Pearl Cleage Directed by Taylor Reynolds Welcome to the Theater

DIGGING IN THE DARK

BY PEARL CLEAGE DIRECTED BY TAYLOR REYNOLDS WELCOME TO THE THEATER

Welcome to Keen Company! Our mission centers on identification and connection, two elements which thrive in comfortable and safe environments. So we’re taking a second to really say, Welcome! We are glad you’re here. Our audiences are at the heart of our work, and your experience matters to us. We hope you'll feel free to enjoy this piece of audio theater in whatever way moves you. Go ahead: laugh, cry, gasp, scream, even give it a standing ovation! Great stories invoke big reactions. We aren’t here to tell you how to connect, we just hope you feel welcome to listen.

LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We offer this Land Acknowledgment to recognize the long history of the territory where we live and work, and its significance for the Indigenous peoples who lived and continue to live here and to demonstrate our commitment to addressing the legacy of colonialism in our work and practices. Keen Company produces in New York City, which is the traditional land of the Lenape People. Since our activities this season are shared digitally, we’d also like to acknowledge and consider the legacy of colonization embedded within the technologies. Much of the art we make leaves significant carbon footprints, contributing to changing climates that disproportionately affect Indigenous peoples worldwide. We invite you to join us in acknowledging this as well as our shared responsibility: to make good use of this time, and for each of us to consider our roles in reconciliation, decolonization, and allyship. We plan to continue this practice of land acknowledgments at all future live events, and to build on this practice in thoughtful ways, so as to better engage with Indingeous peoples and Indigenous stories. DIGGING IN THE DARK

By Pearl Cleage Directed by Taylor Reynolds

Starring The Woman………………Rachel Christopher Her Brother………………..…Russell G. Jones His Girlfriend……………Janelle McDermoth

Sound Design by Fan Zhang Stage Managed by Norman Anthony Small Sound Engineered by Garrett Schultz

The Hear/Now Season of Audio Theater is Artistic Directed by Jonathan Silverstein, with Director of New Work Jeremy Stoller. Hear/Now theme composed by Billy Recce.

Digging in the Dark takes audiences to a moonless night in the woods outside Atlanta, where a woman awaits her scheming brother’s arrival. He thinks he’s coming to claim a valuable family heirloom, but she’s not to be underestimated. Listen is as one family excavates generational wounds to settle an old score before sunrise. WHO’S WHO

RACHEL CHRISTOPHER (The Woman) New York: Bad News!, NYU Skirball w/ Joanne Akalaitis, King Phillip, Clubbed Thumb; What To Send Up When It Goes Down, UTR-The Public/The Movement Theatre Company; Minor Character, UTR-Public Theater; Sonic Life of a Giant Tortoise, The Play Company; At the Table, Fault Line Theatre; TV/Film: Girl on the Train, The Upside, “Billions,” “Madame Secretary,” “Blindspot,” “Instinct,” “Elementary” Regional: An Iliad (Long Wharf Theatre); What To Send Up When It Goes Down (Woolly Mammoth/A.R.T./ TMTC); Intimate Apparel (Shakespeare and Company); The Winter’s Tale (Shakespeare Festival St. Louis); Detroit 67 (PlayMakers Repertory Company); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare Festival St. Louis); Disgraced (Rep. Theatre St. Louis); All’s Well That Ends Well (Bread Loaf); Susan Johnston, The Heidi Chronicles (Trinity Repertory Company); Sonia, Crime and Punishment (Trinity Rep.); Alma, Yellowman (Trinity Rep.); Zero Cost House, Pig Iron

