Familiar
- Written by Danai Gurira
- Directed by Rebecca Taichman
Danai Gurira is an award-winning playwright and actress. Danai’s play Familiar received its world premiere at Yale Repertory Theatre directed by Rebecca Taichman. Her play The Convert, a historical drama set in Rhodesia (present day Zimbabwe), received world premiere co-productions through McCarter Theater, the Goodman Theatre, and CTG’s Kirk Douglas Theatre, winning the Stavis Award, LA Drama Critics Award, and six Ovation Awards. Danai’s initial success was as the co-lead of In the Continuum, and she subsequently received a grant for research in Liberia which resulted in her second play, Eclipsed. As an actress, Danai currently stars as Michonne, one of the most popular characters in AMC’s critically-acclaimed original series “The Walking Dead.” Danai’s other film credits include Mother of George, The Visitor, 3 Backyards, and Restless City. Danai was a Hodder Fellow at Princeton University and she is also the recipient of the prestigious Whiting Writers Award (2012). She is co-founder and President of Almasi, a Zimbabwean American Dramatic Arts Collaborative Organization. Danai was born in the US and raised in Zimbabwe by Zimbabwean parents. She holds an MFA from Tisch School of the Arts, NYU. (As of 2/2/15)
Broadway: Indecent by Paula Vogel. Select Off Broadway: How To Transcend A Happy Marriage and The Oldest Boy by Sarah Ruhl (LCT); Luck of the Irish by Kirsten Greenidge (LCT3); Familiar by Danai Gurira, Stage Kiss by Sarah Ruhl, Milk Like Sugar by Kirsten Greenidge (Playwrights Horizons); Orlando by Sarah Ruhl (CSC); Orpheus (NYCO); Dark Sisters (MTG/Gotham); Menopausal Gentleman (The Ohio). Regional includes productions at Yale Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Old Globe, ART, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, McCarter, Woolly Mammoth. Rebecca is a Henry Crown Fellow at The Aspen Institute, and a graduate of the Yale School of Drama. www.rebeccataichman.com
(as of 2/17/17)
It’s winter in Minnesota, and a Zimbabwean family is preparing for the wedding of their eldest daughter, a first-generation American. But when the bride insists on observing a traditional African custom, it opens a deep rift in the household. Rowdy and affectionate, Familiar pitches tradition against assimilation, drawing a loving portrait of a family: the customs they keep, and the secrets they bury.
Featuring
Ito Aghayere
Nyasha
Joby Earle
Chris
Melanie Nicholls-King
Margaret
Roslyn Ruff
Tendi
Harold Surratt
Donald
Myra Lucretia Taylor
Anne
Joe Tippett
Brad
Tamara Tunie
Marvelous
Playwrights Horizons debut. Off-Broadway: Three Days to See, The Liquid Plain, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, Taming of the Shrew. Regional: Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike, Exit the King, Sweeney Todd. Film: Right Song, Wrong Chord; Wet Behind the Ears; Night Home; Damsels in Distress. Television: “Forever,” “Orange Is the New Black,” “The Knick, “Unforgettable.”
Broadway: War Horse. Regional: These Paper Bullets, The Tempest, Owners, The Puppetmaster of Lodz, Compulsion, Richard II, The Pitmen Painters, The Cherry Orchard, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet. Film: The Fog, Eve, In Defense of Lemmings. Music video: “The Bed Song.” MFA, Yale School of Drama.
Playwrights Horizons debut. Off-Broadway: Bike America. Other NYC: NoonDay Sun (Audelco nomination), Relativity (Audelco nomination). Regional: From the Mississippi Delta, Home, Love and Anger. Film: Going in Style, St. Vincent. Television: Cheryl on “The Wire,” Jules Jackson on “The Famous Jett Jackson,” Noelle Williams on “Rookie Blue,” “Falling Water,” “Happyish,” “Veep,” Orphan Black.”
Playwrights Horizons debut. Broadway: All the Way, Romeo and Juliet, Fences. Off-Broadway: Scenes from a Marriage; The Piano Lesson; Love, Loss, and What I Wore; Macbeth; The Heart is a Lonely Hunter; Seven Guitars; The Cherry Orchard. Regional: Two Trains Running, The Exorcist, Jitney, Intimate Apparel. Film: Rachel Getting Married, The Help, Salt. Television: “The Big C,” “Elementary,” “Masters of Sex,” “The Good Wife.”
Playwrights: Familiar. Broadway: Impressionism, Serious Money. Other theater credits: A.R.T., The McCarter, The Goodman, The Kirk Douglas, La Mama, Premiere Stages, Keen Company, Urban Stages, Triad Stage, The Denver Center, and A.C.T. Films: Bite Me, The Pelican Brief, Blood In Blood Out, Sudden Death. TV: Recurring roles on "The Blacklist," "Grand Army," "For Life," "Orange Is the New Black," and "The Temptations." Training: A.C.T.’s professional training program.
Playwrights Horizons: A Cool Dip…, Crazy Mary, Fabulation. Broadway: Nine, Macbeth, Electra, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Mule Bone, A Streetcar Named Desire. National tour: Wicked. Off-Broadway: Informed Consent; Bethany; The Little Foxes; Love, Loss, and What I Wore; Force Continuum; The American Clock; The Colored Museum. London: RSC. Film: Unfaithful, Everyone Says I Love You. TV: “Girls,” “The Big C.”
