The Flea Theater premieres new #MeToo and gun violence drama by Kristiana Rae Colón.
February 11 - March 25 at The Siggy
The Flea Theater presents the New York premiere of GOOD FRIDAY by rising, Chicago-based playwright Kristiana Rae Colón and directed by Sherri Eden Barber. Previews begin on February 11 with opening night slated for Monday, February 25 at The Siggy.
GOOD FRIDAY continues The Flea’s 2018-2019 Color Brave season addressing #MeToo feminism at the intersection of gun and sexual violence. In GOOD FRIDAY, a ricochet of bullets disrupts a fierce and funny feminist debate. Assaulted at every turn, a group of millennial women must decide whether they are ready to put their bodies on the line for each other.
"With a white hot blend of activism and artistry, Colón catapults us into the crossroads of race, gender and class," says Flea Artistic Director Niegel Smith. "She rivets us with the lengths her characters are willing to go to reclaim their time.” Adds Carol Ostrow, Producing Director of The Flea, “I am excited to unleash an entire and complete company of women both on stage and behind the scenes for this production. The energy will be fierce and the truth they tell will be compelling.”
GOOD FRIDAY features The Bats, the resident acting company at The Flea, including Dolores Avery, Caturah Brown, Raiane Cantisano, Clea DeCrane, Ure Egbuho, Erin Noll and Pearl Shin. The creative team includes Kate Noll (Scenic Designer), Christelle Matou (Costume Designer), Paige Seber (Lighting Designer), Megan Deets Culley (Sound Designer), Rocio Mendez (Violence/Intimacy Choreographer), Jess Medenbach (Projections Designer) and Haley Gordon (Stage Manager).
Kristiana Rae Colón is a poet, playwright, actor, educator, Cave Canem Fellow, creator of #BlackSexMatters and co-director of the #LetUsBreathe Collective. She was awarded 2017 Best Black Playwright by The Black Mall. In 2016, her plays good friday had its world premiere at Oracle Productions, Octagon its American premiere at Jackalope Theater in Chicago, and but i cd only whisper had its American premiere at The Flea. Octagon was the winner of Arizona Theater Company's 2014 National Latino Playwriting Award and Polarity Ensemble Theater's Dionysos Festival of New Work, and had its 2015 world premiere at the Arcola Theater in London. In 2013, she toured the UK for two months with her collection of poems promised instruments, the winner of the inaugural Drinking Gourd Poetry Prize and published by Northwestern University Press. Colón is an alumnus of the Goodman Theater's Playwrights Unit where she developed florissant & canfield, an epic reimagining of the Ferguson protests, which was featured in the 2016 Hedgebrook Women Playwrights Festival. She is a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists and one half of the brother/sister hip-hop duo April Fools. She appeared on the fifth season of HBO's Def Poetry Jam. Colón’s writing, producing, and organizing works to radically reimagine power structures, our complicity in them, and visions for liberation.
Sherri Eden Barber is a New York based theatre director and Artistic Director of Ricochet Collective. Recent: Only You Can Prevent Wildfires (Ricochet Collective – Teatro Circulo), Happily After Ever (Ricochet Collective – 59E59, Edinburgh Fringe), Gordy Crashes (Ricochet Collective--IRT), Mr. Landing Takes A Fall (The Flea), Esperanza Spalding’s Emily’s D+Evolution (Development on European Tour), Herman Kline’s Midlife Crisis (The Beckett), Monstrosity, Polaroid Stories, and Bent (The New School for Drama), The Lightning Thief (Theatreworks USA), 24 Hour Plays on Broadway with Pablo Schreiber, Laverne Cox, and Melanie Griffith (American Airlines Theatre), Latrell: Live Tonight! (Joe’s Pub), Dance Lessons (winner of the Samuel French Short Play Festival), Men On Boats (Yale Drama). She has developed new work with Rattlestick, Orchard Project, The Flea, Culture Project, Chautauqua, and The Old Vic. Recent Associate Directing credits include: Tiny Beautiful Things (The Public Theatre), Daphne’s Dive (Signature Theatre), Faust: The Concert with Randy Newman (Encores! New York City Center) and Family Furniture with Thomas Kail (The Flea), Sweat (Broadway, Studio 54) with Kate Whoriskey, The Girl from the North Country (The Public) with Conor McPherson. Sherri was Kathy Najimy's AD for both of Glamour Magazine's These Girls events featuring Rashida Jones, Olivia Wilde, Ari Graynor, Zosia Mamet, Amy Schumer and Amy Poehler among others, at Joe's Pub, NYC. Sherri is a recipient of The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Directors Fellowship, the Core Company Director for The Orchard Project, a Drama League Directing Fellow, and recipient of the US/UK Exchange Award. SherriEdenBarber.com | RicochetCollective.com
The Bats are the resident acting company members of The Flea Theater. Each season, over a thousand actors audition for a place in this unique company. The Bats perform in extended runs of challenging classics, as well world premieres of new plays. They are the lifeblood of The Flea.
The Flea Theater, under Artistic Director Niegel Smith and Producing Director Carol Ostrow, is one of New York's leading Off-Off-Broadway companies. Winner of several Obie Awards, a Special Drama Desk Award for outstanding achievement and an Otto Award for political theater, The Flea has presented over 100 theatrical, musical and dance performances since its inception in 1996. Past productions include premieres by Steven Banks, Thomas Bradshaw, Erin Courtney, Bathsheba Doran, Will Eno, Karen Finley, Amy Freed, Sarah Gancher, Sean Graney, A.R. Gurney, Jennifer Haley, Hamish Linklater, Enrique Gutiérrez Ortiz Monasterio, Itamar Moses, Anne Nelson, Qui Nguyen, Adam Rapp, Jonathan Reynolds, Kate Robbins, Roger Rosenblatt, Elizabeth Swados, and Mac Wellman. Successes include Drama Desk nominated She Kills Monsters, These Seven Sicknesses, Restoration Comedy, The Mysteries and ten World Premiere productions by A.R. Gurney, including the WSJ Best New Play of 2013, Family Furniture.
GOOD FRIDAY runs February 11 - March 25, Thursday–Monday at 7pm, with Sunday matinees at 3pm. Tickets start at $15 with the lowest priced tickets available on a first-come, first-served basis. The Siggy at The Flea Theater is located at 20 Thomas Street between Church and Broadway, three blocks north of Chambers, close to the A/C/E, N/Q/R/W, 4/5/6, J/M/Z and 1/2/3 subway lines. Purchase tickets by calling 212- 352-3101 or online at www.theflea.org.