THE HUNTINGTON REOPENS THE NEWLY RENOVATED HUNTINGTON THEATRE WITH AUGUST WILSON’S MASTERPIECE JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE

(BOSTON) – The Huntington announces the casting and creative team for the highly anticipated revival of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, directed by Lili-Anne Brown. Wilson’s masterpiece serves as the inaugural production of the newly renovated Huntington Theatre and runs from October 14 – November 13, 2022, with digital access to the filmed performance available until November 27, 2022.

The Huntington has had a deeply special relationship with playwright August Wilson and his work, having produced all ten of his American Century Cycle plays that chronicle the African American experience in the 20^th century (seven prior to their Broadway runs), and his autobiographical one-man show How I Learned What I Learned.

This major revival of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone is particularly meaningful to The Huntington – not only will it reopen the Huntington Theatre after being closed the past two and a half years for the pandemic and its transformational renovation, but it was the first Wilson play that the Huntington ever produced and the start of a fruitful collaboration that lasted until the playwright’s death in 2005. The Huntington partnered with the Yale Repertory Theatre in 1986 for the pre-Broadway production of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone that featured soon-to-be-stars Angela Bassett and Delroy Lindo, and went on to produce all of Wilson’s major works.

“August Wilson is undoubtedly one of the giants of the American theatre,” says Huntington Managing Director Michael Maso. “Few moments in my career have had more meaning than the one where we agreed to produce the original Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. It was 1986, the start of The Huntington’s fifth season and of our 19-year collaboration with August, as we worked closely with him in residence on seven of his iconic plays until his untimely death in 2005. With this new production in our newly renovated theatre, we honor the icon who was August Wilson, but we remember our friend. May his spirit inspire generations of artists and audiences alike.”

August Wilson himself said in a 2004 recorded interview, “I have a long and valued relationship with the Huntington Theatre, and I guard that relationship jealously.” Wilson left an indelible mark on American theatre, and The Huntington will celebrate his legacy by naming the lobby of the newly renovated Huntington Theatre the August Wilson Lobby. Wilson’s widow and estate executor, the Tony Award nominated costume designer Constanza Romero, will attend the opening night performance of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone on October 19 and unveil the plaque in his honor.

ABOUT THE PLAY

Joe Turner’s Come and Gone is set in a boarding house in Pittsburgh’s Hill District in 1911, where owners Seth and Bertha Holly play host to a makeshift community of African Americans, many who have left the farms of the South to come to the cities of the North. Newcomer Herald Loomis arrives with his daughter in tow, in search of his lost wife after having spent 7 years of forced labor working for Joe Turner – but first he must regain a sense of his own heritage and identity.

Director Lili-Anne Brown says her approach to this production is to “Be reverent and uplift this work, but also approach it with fresh eyes.” She notes that the characters in the play are experiencing the Great Migration and a period of upheaval, and wants to explore what it means to stage this production after the pandemic as another period of tremendous social change. “Some of these characters are one generation out from slavery,” she continues. “They are all asking, where is home, how does one find it, and find oneself.”

“I can think of no better way to welcome our community home than with August Wilson’s masterwork,” says Artistic Director Loretta Greco. “I’m especially thrilled to do so with the astounding Lili-Anne Brown at the helm and a cast that boasts so mightily of Boston artistry.”

The cast of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone includes notable actors from the Boston area and around the country. They are, in order of appearance:

• Maurice Emmanuel Parent as Seth Holly, the hardworking and practical owner of the boarding house he runs with his wife Bertha. Credits include Common Ground Revisited, Sweat, Merrily We Roll Along, Skeleton Crew and more at The Huntington, Co-Producing Artistic Director of The Front Porch Arts Collective.

• Shannon Lamb as Bertha Holly who runs the boarding house with her husband Seth, making biscuits and acting as peacemaker. Credits include Common Ground Revisited at The Huntington, Letters to Kamala (WAM), Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (UMASS Theater), It Happened in Little Rock, and Because of Winn Dixie (Arkansas Repertory Theatre).

• Robert Cornelius as Bynum Walker, a resident of the boarding house, a spiritual man who practices folk magic and has a talent for binding people together. Credits include Her Honor Jane Byrne (Lookingglass Theatre), Lottery Day (Goodman Theatre), and Hamlet (Gift Theatre).

• Lewis D. Wheeler as Rutherford Selig, a traveling salesman who describes himself as a “people finder,” and who sells raw materials to Seth then buys back the pans and wares Seth makes. Credits include No Man’s Land (ART), Pass Over (SpeakEasy Stage), Long Day’s Journey Into Night (New Repertory Theatre), and Book of Will (Lyric Stage).

• Stewart Evan Smith as Jeremy Furlow, a cheerful young man and boarder, looking for a good job and some female companionship. Credits include Black Superhero Magic Mama (Company One), Vanity Fair (Underground Railway Theatre), The Crucible (Bedlam/The Nora Theatre Company), and The Three Musketeers (Greater Boston Stage Company).

• James Ricardo Milord as Herald Loomis, a newcomer to Pittsburgh, searching for his lost wife and trying to put his life back together after 7 years of forced labor. Credits include Common Ground Revisited at The Huntington, Paradise Blue (Gloucester Stage) and the premiere of Young Nerds of Color (Central Square Theater).