RUSSELL G. JONES (Her Brother) is an AUDELCO, OBIE and SAG Award winning actor. Most recently he was a series regular on CBS's “Tommy”opposite Edie Falco. A fixture on New York City stages since the 90's Russell is proud to have originated roles in Lynn Nottage's Ruined, Suzan-Lori Parks' Father Comes Home From The Wars Parts 1, 2 & 3, Tanya Barfield's The Call, Fernanda Coppel's King Liz and two by Stephen Adly Guirgis Our Lady of 121st Street and In Arabia We'd All Be Kings. Some film highlights include “Motherless Brooklyn,” “Detroit,” “Side Effects”, “Traffic” & “Robert Patton Spruill’s Squeeze.” Recent TV includes “Bull”, “Orange Is The New Black,” “The Last OG,” “Godless" and “The Americans.” He is the founder and Chief of Pedagogy at BLIND SPOT EXPERIENCE a campaign that facilitates cross cultural dialogue and critical thinking by providing context and tools for perceiving racial inequity. Www.russellgjones.com JANELLE MCDERMOTH (His Girlfriend) is a multi-platform creator from The Bronx, New York and graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. Broadway: A Bronx Tale. Off Broadway: We’re Gonna Die (Lortel Nomination, Antonyo Nomination, Outer Critics Circle Honor), The Chronicles of Cardigan and Khente, Soul Doctor. TV: “Law & Order: SVU,” “Blue Bloods”, “Blindspot,” “High Maintenance” She can be seen in the upcoming Netflix film, To All The Boys: Always and Forever and continues to record original music combining the poetics that compel her, the hip hop that raised her, and her penchant for the aforementioned theatrics.

TAYLOR REYNOLDS (Direction) is a New York-based director from Chicago and one of the Producing Artistic Leaders of OBIE-winning The Movement Theatre Company. She has worked as a director, assistant, and collaborator with companies including Clubbed Thumb, Page 73, Baltimore Center Stage, Signature Theatre Company, Ars Nova, MCC, and The 24 Hour Plays. Selected directing credits: Tambo & Bones (upcoming at Playwrights Horizons/CTG), Richard & Jane & Dick & Sally (Baltimore Center Stage/ Playwrights Realm), Tough (AADA), Plano (Clubbed Thumb, Drama Desk nom for Best Director), Songs About Trains (Radical Evolution), Allond(r)a (New Georges Audrey Residency), Think Before You Holla (creator/deviser). She is a New Georges Affiliated Artist, 2017-2018 Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellow, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab alum, and member of SDC. BFA, Carnegie Mellon University. www.iamtaylorreynolds.com PEARL CLEAGE (Playwright) Is an Atlanta-based writer whose plays include Pointing at the Moon, What I Learned in Paris, Flyin’ West, Blues for an Alabama Sky, and Bourbon at the Border, commissioned and directed by Kenny Leon at The Alliance Theatre. She is also the author of “A Song for Coretta,” written in 2007 during Cleage’s time as Cosby Professor in Women’s Studies at Spelman College. Her play, The Nacirema Society Requests the Honor of Your Presence at A Celebration of Their First One Hundred Years, was commissioned by the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and premiered in the Fall of 2010, in a joint production by The ASF and Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, directed by Susan Booth. Her plays have also been performed at Arena Stage, Hartford Stage, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Huntington Theatre, The Alabama Shakespeare Festival, The Long Wharf Theatre, Just Us Theatre, True Colors Theatre, Bushfire Theatre, The Intiman Theatre, St. Louis Black Repertory Company and Seven Stages. She is also an accomplished performance artist, often working in collaboration with her husband, writer Zaron W. Burnett, Jr. They have performed at The National Black Arts Festival, The National Black Theatre Festival, and colleges and universities across the country. Cleage and Burnett also collaborated with performance artists Idris Ackamoor and Rhodessa Jones on the script for The Love Project, which premiered at The National Black Theatre Festival in 2008, and is currently touring the country. Cleage is also an accomplished novelist. Her novels include “What Looks Like Crazy On An Ordinary Day,” a New York Times bestseller and an Oprah Book Club selection, “I Wish I Had A Red Dress,” “Some Things I Never Thought I’d Do,” “Babylon Sisters,” “Baby Brother’s Blues,” and “Seen It All and Done the Rest.” Her new book, “T”ill You Hear From Me” (Ballantine/One World), was released in April of 2010. She is also the author of “Mad at Miles: A Blackwoman’s Guide to Truth,” a groundbreaking work of race and gender, and “We Speak Your Names,” a praise poem commissioned by Oprah Winfrey for her 2005 celebration of legendary African American women and written in collaboration with Zaron Burnett. Cleage has also written for magazines, including Essence, Vibe, Rap Pages and Ms. In addition to her work as the founding editor of Catalyst Magazine, a literary journal, she was a regular columnist for The Atlanta Tribune for ten years, winning many awards for her thought provoking columns. She has also written for TheDefendersOnLine.com. Cleage has been awarded grants in support of her work from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Fulton County Arts Council, The Georgia Council on the Arts, The Atlanta Bureau of Cultural Affairs and The Coca-Cola Foundation. Her work has earned her many awards and honors, including an NAACP Image Award for fiction in 2008. Pearl Cleage is represented by Ron Gwiazda at Abrams Artists Agency in New York City. Her web site is at www.pearlcleage.net. She also maintains a Facebook Fan Page. FAN ZHANG (Sound Design) Sound design and original music, her recent Off-Broadway design credits includes: Molly Sweeney, Keen Company), A Wedding Toast by the Prophet Cassandra* (Lincoln Center Theater), Our Dear Dead Drug Lord (Second Stage&WP Theatre), Paris (Atlantic Theatre), Suicide Forest ( Ma-Yi & ART Theatre), Round Table (59E59), Behind the Sheet (Ensemble Studio Theatre), The Trail of the Catonsville Nine (Transport Group), Three Girls Never Learnt the Way Home (Cherry Lane), Tania In the Gateway Van (New Georges). Regional: Pipeline( Studio Theatre, D.C.), Eclipsed(Milwaukee Rep), Yasmina’s Necklace(Premiere Stages), Seven Guitars(Yale Rep), Redeem (Cincinnati Ballet), Revolutionist (Pittsburgh City Theatre), Red Maple (Capital Rep), Training: MFA, Yale School of Drama. fanzhangsound.com

