Tony Award winner LaChanze will direct Alice Childress's 'Wine in the Wilderness' in her New York directorial debut.
The production is included in the 2024-25 season of Classic Stage Company, with William Inge's 'Bus Stop,' directed by Jack Cummings III, featuring an all-Asian American cast for the first time.
In 'Wine in the Wilderness,' which takes place on a steamy summer night against the backdrop of the 1964 Harlem riot, artist Bill Jameson finds luck when one of his friends introduces him to a model for the last painting in his triptych about Black femininity. Tomorrow Marie is no mere muse, but she will give Jameson much more than he bargained for.
'Wine in the Wilderness' is a rarely-seen play from Childress, whose drama 'Trouble in Mind' was recently seen on Broadway, starring LaChanze. The production will take place in March through April 2025.
'Bus Stop' opens on a snowy night in Kansas, where a diner may be an oasis, a jail, a place to hide, or a place to find yourself. Unexpected warmth is shared by a mismatched collection of cowboys, waitresses, outcasts, and dreamers when a bus is forced to take cover from extreme weather outside.
The production, presented as a co-production with the Transport Group and the National Asian American Theatre Company (NAATCO), will be performed from May through June 2025.
'Wine in the Wilderness' and 'Bus Stop' will be joining previously announced shows, including 'Our Class,' a transfer of the BAM production that ran earlier this year. The play is written by Tadeusz Słobodzianek and directed by Igor Golyak.
Several members of the 'Our Class' company will appear in Golyak's adaptation of 'The Merchant of Venice,' which will premiere after 'Our Class.' 'The Merchant of Venice' is slated to run from Friday, Nov 22, to Sunday, Dec 22, and 'Our Class' will run from Thursday, Sept 12, through Tuesday, Nov 12.
The cast of 'Our Class' includes Gus Birney, Andrey Burkovskiy, José Espinosa, Tess Goldwyn, Will Manning, Stephen Ochsner, Alexandra Silber, Richard Topol, Ilia Volok, and Elan Zafir. 'The Merchant of Venice' will also feature Topol (as Shylock), Birney, Espinosa, Goldwyn, Ochsner and Silber.
