Description

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Full Length Play
Drama

Cast: 1 n/s

Pulitzer Prize-finalist Dael Orlandersmith’s UNTIL THE FLOOD was written in response to Michael Brown’s death. Having interviewed scores of St. Louis residents, Orlandersmith portrays the many faces found within the community, giving each a chance to take center stage.

About the Author

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Dael Orlandersmith won an Obie Award for BEAUTY'S DAUGHTER, which she wrote and starred in at American Place Theatre. Film and television credits include Hal Hartley's "Amateur," an episode of "Spin City," and "Get Well Soon" with Courteney Cox. Dael has toured extensively with the Nuyorican Poets Café (now known as Real Live Poetry) throughout the U.S., Europe, and Australia. In November 1996 she premiered MONSTER at New York Theatre Workshop and appeared in ROMEO AND JULIET at Williamstown. Dael has attended Sundance Theatre Festival Lab four times developing new plays. THE GIMMICK, commissioned by the McCarter Theatre, premiered on their Second Stage on Stage and went on to great acclaim at the Long Wharf Theatre and New York Theatre Workshop. YELLOWMAN was commissioned by and premiered at the McCarter in a co-production with the Wilma and Long Wharf Theatres. Vintage Books published YELLOWMAN and a collec­tion of earlier work. She was a Pulitzer Prize Award finalist and Drama Desk Award nominee for YELLOWMAN which premiered at Manhattan Theatre Club in 2002. Dael was a Susan Smith Blackburn Award finalist in 1999 and is the recipient of a NYFA Grant and The Helen Merrill Emerging Playwrights Award. She is currently finishing her first novel, a new play commissioned by the Wilma, and the screenplay version of YELLOWMAN at Sundance Screenwriters Lab.

Praise For…

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“[Orlandersmith] brings the questions, the pain and even the unspeakable thoughts of hundreds, if not millions, to life. UNTIL THE FLOOD is an urgent moral inquest.” —The New York Times.

“…eye-opening and quietly moving…[Orlandersmith] gets under these black skins and white skins and finds the common humanity of people who are just…people.” —Variety.

“UNTIL THE FLOOD pointedly avoids easy sanctimony, instead challenging us to confront…deep, long-running societal fissures…[Orlandersmith] build[s] a sobering brick-by-brick portrait of a society still reckoning with racism in all its insidious forms…the effect is akin to that of a prayer, a poetic plea for understanding and peace that ought to be heard all across the land.” —TheaterMania.com.

“…powerful and thought-provoking…gripping theatre…a must-see show that will have a profound effect on everyone who views it.” —BroadwayWorld.com.

“Searing [and] bleak…It’s a powerfully well-balanced examination of race relations in the United States…Orlandersmith skillfully organizes the material into short monologues that are revelatory, insightful and often tinged with humor.” —TheaterScene.net.