PlayMakers Repertory Company 2024-25 season offers perspectives on the American Dream

ARTS & CULTURE

By Gregory DL Morris
Correspondent

CHAPEL HILL– PlayMakers Repertory Company (PRC) the resident theater company at UNC, opens its 2024-25 season on September 11 with a presentation of “Crumbs From the Table of Joy,” by Lynn Nottage. The season offers many different perspectives, light and heavy, on the American Dream. That ranges from a timely comedy, “What the Constitution Means to Me,” by Heidi Schreck just in time for Election Day, to a revival of Arthur Miller’s classic tragedy “Death of a Salesman.”

https://playmakersrep.org/season/2024-2025/

“So much of what we read and hear these days is in tiny bites,” PRC’s producing artistic director Vivienne Benesch told TLR, “it can be interrupted or turned off. But when you step into the theater you have the opportunity to step into other people’s shoes and to really listen to their experiences. It was exciting to build a season about the American Dream, and it’s always exciting to offer audiences the chance to sit and listen to stories. That is how live theater is a vehicle for transformation.”

“Crumbs,” which runs until September 29th, is set in Brooklyn in the 1950s. Nottage, born in Brooklyn in 1964, is the only woman to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice: in 2009 for “Ruined,” and in 2017 for “Sweat.”

The story is about a 17-year-old girl, her father mourning the loss of his wife, and his activist sister, the girl’s Aunt Lily. “The catch line is ‘hope in the heart of Brooklyn,’” said Benesch. “And the story is very much about hope, but it’s also about ideas. Why do we let thoughts divide us? Why do we make the sharing ideas so dangerous?”

Benesch also noted that “for any production we are dealing with three periods: the time in which it is set, the time it was written, and the time it’s being produced. It’s rare that all those resonate with each other as they do in this case.”

She also noted that “Crumbs” is an ensemble play, with plentiful strong roles. “Many of our MFA [master of fine arts] students are making major leaps in this production. We also get to see guest artist Jasminn Johnson play Aunt Lily. She gives us a complex and beautiful interpretation.”

In addition to guest appearances by professional actors, PRC invites directors and designers from all over. “They elevate and challenge all of our MFA programs, not just the actors, but the costume and scenic programs as well.” Several teaching faculty are also working professionals in their fields.

Starting October 16 and running through the weekend before Election Day, “What the Constitution Means to Me,” takes a lighter look at what has already been a fraught political season.

As a holiday present to its home town, PRC is mounting the premier of “the Christmas Case of Hezekiah Jones,” by Howard L. Craft and Mike Wiley. It is set at the North Pole and in North Carolina, and runs from November 26 through December 15.

The iconic “Death of a Salesman” will run from January 29 through February 16. Then in March PRC puts on “Confederates,” by Dominique Morisseau. The play juxtaposes the lives of two Black women: a Union spy during the Civil War, and a modern-day university professor. The season ends in April with the over-the-top rock musical “Little Shop of Horrors,” book and lyrics by Howard Ashman, music by Alan Menken.

PRC productions are performed on the UNC campus at the Joan H Gillings Center for Dramatic Art, 120 Country Club Rd, near Raleigh Rd. Tickets can be purchased in advance on the PRC website, or at the box office. Prices usually range from $67 to $20 for adults, and about half price for children.

Gregory DL Morris is a business journalist and historian who reports regularly for TLR.

This reporter can be reached at Info@TheLocalReporter.press