texan who recently moved to The Big Apple! This marks Dorcas’s Luna Stage debut. She was most recently seen as Lady Capulet in The Classical Theatre of Harlem’s production of Romeo and Juliet. Credits: Mary Sturat & Measure for Measure (The Stratford Shakesperare Festival), Miracle Worker (Indiana Repertory Theater), Macbeth SS! (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), Trust (Lookingglass Theatre), I, Barbara Jordan (Alley Theatre) and Twelfth Night (Austin State Theatre). Dorcas received her MFA in Acting from The University of Texas at Austin. Dorcas has also trained at The Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Training at The Stratford Shakespeare Festival, The School at Steppenwolf, and Stella Adler Actor’s Studio. Dorcas would like to thank Reginald L. Douglas, Nikkole Salter, Luna Stage and her family and friends for their love and support.
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Meet The Director
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Reginald L. Douglas
Reginald L. Douglas is thrilled to return to Luna Stage, where he staged last season’s production of Athol Fugard’s Master Harold…and the boys. His work was hailed by The New York Times (“skillfully directed”), Talkin’ Broadway (“Director Reginald L. Douglas… presents Fugard’s profoundly personal Master Harold to us with its pain, power and glory fully revealed”), and other leading publications. A director with a passion for new play development, Reginald has directed extensively throughout New York at venues including the Pershing Square Signature Center, Drama League, Culture Project, Theater Row, DR2, Abingdon Theater Company, Horse Trade, INTAR, Players Theater, LaMaMa, Billie Holliday, Chain Theatre, Access Theater, Emerging Artists Theatre, TBG, Harlem School of the Arts, and many others, and regionally at The Playwrights Center, McCarter Theatre, Luna Stage, and the DC Black Theater Festival. READ MORE.
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