Corsicana
- Written by Will Arbery
- Directed by Sam Gold
Will Arbery is a playwright from Texas + Wyoming + seven sisters. Playwrights: Heroes of the Fourth Turning, which was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist and one of the best plays of 2019 by The New York Times, Vulture, Time Out, and more. Other plays include Plano (Clubbed Thumb), Evanston Salt Costs Climbing (New Neighborhood), Wheelchair (3 Hole Press). He’s a member of New Dramatists, and an alum of The Working Farm at SPACE on Ryder Farm, P73’s Interstate 73, Colt Coeur, Youngblood, and Clubbed Thumb’s Early Career Writers Group. He's currently the Tow Foundation Playwright-in-Residence at Playwrights Horizons. His plays have received additional support from NYTW, The Vineyard, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Cape Cod Theater Project, The New Group, The Bushwick Starr, Alliance/Kendeda, and Tofte Lake Center. Most recently, he served as a story consultant on Succession (HBO). MFA: Northwestern. BA: Kenyon College. willarbery.com
World Premiere
In Corsicana, a small city in Texas, a woman with Down syndrome named Ginny and her half-brother Christopher are unmoored in the wake of their mother's death. Their close family friend, Justice, introduces them to a local artist named Lot, a recluse and outsider, hoping that he and Ginny can make a song together. That that'll help somehow.
In this restless quartet about care-taking and care-giving, in which the very fabric of reality is up for debate, Will Arbery charts the quiet, particular contracts of the heart that forge a new family.
Featuring
Jamie Brewer
Ginny
Will Dagger
Christopher
Deirdre O'Connell
Justice
Harold Surrat
Lot
Playwrights debut. Jamie Brewer, known for her role in “American Horror Story,” has been acting all her adult life and has mastered the stage, as well as her TV and film career. Jamie was the first woman with Down syndrome to walk in NYFW. She won the 2018 Theater World Award and the Drama Desk Award for her performance in the Off-Broadway production Amy and The Orphans. Jamie can be seen in the upcoming film Bromates, co-produced by Snoop Dogg.
Playwrights bdebut. Off-Broadway: Among the Dead (Ma-Yi, New York Times Critic’s Pick), The Convent of Pleasure (Cherry Lane), Napoleon in Exile (59E59), The Antelope Party (Dutch Kills, New York Times Critic’s Pick). TV: “Law & Order: SVU,” “FBI: Most Wanted,” “Deception,” “New Timers.” willdagger.com
Playwrights: Circle Mirror Transformation, Manic Flight Reaction, Moe‘s Lucky Seven, Spatter Pattern. Broadway: Dana H (Tony Award nomination, Obie, Lucille Lortel, and Outer Critics Circle awards), Magic/Bird. Off-Broadway: The Way West, Thinner Than Water (Labyrinth); By the Water, Fulfillment
Center (MTC); Judy (Page73); In the Wake (The Public), Scarcity (Rattlestick); Terminus (NYTW). Regional: Before the Meeting (Williamstown). Film: Diane, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. TV: “The Affair,” “The Path,” “Outer Range.” Awards: Obie Award for Sustained Excellent in Performance, New York Drama Critics Circle Special Citation, Lily Award.
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.
Creative Team
Laura Jellinek
Scenic DesignCate McCrae
Scenic DesignQween Jean
Costume DesignIsabella Byrd
Lighting DesignJustin Ellington
Sound DesignJoanna Sternberg
ComposerIlene Reid
Music DirectorGigi Buffington
Vocal and Text CoachAmanda Spooner
Production Stage ManagerAndie Burns
Assistant Stage ManagerPlaywrights Horizons: The Light Years, A Life (Lortel Award, Drama Desk nomination), Marjorie Prime, Your Mother’s Copy… Broadway: Marvin’s Room. Other Off-Broadway: The Antipodes, Everybody (Signature); The Nether (MCC, Lortel nomination); Buzzer (The Public); The Wolves (Playwrights Realm). Regional: Yale Rep, Bard Summerscape, Cincinnati Playhouse, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Williamstown, Southcoast Rep. Opera: Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Atlanta Opera. Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Design.
Gigi Buffington (Voice and Text and Dialect Coach) (she/her). Playwrights Horizons: Nora, Heroes of the Fourth Turning, Corsicana, Downstate, Catch As Catch Can, Stereophonic. Broadway: Romeo & Juliet, Stereophonic, The Outsiders, JOB, Prayer For The French Republic, Grey House, Between Riverside & Crazy, Cost Of Living, Slave Play (Remount), The Minutes, Pass Over, Clyde’s, Linda Vista, Straight White Men. Select Off-Broadway: Jonah, Evanston Salt Costs Climbing, King James, On Sugarland; Eight Seasons Steppenwolf; 1 Season Royal Shakespeare Company; Arts Professor, Tisch Drama, NYU.
Playwrights Horizons debut. Broadway: Indecent. Off-Broadway: The Wolves (Playwrights Realm), Everybody (Signature), 10 Out of 12 (Soho Rep.), The Glory of the World (BAM), An Octoroon (Soho Rep./TFANA). Regional: A.R.T., Yale Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, Westport. TV: “The Academy Awards.” Assistant Adjunct Professor of Stage Management at Rider University, Programming Director of Tandem at Transport Group Theatre Company, mother to a toddler named Jack.
Critic’s Pick! Beautiful. The play may be strange, and you have no idea whether it’s funny or sad, but it feels like happiness to overhear it.
Sam Gold’s ruthlessly spare production is evocative: an archaeological dig where the playwright and company are carefully excavating the Arberyscape. Arbery’s writing here is exquisitely judged and particular, and the cast is marvelous. Corsicana sticks and stays in the mind.