Research Playwrights, Librettists, Composers and Lyricists. 1993: Lynn Nottage makes her professional debut with the Actors ' Theatre of Louisville's production of Poof, a one-act comedy about a woman whose abusive husband spontaneously combusts. The survey, which counts both plays and musicals but excludes work by Shakespeare and variations on A Christmas Carol (because there are so many productions they would swamp everything else), finds more diversity than in the past: Seven of the 14 most-produced plays are by writers of color, and 10 of the 24 most-produced playwrights are writers of color. The systems that control our lives institutional racism, predatory capitalism, the prison-industrial complex seem as powerful and implacable as gods. Crumbs from the Table of Joy and Other Plays: Nottage, Lynn Recent work includes the libretto for the opera Intimate Apparel (LCT), the libretto for the musical MJ (Broadway), Clyde's (Broadway, 2ST), and co-curating the performance installation The Watering Hole (Signature Theater). In Adubas hilarious and scalding performance, Clyde, wearing a succession of skintight dont-mess-with-me outfits by Jennifer Moeller, is a shape-shifting hellhound, all but breathing fire. In an early private moment, Clyde and Montrellouswho have a history that remains shrouded throughout the playare arguing about the future of the shop. 2022: Clydes joins MJ on Broadway, while across town at the Met, Nottage collaborates with composer Ricky Ian Gordon to producer the opera version of Intimate Apparel. (In New York, there are three: Into the Woods, which opened on Broadway this summer; Merrily We Roll Along, running at New York Theater Workshop this winter; and Sweeney Todd, coming to Broadway next spring.). In the process, she encountered a large proportion of people who were formerly incarcerated. Privacy and Terms of Use. It is also about community, healing, creativity, mindfulness and forgiveness, she said. People who have seen Sweat will recognize him as one of the perpetrators of a heinous attack on a Colombian American busboy at the climax of that play, also set in Reading. 1 0 obj Clyde's | Huntington Theatre Company Previews began November 3. The seeds of great stories have appeared from her childhood, part of the terrain of everyday life. The play takes place in Clydes, a truck stop sandwich shop frequented by truckers making the long journey across Pennsylvania. Which is not to say the choices are easy. New York, NY, Escape To Margaritaville Directions and Parking Wiletta starts out as a jaded veteran, advising a younger actor to laugh at the directors jokes and tell little lies to pad his rsum. September 9, 2021 Let's Get Social By Lynn Nottage In this stirring new play from the team of two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage and director Kate Whoriskey ( Ruined, Sweat ), a truck stop sandwich shop offers its formerly incarcerated kitchen staff a shot at reclaiming their lives. . <> Ensemble presents the Australian premiere of this Tony Award nominated 2021 Broadway play, one that will leave you satisfied long after youve left the theatre. SPECIAL NOTE: A required Production Package consisting of 5 Acting Editions, 2 Stage Manager Editions, 2 Director's Scripts and a Logo Pack is required for production. When she speaks, she moves often within the space of a sentence between gravitas and levity. (The pyrotechnics are by J&M Special Effects.) 1993: Lynn Nottage makes her professional debut with the Actors Theatre of Louisvilles production of Poof, a one-act comedy about a woman whose abusive husband spontaneously combusts. Often, the sessions lead to bouts of confessionall the employees give up the goods on why they did time, even, eventually, Jason. Call it soul. Lynn Nottage is a playwright and a screenwriter . There were factories and a whole infrastructure revolved around supporting people. It is appropriate for audiences aged teens and up. a memory play about teenagers struggling to cope with their mothers death. Pulitzer-winning playwright Lynn Nottage has three new works in - NPR He paid his debt to society and while he was in prison, he thought, I want to change the culture. Lynn Nottage's new play, "Clyde's," directed by Kate Whoriskey (at the Helen Hayes), about the staff of a run-down sandwich joint at a truck stop, takes a stark either-or stance regarding. Letitia (Kara Young) got greedy and stole some oxy and addy to sell on the side after breaking into a pharmacy to obtain seizure medication for her daughter. PDF CLYDE'S By: Lynn Nottage CHARACTER BREAKDOWN The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. In May, her 2021 comedy, which revolves around formerly incarcerated workers who find purpose making sandwiches at a truck-stop diner, premieres in Australia at Sydneys Ensemble Theatre. A cultural guide to going out and loving your