Film, TV, and Broadway Stars Bring to Life New Play About a Family of Black Activists at Yale Rep

Special to The Inner-City News

Acclaimed playwright Christina Anderson, a recent Tony Award nominee as book writer for the Broadway musical Paradise Square, returns to New Haven with her newest work, the ripple, the wave that carried me home. A graduate of David Geffen School of Drama, Anderson was honored with the 2022 Horton Foote Prize, awarded to an American playwright for an original work of exceptional quality, for this play. the ripple, the wave that carried me home begins performances at Yale Repertory Theatre on April 28 and continues through May 20.

Yale Rep Resident Director Tamilla Woodard, who serves as Chair of the Acting program at David Geffen School of Drama (where she received her MFA), stages the production. Recently named one of the 50 Women to Watch on Broadway, Tamilla she was the Associate Director of the Tony Award-winning Hadestown. She is the co-founder of the site-specific international partnership, PopUP Theatrics, and served as the coArtistic Director of Working Theater in New York and the BOLD Associate Artistic Director at WP Theater.

The ripple, the wave that carried me home travels back and forth through decades of history as a woman named Janice reflects on her family’s legacy of activism, fighting for integration and teaching Black children how to swim during the Civil Rights Movement. The poignant, transporting, and quietly subversive story of justice, legacy, and forgiveness, features a cast of four actors familiar for their work in film, television, Broadway, and on stage in New Haven.

Jennean Farmer, who co-starred in the Netflix movie The Good Nurse with Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne and played a recurring role on the TV show Dead Ringers, portrays Janice. A U.S. Army Veteran, she received her M.F.A. in acting from the New School for Drama. Her theater credits include Cullud Water and Ain’t No Mo’ at The Public Theatre, Toni Stone at Roundabout Theatre Company, and Mima’s Tale at Westport

Country Playhouse. Her other film and TV credits include A Thousand and One, The Secret Art of Human Flight, How the Light Gets In, WuTang: An American Saga, Evil, That Damn Michael Che, New Amsterdam, and FBI.

Marcus Henderson plays Janice’s father, Edwin. A dynamic thespian from St. Louis, Missouri, Marcus started his drama journey after falling in love with theater at Alabama State University. He went on to graduate school to hone his craft at David Geffen School of Drama. Immediately recognized for his immense talent, he booked a role in Django Unchained, directed by Quentin Tarantino, and has enjoyed a blossoming career ever since with roles in Whiplash, John Singleton’s

Snowfall, and Jordan Peele’s Get Out. He currently stars in the hilarious TV show Tacoma FD. He last appeared at Yale Rep in Romeo and Juliet in 2011.

Tony Award nominated for her role in Jeremy O. Harris’s Slave Play on Broadway, Chalia La Tour returns to Yale Rep to play Helen, Janice’s mother. She previously appeared at Yale Rep in Cadillac Crew by Tori Sampson and Shakespeare’s Cymbeline. La Tour received her M.F.A. in acting from David Geffen School of Drama and has appeared on the TV shows The Good Fight, The Code, and Elementary and in the films The Future is Bright, The Year Between, and Mother Melancholia. She maintains a commitment to storytelling that asks the questions of humanity with the fullness of humanity. She has also worked with the anti-racism organization Broadway Advocacy Coalition as a consultant for their Artivism Fellowship.

Adrienne S. Wells, plays the roles of Gayle and Young Chipper Ambitious Black Woman. She recently appeared in the Tony Award winning production of The Skin of Our Teeth. In New Haven, she previously appeared in Girls by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins at Yale Rep; as well as Seven Spots On the Sun; Alice; How Black Girls Get Over Fuckbois, vol. 1; Marty and The Hands That Could; and School Girls: or The African Mean Girls Play at David Geffen School Drama, where she received her M.F.A.

The production features scenic design by Emmie Finckel, costume design by Aidan Griffiths, lighting design by Alan C. Edwards, sound design by Evdoxia Ragkou, wig design by Krystal Balleza/Wig Associates, projection design by Henry Rodriguez, production dramaturgy by Hannah Fennell Gellman and Eric M. Glover, technical direction by Nate Angrick, vocal coaching by Julie Foh, fight and intimacy coaching by Kelsey Rainwater, casting by Calleri Jensen Davis, and stage management by Andrew Petrick. Tickets begin at $15 for all performances and are available online at yalerep.org, by calling (203) 432-1234, and in person at the Yale Rep Box Office (1120 Chapel Street).

Sunday

April

Conducted by Dr. Felicia Barber