The Play: Actor Reg E. Cathey is Lewis, a sleepless mathematics professor, restless during a night of personal and professional crisis. He has inadvertently conjured his ancestors. As four generations (all played by Hubert Point-Du Jour) prod him with their disquieting stories of slavery, Black Power, and academia, he begins to understand what it means to be black, both then and now. Tanya Barfield’s play is sparked by abundant humor and woven through with original songs in a poetic depiction of one man’s exploration of his personal and cultural history. Winner of the 2003 Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights, Tanya Barfield was named by Ms. Magazine “One of the 21 Young Women to Watch for in the 21st Century.”
The Playwright: Tanya Barfield’s plays include Blue Door (Playwrights Horizons, South Coast Repertory), Dent, The Quick, The Houdini Act, and 121º WEST. She was a recipient of the 2003 Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights, 2005 Honorable Mention for the Kesselring Prize for Drama, a 2006 Lark Play Development/
The Director: On Broadway, Leigh Silverman directed Lisa Kron’s play, Well, and in London’s West End, she directed Wit. Her recent New York credits include Blue Door at Playwright’s Horizon’s, Eve Ensler’s The Treatment (Culture Project), Well ( Public Theatre), Neena Beber’s Jump/Cut (Women’s Project), the Five Lesbian Brothers’ Oedipus at Palm Springs (New York Theatre Workshop), John Patrick Shanley’s Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (Second Stage Theatre), Big Times (W.E.T.), and Finder’s Fee (Rattlestick Theater). Regional productions include Well (A.C.T. San Francisco), Thersea Rebeck’s Bad Dates (Cleveland Playhouse), Jump/Cut (Woolly Mammoth Theatre/Theater J), How I Learned to Drive (Actors Theatre of Louisville), Wit (Geffen Theatre), Blown Sideways Through Life (Adirondack Theatre Festival), and The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (Theater J). Upcoming projects include Well at the Huntington Theatre Company and a co-production of David Henry Hwang’s Yellowface at the Mark Taper Forum and The Public Theater. Ms. Silverman has directed workshops for Long Wharf Theatre, Hartford Stage, New York Stage & Film, Baltimore’s Centerstage, and the Sundance Theatre Lab (2001 & 2003). She wrote and directed Brandon Teena (Glaad Media Award nomination) and is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University.
Performance Details: Performances of Blue Door are at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday with 2:00 p.m. matinees on Saturday and Sundays. There will be no performance on Thursday, February 8. There will be a 2:00 p.m. matinee on Wednesday, February 28. Post-play discussions will be held after performances on Thursday, February 15 at 7:30 p.m., Sunday, February 18 at 2:00 p.m. and Sunday, February 25 at 2:00 p.m. There is an audio-described performance on Saturday, February 24 at 2:00 p.m. and an American Sign Language (ASL)-interpreted performance on Sunday, February 25 at 2:00 p.m.
