Behind The Sheet World-Premiere Plays Third & Final Extension

Now extended through March 10th, the world premiere of Behind The Sheet by Charly Evon Simpson will continue its performances at the Ensemble Studio Theater which began January 9th.

Charly Evon Simpson confronts the history of a great medical breakthrough by telling the forgotten story of a community of enslaved black women who involuntarily enabled the discovery. In 1840s Alabama, Philomena assists a doctor – her owner – as he performs experimental surgeries on her fellow slave women, trying to find a treatment for the painful post-childbirth complications known as fistulas. Reframing the origin story of modern gynecology, Behind the Sheet tells how these women supported each other, and questions who, and what, history remembers.

The cast includes Nia Calloway, Naomi Lorrain, Cristina Pitter, Amber Reauchean Williams, Jehan O. Young, Shawn Randall, Joel Ripka, Megan Tusing, and Stephen James Anthony under the direction of Collette Robert.

Behind The Sheet is part of the EST/Sloan Science & Technology project.

Lawrence E. Moten III (set), Sarah Woodham (costumes), Adam Honoré (lighting) and Fan Zhang (sound) round out the creative team. Please be aware that this performance includes explicit depictions of medical procedures and theatrical haze/fog.