city. We are making plans to ensure the health and safety of our audiences, artists, and staff. Still, wheres the action? This is supposed to deepen the bonds among them, and, perhaps, to offer a well of complexity not often granted to working-class people chewed up by the system and given a harsh set of choices: eat shit, starve, or go back in. And the series of fantastical sandwiches Montrellous creates, inspiring the others to make their own as a way of dreaming big, threatens to convert from a leitmotif into an annoyance when it is forced to bear too much meaning. In the intervening years, she has become one of America's most renowned playwrights, with multiple shows on Broadway (sometimes concurrently), two Pulitzer prizes, and a resume that includes opera, TV, and the multi-media site-specific installation This is Reading. Aduba, far left, as the shady restaurant proprietor Clyde, and her cooks, from left: Reza Salazar, Kara Young, Jones and Edmund Donovan. It's useful to have that other. Clyde (Uzo Aduba) is the badass, shit-talking, intermittently horny, sometimes violent proprietor of the roadside shop. The puzzle of someones bearing and outward presentation gives way to the collection of secrets and fears and family history that make upand, over time, help to explainthat person. Montrellous is the king of the groupI would call him a sandwich whisperer, because the other three sandwich chefs cling onto his every word, and an angelic lighting seems to glow whenever he shares his recipe for the perfect sandwich as they are all encouraged to do throughout the 95-minute performance. Because they were formerly incarcerated, they didnt have access to many things that we take for granted., A Lynn Nottage play often makes use of a liminal space. A playwright and a screenwriter, Nottage is the first woman in history to win two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. Sweat, the 2017 play for which she won her second Pulitzer, revolves around a group of steelworkers grappling with the decline of the American Rust Belt. Starring Uzo Aduba. Clyde's January 26 - March 12, 2023 By Lynn Nottage Directed by Malika Oyetimein Arcadia Stage Expected Runtime: 90 minutes with no intermission Honorary Producers: Risa and Bob Lavizzo-Mourey 2023 Cond Nast. At her best, her eyes, deep with feeling, are like bowls left out in the rain, steadily filling up with the liquid stuff of personality. Rafael is a considerate co-worker who just wants peace around the workspacewhich can become very heated and nosey at times. Lynn Nottage has sometimes been one of them. Despite his tats and defenses, Jason is a puppy, fully domesticated before the play is half over. 'Ruined' is the winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and . Theatrical Outfit 2023 | The Balzer Theater at Herrens | 84 Luckie Street | Atlanta, GA 30303. When they got out, they were in this liminal space. This person who is deeply compassionate and mindful and invested in community.. In Sweat, a dive bar. 2 0 obj All I did was shout Lord, have mercy! for almost two hours every night. Its a representational lament that sounds stale until you realize that the play was written more than sixty-five years ago. Rafael (Reza Salazar) held up a bank but (a) with a BB gun, and (b) only because he wanted to buy his girlfriend a Cavalier King Charles spaniel. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Gain full access to show guides, character breakdowns, auditions, monologues and more! That same year, Second Stage also premieres Crumbs from the Table of Joy, a memory play about teenagers struggling to cope with their mothers death. The point would be much the same, though, if it werent: Sometimes, theres a good reason you cant stand the heat. Theater Review: Clyde's on Broadway, In the Southern Breeze - Vulture She wants the basics, nothing more. September 23, 2022. Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. In " Ruined ," women prove to be the. ClydesThrough Jan. 16 at the Helen Hayes Theater, Manhattan; 2st.com. Philadelphia, PA 19106 The Search for Justification in "Clyde's" and "Trouble in Mind" As a result, the statistics about the seasons diversity have been updated in this story. Clyde is an ex-convict, and so are the people who work for her, a fact that she hangs over their heads like rain in a cloud at every opportunitynobody else is going to hire them, so theyd better submit to her whims, however brutal. She always wants the sandwiches to come out faster, and she has no patience for the culinary ambition thats growing in the kitchen under her nose. Synopsis The play takes place in Clyde's, a truck stop sandwich shop frequented by truckers making the long journey across Pennsylvania. Atlanta, GA 30303, 678.528.1500 Uzo Aduba: A Force of Nature Touches Down on Broadway in 'Clyde's' Clyde's centres around a truck-stop diner. Shes like an ungenerous sketch-comedy depiction of a woman we want to meet, whom Aduba could, I think, play well: wrathful and dangerous, yes, but welling up and bubbling over with a pastand some drastic actionto justify it. The criminal justice system used to bus people to Reading when they got out because there was an abundance of work, she says. 2021: Nottage writes the book for MJ, the Michael Jackson jukebox musical. 