NORMAN ANTHONY SMALL (Stage Manager) Off Broadway: WP Theater: Where We Stand; Atlantic Theater Company: Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven; The Public Theater: A Night of Wild Beauty. New York Theater:Brave New World Repertory Theatre: The Plantation; Harlem Shakespeare Festival: Othello: The Moor of Venice; New Heritage Theatre Group: The Sable Series: The History of Black Shakespearean Actors; King Lear (Take Wing and Soar Productions). Tour:Apollo Theater/Baltimore Center Stage: Twisted Melodies; National Public Radio (NPR): Water +. Regional: Baltimore Center Stage: Where We Stand, Crossing Rivers; Berkshire Playwrights Lab: Some Old Black Man; Passage Theatre Company: Illuminating Spirits. Education MBA: Metropolitan College of New York (Media Management); BM: University of Miami (Music Engineering Technology).

GARRETT SCHULTZ (Sound Engineer) works in production audio and post-production sound design/mixing for film, tv, podcasts, radio, and ads. He is a Columbia College Chicago graduate from the Audio Arts and Acoustics department, and has been making sounds and noise for over two decades. He founded Destrier Audio in 2008 which has afforded him to work on some exciting projects. You can see some of his latest works at destrieraudio.com. He likes coffee and beer. AUTHOR’S NOTE

I'm so happy to be back at Keen Company with my very first radio play, Digging in the Dark. As a little girl, I remember sitting in the kitchen with my grandmother while she made dinner preparations with some help from me on things I couldn't mess up with my five year old good intentions but less than stellar culinary skills. I'd watch her moving efficiently from refrigerator to cupboard to stove, not talking much because she was listening intently to the latest adventures of the radio dramas she called my stories. I remember her favorite one, Our Gal Sunday, which in my recollection, featured the adventures of a plucky young woman who overcame all manner of challenges and finished every episode with the promise of more to come the next day. My grandmother clucked her tongue sympathetically as the stories unfolded, shook her head with disbelief when things went badly, and laughed out loud when the heroine outsmarted somebody who underestimated her. Those moments are some of the most precious of my childhood. They gave me an early and enduring affection for stories that come through the radio, but I never thought about writing one until now. I don't know what my grandmother would think about Digging in the Dark, but I hope she would find something to love in my heroine who has her own way of outsmarting people who underestimate her.

—Pearl Cleage ARTISTIC DIRECTOR’S NOTE

The inspiration for our Hear/Now Season of Audio Theatre came from the classic radio plays of the mid twentieth century. When we first decided to commission writers to create new works, one of the first playwrights we approached was Pearl Cleage. How fortuitous that Pearl had her own very personal connection to the medium! Pearl enthusiastically went to work and created a beautiful, haunting and utterly human story of complex characters doing what they must to survive. I hope you will take some time out of your day to transport yourself to the evocative world that Pearl and her talented collaborators have created. Just be careful of the holes!

