Blue Door
- Written by Tanya Barfield
- Directed by Leigh Silverman
Tanya Barfield’s plays include Of Equal Measure (Center Theatre Group), Blue Door (Playwrights Horizons, South Coast Repertory, Seattle Repertory, Berkeley Repertory and additional theaters), Dent, The Quick, The Houdini Act and 121º West. She wrote the book for the Theatreworks/USA children’s musical: Civil War: The First Black Regiment. Tanya was a recipient of the 2003 Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights, 2005 Honorable Mention for the Kesselring Prize for Drama, a 2006 Lark Play Development/NYSCA grant, and she has been twice been a Finalist for the Princess Grace Award. She has been commissioned by Playwrights Horizons, Center Theatre Group, South Coast Repertory, Primary Stages and Geva Theatre Center. She is a member of New Dramatists and the Dramatists Guild Council. (As of January 2013)
Photo by Zack DeZon
Broadway: David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish; Lisa Kron’s Well. Recent world premieres: The Madrid (MTC); No Place to Go (Public Theater); In the Wake (Center Theatre Group/Berkeley Repertory Theatre and The Public Theater, Obie Award, Lortel nomination); Chinglish (Goodman Theater, Jeff nomination; West Coast/Hong Kong tour); Go Back to Where You Are (Playwrights Horizons, Obie Award); From Up Here (MTC, Drama Desk nomination); Yellow Face (Center Theatre Group/The Public Theater); Coraline (MCC/True Love); Blue Door (Playwrights Horizons); Hunting and Gathering (Primary Stages); Beebo Brinker Chronicles (Hourglass Group/37 Arts); Creature (New Georges/P73); Well (The Public Theater; Huntington Theatre; ACT); Oedipus at Palm Springs (NYTW); also Golden Child (Signature Theatre) and Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (Second Stage Theatre); and many regional productions. West End: Wit. She is currently directing Tanya Barfield's The Call for Playwrights Horizons and Primary Stages. (As of March 2013)
When a prominent African-American mathematician in crisis begins to lose his grip on reality, the ghosts of ancestors past shatter the silence of an insomnia-filled night. Blue Door is a tour-de-force for two actors, a vivid, exuberantly theatrical play about the black American male experience.
Featuring
Reg E. Cathey
Andre Holland
Has appeared on Broadway in Julie Taymor’s The Green Bird and Off-Broadway in White Chocolate. Blue Door continues his exploration of color. Other New York productions include Talk (OBIE Award), Dante’s Inferno, Macbeth (TFANA), Taming of the Shrew (NYSF). Regional credits include Henry IV parts 1 & 2 (CalShakes), The Winters Tale (Williamstown), Art (Weston Playhouse). Film and televison: The Wire, Everyday People, Oz, The Corner, and Boycott for HBO; Law & Order, Law & Order: CSI, Third Watch, Homicide, Square One, S.W.A.T., Tank Girl, Pootie Tang, and the upcoming Like Moles, Like Rats. Reg would like to thank The Condor Club and all the ancestors. (As of Septemmber 2006)
From Bessemer, Alabama is a 2006 graduate of the NYU MFA Acting Program. He also holds a BFA in Acting from Florida State University and has trained with Ariane Mnouchkine's Theatre Du Soleil (Paris). Credits include: Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It (Public Theatre/Shakespeare in the Park); Hamlet, Comedy of Errors and Saint Joan (Georgia Shakespeare Festival); Andorra (Young Vic, London); Television: 'Law and Order.' Thanks to my family: Mom, Dad, Natalie and Skeet...and to Antoinette and Jim! (As of September 2006)
Creative Team
Narelle Sissons
Scenic DesignerToni-Leslie James
Costume DesignerMary Louise Geiger
Lighting DesignerKen Travis
Sound DesignerAmy McCraney
Production Stage ManagerKen is a Broadway sound designer who specializes in musical reinforcement. His system designs and soundscapes have been heard across Europe and the United States. In 2019 Ken won The Helen Hayes Award for the Shakespeare Theater Company’s production of Camelot and in 2013 Ken won the NAACP award for Memphis the Musical. He has been nominated for the Henry Hewes award for Mr Burns a Post Electric Play, the NAACP award for Sister Act, the Lortel Award for Abigail's Party, and the Audelco Award for Fabulation.
Photos of Reg E. Cathey and Andre Holland by Joan Marcus.