3 0 obj The play theyre rehearsing, slated for Broadway, is about small-town Black folks who, because they want the right to vote, get threatenedand worseby a gathering lynch mob. 11:15 am. endobj Both approaches render surfaces rather than spirit. The season kicks off with the regional premiere of "Clyde's" (Sept. 22-Oct. 15).Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage's play is set at a truck stop sandwich shop where its formerly . The fish smells rank, somebody says, to which Clyde replies, You know my policy. CLYDE'S By: Lynn Nottage CHARACTER BREAKDOWN Director: Alex Rodriguez Rehearsal Start Date: July 9, 2023 Production Dates: August 18-September 17, 2023 . Anyone can read what you share. Lynn Nottage's 'Clyde's' brings comic force to a story of those Opening Night is September 19, 2022. 2022 The Crusader News Group | Empowered by, Sen. Eddie Melton releases economic development plan; SB 434 headed to governors desk, Illinois Techs Institute of Design and UChicago Medicines innovation unit sign deal to innovate healthcare delivery, Lakeshore Public Media to cover NWI Primary, Black aldermen who endorsed Vallas get $236K in campaign donations. Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner (for Ruined and Sweat) Lynn Nottage layers ripe wit, flavourful characters and surprises in this poignant story of sandwiches and second chances. WINNER: 4 DRAMA DESK AWARDS NOMINATED: 5 TONY AWARDS, INCLUDING "BEST NEW PLAY" CLYDE'S is a sweet and salty new Broadway comedy from Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage (Sweat).). In this case the shortcuts were totally worth it; that Clydes is a comedy does not mean it doesnt have tragedy baked in. vi|IgOUZi3#Q_`njK2YO1t0)lxxQeUX./OmrI@|2eVp&wC>% 8@c  !8nvlDux?Q8p2;wpn|?4~!2VL q'pq&+yW ]o f "}Dp\ ^F WINNER: 4 DRAMA DESK AWARDS NOMINATED: 5 TONY AWARDS, INCLUDING BEST NEW PLAY. endobj An annual survey by American Theater magazine, conducted this year for the first time since the start of the pandemic, found that Nottages sandwich shop comedy, Clydes, will be the most-produced play in the country this season, with at least 11 productions. Hes often late and doesnt understand the need for any extra effort to make Clydes diner any more successful. And I wanted to find a city that was a microcosm of what was happening in the United States.. Purchase a subscription for the 2023/24 Season. Her plays have been produced at theaters throughout the country. Hes trying to make high art out of a play he doesnt know is offensive trash. Much of the problem lies with Clyde herself. Lynn Nottages Clydes Is the Most-Staged Play in America, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/23/theater/most-popular-plays-playwrights.html. Montrellous lets slip that Clyde has fallen into gambling debt, and that the shop is somehow mixed up in the trouble. New York, NY, SM for Poor Yella Rednecks If it aint brown or gray, it can be fried. Fire up the skillet. Clydes opens May 5 at the Ensemble Theatre. All rights reserved. A truck-stop diner is a space of transition, she says. They were all storytellers. In Sweat, a dive bar. Uzo Aduba is one of my favorite televisual performers of recent yearsas Suzanne (Crazy Eyes) Warren in Netflixs Orange Is the New Black, and as the therapist Brooke Taylor in the new season of HBOs In Treatmentlargely because she holds within her characters, and gradually reveals, many layers of tenderness and brokenness, irrationality and explosive pain. Nottage tells me she understood how to write the play when she came across the Japanese notion of wabi sabi, the ability to find beauty in things that are broken. New York, NY, Accessibility Statement Terms Privacy |StageAgent 2020. A free beer for anybody who gets sick. <>/Metadata 63 0 R/ViewerPreferences 64 0 R>> 2003: Inspired by her grandmothers persistence as a New York City seamstress, Nottage writes. "The feel-good play of the season!" -Adam Feldman, Time Out New YorkWatch a sneak peek of Clyde's by Lynn Nottage, directed by Kate W. 4 0 obj And Jason is new to the diner and not trusted by the others, because he obviously has tattoos that are believed to be gang tributes. Lynn Nottage is the first woman in history to win two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. . Manners, who is white, thinks the play is on the cutting edge of race relationsat least, as close to that edge as the theatres commercial imperatives will allow. She is bent on making the crew miserable, while hopping all over each other to answer her commands. He leads the group in sessions of visualization and conjecturewhat kind of sandwich can your mind conjure up? In the kitchen of a truck stop diner near Reading, PA, a group of formerly incarcerated cooks work together to get their shot at redemption. 