-Jonathan Silverstein

DIGGING Into Pearl Cleage

Pearl Cleage was born on December 7, 1948, in Springfield, Massachusetts, and is the youngest of two daughters of Doris Cleage, an elementary school teacher, and Rev. Albert Cleage, founder of the Pan African Orthodox Christian Church and the Shrine of the Black Madonna. Her father changed his name to Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman in conjunction with the founding of his church. After backlash resulting from her father's radical teachings, the family moved to Detroit, Michigan, where Rev. Cleage became a prominent civil rights leader. Pearl Cleage grew up surrounded by activists in her own family and community. She listened to writers speaking at her father’s church and met prominent figures of the Civil Rights Movement as they stopped by her house on their way to rallies, both of which were experiences that shaped her future aspirations and career.

Cleage graduated from Detroit Public Schools in 1966. From 1966-1969, Cleage enrolled at Howard University in Washington, D.C where she studied playwriting and produced two one-act plays as a student. In 1969 she moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where she attended Spelman College, attaining a bachelor's degree in drama in 1971. Upon graduation from Spelman, Cleage enrolled in graduate school at Atlanta University.

RIGHT: Pearl at her 1971 Graduation from Spellman College LEFT: Pearl (Right) with sister Kris

Cleage had her introduction to playwriting in the 1980s, producing her first play, Puppetplay, in 1981, which was followed by Hospice (1983), Good News (1984) and Essentials (1985). In the 1990s, she produced three of her most well-known works (Flyin’ West (1992), Blues for an Alabama Sky (1995), which later received its New York Premiere as part of Keen Company’s 20th Anniversary Season.

Cleage started writing novels in the mid-1990s; her debut novel What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day was published in 1997, and depicts the life of a young African-American woman in the months following her HIV diagnosis. It was an official selection of Oprah’s Book Club.

In the introduction to her book, Mad at Miles: A Black Woman’s Guide to Truth (1990), she states: “I am writing to expose and explore the point where racism and sexism meet. I am writing to help understand the full effects of being black and female in a culture that is both racist and sexist.” Through her life and works, Cleage emphasizes and exemplifies the idea of “Free Womanhood,” a term she coined in her speech at the Spelman College convocation in 1995. Through the lifestyle of “Free Womanhood,” she poses tangible and concrete solutions to the unique challenges facing Black women.

Keen Company is honored to call this legendary, literary genius a member of the Keen family.

LEFT: Cleage in her home office RIGHT: Alfie Fuller and Khiry Walker in Blues for an Alabama Sky at Keen Company, 2020 TEAM KEEN Jonathan Silverstein - Artistic Director Jeremy Stoller - Director of New Work Jasminn Johnson - Director of Education Ashley DiGiorgi - Managing Producer Reed Ridgley - General Manager Billy Recce - Marketing Manager

ABOUT KEEN COMPANY Keen Company is an award-winning Off-Broadway theater creating narrative driven work that provokes identification, reflection, and emotional connection. In intimate productions of plays and musicals, the company tells stories about the decisive moments that change us. Through our educational arm, Keen Teens, we raise the quality of plays written for the high school stage and provide a free professional training program for teens. Through the Keen Playwrights Lab, we bring together three mid-career playwrights to develop new work and facilitate that work's exposure to a greater audience. On-stage Keen champions the impact of integrity, and we uphold that same mission backstage. It is important to our company, and our work, that everyone feels safe, valued, and inspired to do their best.

HEAR/NOW Keen Company’s 21st Season will reimagine the classic radio drama with the debut of five world premiere audio plays from a multifaceted group of Off- Broadway playwrights. Hear/Now welcomes patrons into a theater of their imagination, showcasing new work by Pearl Cleage, Kate Cortesi, finkle, James Anthony Tyler, and musical team Melissa Li and Kit Yan. Our audiences can expect a season of unique pieces of audio theater - each will be intimate, engrossing, fully-produced shows that will feel just as satisfying as a great night at the theater!

WE’RE KEEN ON YOU We are endlessly grateful for the support of our community which has fueled Keen Company for over two decades. Thank you to all of our donors, patrons, and friends for your steadfast generosity this year. We are honored to continue to create and connect. The theater may be dark, but storytelling is alive and well at Keen Company. Thanks to you!

You’re welcome to explore more about Keen Company at www.keencompany.org Streaming Everywhere You Listen to Podcasts