If I had a hero in the theater right now, it would be Danai Gurira. For YEARS, I have been watching this gifted performer KILL it as “Michonne” on “The Walking Dead.” She brings this layered quality to the role even when she doesn’t have dialogue. There is just something about her presence that feels timeless- like she has been here for ages.
Then to discover that Gurira is a brilliant playwright with a laser focus on telling black women’s stories. And when she tells them… BOOM! Oscar-winner Lupita N’yongo jumped at the chance to play a role in Gurira’s Eclipsed Off on On Broadway, a role she understudied in college. It is just when a piece of art resonates with Black people it becomes more than art. It becomes this living embodiment of who we are as a people. The same could be said for Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin In the Sun. It moved us in a way we still talk about today.
That was a long a#$ preamble to say Gurira has a new project at Playwrights Horizons this month.
It’s called Familiar. And according to the PH site:
“It’s winter in Minnesota, and a Zimbabwean family is preparing for the wedding of their eldest daughter, a first-generation American. But when the bride insists on observing a traditional African custom, it opens a deep rift in the household. Rowdy and affectionate, Familiar pitches tradition against assimilation, drawing a loving portrait of a family: the customs they keep, and the secrets they bury.”
Familiar, which features Ito Aghayere, Joby Earle, Melanie Nicholls-King, Roslyn Ruff, Harold Surratt, Myra Lucretia Taylor, Joe Tippett, and Tony Award winner Tamara Tunie (Spring Awakening).
The show runs from February 12th – March 27th. To purchase tickets click here.
In you are keeping score: this year you have TWO opportunities to catch Gurira’s work on stage. Eclipsed is still playing at the Golden Theater. For tickets for that show click here.
