The company’s first contemporary American play, directed by MIP’s Founding Artistic Director Lucie Tiberghien
Streams live December 12 at 2pm EST (preview) & 7pm EST (opening), Replays available until January 4
PRESS INVITATION/COVERAGE REQUEST: Sat 12/12 at 7pm EST
Brooklyn, NY – Molière in the Park, co-presenting with the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF), and in partnership with the Prospect Park Alliance, LeFrak Center at Lakeside, will present a live stream of Christina Anderson’s Pen/Man/Ship, directed by Molière in the Park’s Founding Artistic Director Lucie Tiberghien.
1896. The Separate But Equal Doctrine has just been upheld in the Supreme Court of the United States as a Black American surveyor boards a ship to lead a mysterious expedition bound for Liberia. In tow are his troubled son, a rebellious young woman, and a skeptical crew. On the open sea an unexpected detour forces secrets out of hiding fundamentally changing the course of the journey and their lives. Christina Anderson creates a telling parable about violence, betrayal, faith, and freedom in this moving maritime epic.
The cast features Lucille Lortel Award winner Crystal Lucas-Perry (JQA with San Diego Rep, A Bright Room Called Day & Ain’t No Mo’ at the Public Theater), Kevin Mambo (“Marvel’s Luke Cage” on Netflix, Fela in Broadway’s Fela!, Mlima’s Tale at the Public Theater), Jared McNeill (HBO’s “We Are Who We Are,” Battlefield at BAM, The Valley of Astonishment at Theatre for a New Audience) and Postell Pringle (Broadway’s A Free Man of Color, FX’s “Rescue Me,” The Urban Retreat at the Public Theater).
The production team includes Garth Belcon (MIP Co-Founding Executive Producer), Thyra Hartshorn (Production Manager), Andrew Carluccio - Video Engineer (Liminal Entertainment Technologies), Lina Younes (Set Design), Ari Fulton (Costume Design), Marie Yokoyama (Lighting Design), Victoria Delorio (Sound Design), Emily Rawson (Animation), Daniel Williams (Sound Engineer), Jonathan Kokotajlo (Assistant Video Engineer) and Madison Lane (Production Stage Manager).
With the pioneering use of Liminal Entertainment Technologies’ innovative StreamWeaver software, Molière in the Park brings live lighting and sound design back to the theater for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic. During the live broadcast event, StreamWeaver technology will connect the international crew of actors and technicians, transporting HD audiovisual data and routing a lighting control protocol called DMX over the internet using StreamWeaver Lite. This mixing and merging of high definition video and audio feeds, as well as camera cuts together in real time is a critical milestone for decentralized live virtual performance and was a priority for Liminal when designing the product.
Pen/Man/Ship streams live on Saturday, December 12 at 2pm EST and 7pm EST. A recording of the live stream will be available on MIP’s YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/moliereinthepark) until Monday, January 4. Viewing is free. Reserve at www.eventbrite.com/e/penmanship-by-moliere-in-the-park-registration-129065639803. For more info visit www.moliereinthepark.org/penmanship.
To appeal to its French speaking audience and language learners, MIP is offering closed captions in French, translated by Chloe Noble and Lucie Tiberghien.
Immediately following the two live performances Molière in the Park will be hosting a live Q&A with team members. Attendees can submit questions directly through YouTube, on Twitter, via Facebook Messenger, or via Instagram direct messages during the event or immediately after.
Molière in the Park was created in Fall 2018 and is dedicated to being an inclusive and antiracist theater organization. Their goal is to bring high-caliber English language productions of Molière’s timely masterpieces, as well as carefully chosen contemporary plays that focus on language and question today’s world through the lens of history, to Brooklyn’s Prospect Park annually, and the online theatergoing community, free of charge. For info visit www.MoliereInThePark.org, like MIP on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MoliereInThePark, follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MoliereBKPark and on Instagram at www.instagram.com/moliereinthepark.
Molière in the Park’s previous live stream of Tartuffe was a New York Times Critic’s Pick headlined “When Tartuffe meets Trump, It’s Revolutionary.” Jesse Green raved, “This is an implicitly political Tartuffe, full of delight for our undelightful time.” Summarizing the production, he wrote: “With allusions to the White House as well as Black Lives Matter, it tears down walls to rebuild a classic.” The Observer’s David Cote said it’s “Spirited and lively! Molière’s satire of religious hypocrisy hasn’t aged. Played with screen-chewing abandon by Raúl E. Esparza, the Broadway veteran crafts a loose and daffy Tartuffe out of bits of Gene Wilder, Bugs Bunny and Zach Galifianakis.”
Christina Anderson is a playwright, tv writer, educator, and creative. Her plays have appeared at The Goodman Theatre, OSF, The Public Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Kansas City Rep and other theaters in the United States and Canada. Her awards and honors include 2020 United States Artists Fellow, MacDowell Fellowship, Lily Awards Harper Lee Prize, Herb Alpert Award nomination, Barrymore Nomination and New Dramatists Residency. Her work has appeared multiple times on the annual Kilroy's List, an industry survey of excellent new works by female playwrights. She is also the winner of the Lucille Lortel Fellowship. Christina’s plays include How To Catch Creation, The Ripple, The Wave That Carried Me Home, Man In Love, Pen/Man/Ship, The Ashes Under Gait City and Blacktop Sky. She taught playwriting at Wesleyan University, Rutgers University, SUNY Purchase College and served as the interim.
Head of Playwriting at Brown University. Christina recently worked as a television staff writer on the CBS drama “Tommy.” Her current projects include producing an album of instrumental hip hop music titled The Montage Flow and writing her first tv pilot “The Only Isaac.”
A Franco-American Brooklynite, Lucie Tiberghien was raised in France and Switzerland and moved to New York in 1995. Specializing in the development of new plays, Lucie has directed world premieres at Second Stage, MCC, The Cherry Lane Theater, Hartford Stage, La Jolla Playhouse, Contemporary American Theater Festival, Rattlestick Theater Company, MaYi Theater Company, The Humana Festival, Labyrinth Theater Company, Pan Asian Rep, New York Theater Workshop Next Door, and Arena Stage. She has developed new plays at Playpenn, Sundance, Ojai, The O'Neill, MTC, The Roundabout, Primary Stages, among others. In the fall of 2018 she founded Molière in the Park to act on her desire to democratize access to theater and bring free productions to Brooklyn on a regular basis.
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Press contact: David Gibbs/DARR Publicity 646-744-7200 or david@darrpublicity.com
Photo: Christina Anderson