• Young actors Gray Flaherty and Alana Ross alternate as Zonia Loomis, Herald Loomis’ daughter. Gray is an 8^th grader at the Shady Hill School in Cambridge, and Alana is a 5^th grader at the Benjamin Banneker Charter Public School in Cambridge.

• Al-nisa Petty playing Mattie Campbell, a hopeful young woman looking for the lover who recently left her. Credits include Kin (WP Theater), Twelfth Night (The Acting Company), and School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play (Berkeley Rep).

• Eli Lapaix and Joshua McKenna alternate as Reuben Mercer, a neighborhood boy who befriends Zonia.  Eli is a 7^th grader at Waring School in Beverly. Joshua has appeared in A Christmas Carol (2021-22) and The Bodyguard (2019) at North Shore Music Theatre.

• Dela Meskienyar as Molly Cunningham, a happily single, independent young woman who flirts with Jeremy. Credits include The Beginning Days of True Jubilation at the New Ohio Theater.

• Patrese D. McClain as Martha Pentecost, Herald Loomis’ wife and Zonia’s mother, who has come to Pittsburgh in search of a new life. Credits include Jitney (Broadway tour), Twilight (Syracuse Stage), Pipeline and Skeleton Crew (Actors Theatre).

• Understudies include Kadahj Bennett, Kelsey Fonise, David Kelly, Melanie Loren, and Damon Singletary.

The creative team for Joe Turner’s Come and Gone includes scenic design by Arnel Sancianco (Once on this Island at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ain’t No Mo’ at Woolly Mammoth), lighting design by Jason Lynch (You Are Here: An Evening with Solea Pfeiffer Off Broadway), costume design by Samantha C. Jones (Black Odyssey at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, King James at Steppenwolf), and sound design by Aubrey Dube (The Bluest Eye at The Huntington, Trayf and Good at New Rep). Hair, wig, and makeup design is by Earon D. Nealey, Sandy Alexandre is the dramaturg, Ted Hewlett is the fight choreographer, Jermaine Hill is the music consultant, Kurt Douglas is the movement consultant, Gregory Geffrard is the intimacy consultant, and Carla McDonough is the young person coordinator. The production stage manager is Emily F. McMullen and the stage manager is Ashley Pitchford.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS: 

August Wilson (Playwright) (April 27, 1945 – October 2, 2005) authored Gem of the Ocean, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars, Fences, Two Trains Running, Jitney, King Hedley II, and Radio Golf. These works explore the heritage and experience of African Americans, decade-by-decade, over the course of the 20^thcentury. His plays have been produced at The Huntington, at regional theatres across the country and all over the world, as well as on Broadway. In 2003, Mr. Wilson made his professional stage debut in his one-man show How I Learned What I Learned.

His works garnered many awards including Pulitzer Prizes for Fences (1987) and The Piano Lesson (1990); a Tony Award for Fences; Great Britain’s Olivier Award for Jitney; as well as eight New York Drama Critics Circle Awards. Additionally, the cast recording of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom received a 1985 Grammy Award, and Mr. Wilson received a 1995 Emmy Award nomination for his screenplay adaptation of The Piano Lesson. Mr. Wilson’s early works included one-act plays The Janitor, Recycle, The Coldest Day of the Year, Malcom X, The Homecoming, and the musical satire Black Bert and the Sacred Hills.

Mr. Wilson received many fellowships and awards, including Rockefeller and Guggenheim Fellowships in playwrighting, the Whiting Writers Award, 2003 Heinz Award, and a 1999 National Humanities Medal given by the President of the United States, and numerous honorary degrees from colleges and universities, as well as the only high school diploma ever issued by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. He was an alumnus of New Dramatists, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a 1995 inductee into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and on October 16, 2005, Broadway renamed the theatre located at 245 West 52^nd Street – The August Wilson Theatre. Additionally, Mr. Wilson was posthumously inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 2007.

Mr. Wilson was born and raised in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, PA and lived in Seattle, WA at the time of his death. He was survived by his two daughters, Sakina Ansari and Azula Carmen Wilson, and his wife, costume designer Constanza Romero.

Lili-Anne Brown (Director), a Chicago South Side native, works as a director, actor and educator, and has performed in, directed and produced many award-winning shows in Chicago and nationally.  She is the former Artistic Director of Bailiwick Chicago, where she focused programming on Chicago-premiere musicals and new play development with resident playwrights.  Recent directing credits include School Girls, or The African Mean Girls Play and the world premieres of Ike Holter’s I Hate It Here and Lottery Day (Goodman Theatre), Ain’t No Mo’ (Woolly Mammoth), The Color Purple (The Muny), Once on This Island (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Acoustic Rooster…(Kennedy Center), Spunk (Roundabout Theatre virtual), Put Your House in Order (La Jolla Playhouse). She is a member of SDC, AEA, and SAG-AFTRA, and represented by William Morris Endeavor.  lilbrownchicago.com

WHEN

In-person performances: October 14 – November 13, 2022

Select Evenings: Tues. – Thurs. at 7pm; Fri. – Sat. at 8pm; select Sun. at 7pm

Matinees: Select Wed., Sat., and Sun. at 2pm

Days and times vary; see complete schedule above.