Playwrights Horizons: Familiar, Indian Summer. Broadway: Waitress, Airline Highway. New York City: Ashville, Fish Eye, Seven Minutes in Heaven, Happy Birthday, A Thick Description of Harry Smith. Regional: Familiar (world premiere), Waitress, Bull Durham: the Musical, The May Queen, Picnic, Three Sisters, The Corn is Green, Peter and the Starcatcher, Equus. Film: License Plates, Damascus Road, All Saint’s Day. Television: “The Blacklist,” “Boardwalk Empire.”
Playwrights Horizons debut. Broadway: Julius Caesar; Dreamgirls; Oh, Kay!; Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music; producer of Spring Awakening (Tony Award). Off-Broadway: The Library, Troilus and Cressida, Sheba, Loose Knit. Film: Flight, Snake Eyes, The Devil’s Advocate, Wall Street. Television: Dr. Melinda Warner on “Law & Order: SVU,” Jessica Griffin on “As the World Turns,” “24,” “The Good Wife,” “Sex and the City.”
Creative Team
Clint Ramos
Scenic DesignSusan Hilferty
Costume DesignTyler Micoleau
Lighting DesignDarron L West
Sound DesignCole P. Bonenberger
Production Stage ManagerPlaywrights Horizons: sets and/or costumes for Bella, After the Revolution, Bootycandy, Familiar. With Robert O’Hara: Barbecue, A Raisin in the Sun, Five Guys Named Moe, Wild With Happy. Broadway: sets and/or costumes for Once On This Island, Six Degrees…, Sunday in the Park…, In Transit, Eclipsed, The Elephant Man (also West End), Violet. Other Off-Broadway: Torch Song, Here Lies Love (also London), Sweet Charity, Kid Victory, Appropriate, many others. Over 200 regional/international credits. Encores! Off-Center series. Awards: Tony, Obie (Sustained Excellence), two ATW Henry Hewes, three Lortels, TDF Irene Sharraf Young Master, Helen Hayes. @clintramos
Susan Hilferty has designed set and costumes for over 400 productions across the globe. Recent designs include Parade (Broadway), Funny Girl (Broadway), Swept Away (Arena Stage, Berkeley Rep), Hamlet (St. Anne’s Warehouse and Gate Theatre, Dublin), Little Comedies (Alley Theatre), and A Bright Room Called Day, (Public Theatre). Her many Broadway designs include Wicked (Tony, Outer Critics Circle, and Drama Desk awards and Olivier nomination), August Wilson’s Radio Golf, Present Laughter (Tony nomination), Hands on a Hardbody, Spring Awakening (Tony nomination), Lestat (Tony nomination), Annie (2013 Revival), Into the Woods (Tony and Drama Desk nominations; Hewes Award), and Frank Wildhorn’s Wonderland. Her designs for opera include Rigoletto, La Traviata, and the upcoming Aida for the Metropolitan Opera and Manon at LA Opera and Berlin Staatsoper. Hilferty has designed over a hundred off-Broadway productions including Richard Nelson’s Apple Family Plays, August Wilson’s Jitney and Athol Fugard’s Boesman and Lena.
Tyler Micoleau (Lighting Designer, he/him). Playwrights Horizons: Familiar, Iowa, Antlia Pneumatica (Drama Desk nomination), Refuge. Vineyard Theatre: Middletown, God’s Ear, Arlington. Broadway: Buena Vista Social Club (upcoming), Into The Woods, American Buffalo, Be More Chill, The Band’s Visit (Tony Award for Best Lighting Design). Recent Off-Broadway: Hold On To Me Darling (Lucille Lortel), Like They Do In The Movies (PACNYC), Camp Siegfried (2ST), A Case For The Existence of God (Signature). Other notable Off-Broadway: When The Rain Stops Falling (Lincoln Center Theater, Lucille Lortel Award), Blasted (Soho Rep, Hewes Award), Bug (Barrow Street Theater, Lortel and OBIE awards). OBIE award for sustained excellence.
Previously at the Friedman: The American Plan,To Be or Not To Be, The Royal Family, Top Girls, and Time Stands Still. He is a Tony and Obie Award-winning sound designer whose work for theater and dance has been heard in over 500 Productions nationally and internationally, on Broadway and off. His accolades for Sound Design include the Bay Area Theater Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel and AUDELCO Awards. He a two-time Henry Hewes Design Award winner, and a proud recipient of the Princess Grace Award statue.
Playwrights: Aubergine, Familiar, The Qualms, Stage Kiss, The Great God Pan. Broadway: Dividing the Estate. Other Off-Broadway: Napoli, Brooklyn (Roundabout); Linda (MTC); The Taming of the Shrew, King Lear, The Comedy of Errors (The Public/Delacorte); February House, Yellowface, Wrecks (The Public); He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box, Tamburlaine Parts I & II, The Killer (TFANA); Night Is a Room, The Liquid Plain, The Old Friends, The Dance and the Railroad, The Orphans’ Home Cycle, Landscape of the Body, The Trip to Bountiful (Signature). Regional: Hartford Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, The Acting Company, Trinity Rep, Westport Country Playhouse.
“An engrossing, fiercely funny comedy-drama that probes with subtlety and smarts.”
"Danai Gurira is a playwright to honor and cherish."
"A richly engaging, deeply universal production with plenty of laughs."
"Familiar is heavenly."