84 Luckie St. NW endobj As the joints proprietor, Clyde (Uzo Aduba), enjoys pointing out, shes the only employer in Reading, Penn., who will hire morons like them. Clydes opened on Broadway in November of 2021. on Broadway, while across town at the Met, Nottage collaborates with composer Ricky Ian Gordon to producer the opera version of. In any case, like the others, he has paid the price, and keeps paying it. Clyde's - Arden Theatre Company The finding that fewer productions are being mounted is troubling, though not surprising artistic directors around the country have been saying that they were ramping back up slowly after the pandemic shutdown because audiences have not come back in prepandemic numbers. Chicago audiences are first to experience Clydes following its Broadway run, where it earned five Tony Award nominations and was critically hailed as a delightful new play (New York Times). Karamu House's five-show 2023-24 season to kick off with Lynn Nottage's "Feisty comedy is on the menu" (Washington Post) in two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage's latest Broadway triumph. Clyde's - Goodman Theatre At the 2022 Tonys, Nottage is nominated for both Clydes and MJ. View 13 images "Critic's Pick. Sometimes she shows up with odd gifts that might or might not be ill-gotten, the kind of stuff that euphemistically falls off the back of a trucksome olive oil from Central Europe, an inexplicable mess of wilted chard, a plastic bag full of sea bass in greenish liquid. Her two Pulitzer Prizes are for works in which the world and its people are trapped in an abusive relationship. She rings a bell when new orders come in, appearing at the window to the kitchen all of a sudden, like a poltergeist at the climax of a horror flick. NEW YORK With the official opening Tuesday of " Clyde's ," Lynn Nottage's highly entertaining comedy of kitchen nightmares at a Pennsylvania truck stop, Broadway's cup of bracing. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Letitia has served time for stealing from a pharmacy to ensure that her special needs daughter is well cared for. Join StageAgent today and unlock amazing theatre resources and opportunities. Lynn Nottage's plays include 'Crumbs from the Table of Joy,' 'Fabulation' and 'Intimate Apparel,' for which she was awarded the Francesca Primus Prize and the American Theatre Critics/Steinberg New Play Award in 2004. Critic's Pick! At Studio Theatre, Lynn Nottage's 'Clyde's' serves up hope and humor Sad tales are divots for us to navigate between laughs. The sandwich that they are struggling with is not complete until everyone makes a contribution. (Clydes own answer to anybody elses suffering is to dismiss it. Ad Choices. Clydes, which had a well-reviewed Broadway production starring Uzo Aduba that opened late last year, is peopled by characters who previously served time in prison, and its mix of laughter and social commentary, plus Nottages stature as a two-time Pulitzer winner, apparently appealed to those who program theater seasons. By putting them into a character whose goal is in fact to educate, and by blowing them up into amusing overstatements, she keeps the play itself from becoming gassy. Kearstin Piper Brown and Justin Austin in the opera Intimate Apparel in New York. (A) delightful new play. Lynn Nottage is an American playwright whose work often deals with the lives of marginalized people. stream Shes trying to hold on to her job as she simultaneously tries to secure adequate childcare. That they discover the power of that imagination in the most unlikely way, by making food, is what makes the play funny. a play about economic downturn in Reading, PA, debuts at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival; two years later, the play goes on to win Nottage her second Pulitzer. Clydes is suggested for ages 13 and up. 'Clyde's' Broadway Review: Uzo Aduba Brings The Heat To Lynn Nottage's the play debuts at Baltimore Center Stage to widespread critical acclaim, and Nottage becomes one of the nations most prominent theatrical figures. At home, her mother assembled friends around the kitchen table. Theaters around America appear to be staging fewer shows than they were before the pandemic, but a lot of the work they are doing is by Lynn Nottage. EDWARD ALBEES WHOS AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF. Lynn Nottage's Clyde's has made its way to Houston's Ensemble Theatre after its 2021 world premiere on Broadway and its subsequent productions across the United States where it was listed as the .