Digital: Available October 31 until November 27, 2022

WEEKNIGHT CURTAIN TIME CHANGE:

Please note that the Tues, Wed, and Thurs performances of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone will begin at 7pm (as they are school nights for our youngest cast members).

Anticipated running time: 2 hours 40 minutes, including one intermission

Press Opening: Wednesday, October 19, 2022 at 6:45pm (please note special curtain time!) Please RSVP here for press night or other available performances.

WHERE

The newly renovated Huntington Theatre

264 Huntington Avenue, Boston

TICKETS

Tickets to in-person performances and to a digital recording of the performance start at $25. Season ticket packages and FlexPasses are also now on sale:

• online at huntingtontheatre.org
• by phone at 617-266-0800;
• or in person at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, 527 Tremont Street, South End, Boston; or the Huntington Theatre, 264 Huntington Avenue, starting October 10

Select discounts apply:

• $10 off: season ticket holders
• $30 “35 Below” tickets for patrons 35 years old and younger (valid ID required)
• $20 student and military tickets (valid ID required)

ACCESS PERFORMANCES FOR JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE

Tickets are $20 for each patron and their guests. To reserve tickets please email access@huntingtontheatre.org, call ticketing services at 617-266-0800, or in person at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, 527 Tremont Street, South End, Boston. Accessible performances are supported in part by the Liberty Mutual Foundation.

ASL-INTERPRETED PERFORMANCE: Friday, November 4 at 8pm. The Huntington offers American Sign Language interpretation at designated performances for patrons who are Deaf or hard of hearing.

OPEN CAPTIONED PERFORMANCE: Tuesday, November 8 at 7pm. The Huntington offers open captioning at designated performances for any patron who benefits from having the text of spoken dialogue visible in time with the play.

AUDIO-DESCRIBED PERFORMANCE: Saturday, November 12 at 2pm. The Huntington offers audio description for patrons who are blind or low-vision at designated performances.  Please visit huntingtontheatre.org/visit/accessibility for information.

Large Print and Braille Programs will also be available for patrons at performances.

DIGITAL INSURANCE

If patrons ever feel as if they would rather not see Joe Turner’s Come and Gone in person – for any reason – they can easily exchange their tickets into a specially recorded version of this play. OR, they can purchase tickets to the digital version of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone in advance.

The digital recording of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone will be available October 31 until November 27, 2022.

JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE MASK POLICY:

Masked Matinees: Masks covering patrons’ mouth and nose will be required for everyone in the building during matinee performances and must be worn at all times except when actively eating or drinking concessions, available for purchase during intermission. Mask requirements will be enforced by front of house staff.

Masks encouraged evening performances: All patrons are encouraged to wear a mask, except when actively eating or drinking concessions, for everyone’s comfort and safety. Mask wearing is not required and will not be enforced. Huntington staff will continue to wear masks.

Any patron interested in attending a different performance will be able to exchange their tickets by contacting The Huntington’s ticketing services staff. The Huntington asks that any patron experiencing COVID symptoms stay home and contact ticketing services for more information about exchanges.

MEMBERS OF THE MEDIA:

Any members of the media who are interested in speaking with the artists of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, please contact Temple Gill, Director of Public Affairs and Strategic Partnerships at tgill@huntingtontheatre.org or 617-273-1560.

Press night for critics is Wednesday, October 19, 2022 at 6:45pm (note special curtain time!).  Please RSVP here for press night or other available performances.

PHOTOS available for download here

Production photos will be available for download online, and b-roll footage can be requested.

ABOUT THE SHOW ART:

The show art for Joe Turner’s Come and Gone was created by Boston artist Ekua Holmes and commissioned by The Huntington especially for this production. Holmes is a Roxbury-based artist, illustrator, and arts administrator, known for her vibrant collages that depict urban life. Selections of Holmes’ artwork will be on display in the renovated Huntington Theatre’s newly created 2^nd floor arcade gallery during the run of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.

ABOUT THE HUNTINGTON

Celebrating 40 years of outstanding theatre, The Huntington is Boston’s theatrical commons and leading professional theatre company. On our stages and throughout our city, we share enduring and untold stories that spark the imagination of audiences and artists and amplify the wide range of voices in our community. Committed to welcoming broad and diverse audiences, The Huntington provides life-changing opportunities for students through its robust education and community programs, is a national leader in the development of playwrights and new plays, acts as the host organization for a multi-year residency of The Front Porch Arts Collective, a Black theatre company based in Boston, and serves the local arts community through our operation of The Huntington Calderwood/BCA. Under the leadership of Norma Jean Calderwood Artistic Director Loretta Greco and Managing Director Michael Maso, The Huntington is reopening the historic Huntington Theatre this fall after its transformational renovation. A storied venue with a bold vision for the future, the project will allow us to innovatively expand our services to audiences, artists, and the community for generations to come. For more information, visit huntingtontheatre.org.

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