Tony nominees Keith David (Jelly’s Last Jam) as Dolomite and John Earl Jelks (Radio Golf) as Stackolee lead the cast of The Public Lab production of Lemon Andersen’s ToasT, helmed by Elise Thoron, with preview performances beginning on Tuesday, April 21 and running through Sunday, May 10 at The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street in New York. The official press opening is on Tuesday, May 5.
Keith David, Hill Harper, playwright Lemon Andersen, John Earl Jelks in the lobby of The Public Theater in New York on April 13, 2015. Photo by Lia Chang
The cast also features Phillip James Brannon as Annabelle Jones, Dan Butler as Sheriff Jody, Teddy Cañez as G.I. Joe, Hill Harper as Hard Rock, Jonathan Earl Peck as Hobo Ben, and Armando Riesco as Jesse James.
Free tickets to the first preview on Tuesday, April 21 will be available via TodayTix mobile lottery, launching Tuesday, April 14. Winners will be notified by email and push notifications between 12:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. on the day of the first preview. Winners must confirm their winning tickets in the TodayTix app within one hour of being notified.
Single tickets, starting at $20, are available now and can be accessed by calling (212) 967-7555, www.publictheater.org, or in person at the Taub Box Office at The Public Theater at 425 Lafayette Street.
ToasT is an electrifying new play by acclaimed spoken word artist and Tony Award-winning writer Lemon Andersen, directed by Andersen’s County of Kings collaborator Elise Thoron. A Public Theater commission first presented at The Public’s Under the Radar Festival, ToasT ingeniously weaves major characters from black oral narratives into a gripping story about a group of inmates fighting to keep their minds free amidst the 1971 riots that rocked Attica Prison. After 27 years served for murder in Attica’s D-Block, Willie Green, aka the legendary Dolomite, has become an unlikely father figure to his cellmates, folklore heroes like Jesse James, Hobo Ben, Annabelle Jones, Stackolee and Hard Rock. When word brews throughout Attica that a riot is coming, Dolomite has to decide whether to join in or bet on the quickly approaching chance to taste freedom. Honoring the spoken word narratives recited in pool halls, bars and prisons across America by generations of black poets, ToasT is a stunning new play about men trying to live free in a system-and a world-designed to keep them chained. ToasT was developed, in part, at the Sundance Institute Theatre Program. Funding for the development of ToasT is provided by The Time Warner Foundation, and the MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. MellonFoundation.
ToasT features scenic design by Alexis Distler, costume design by Dede Ayite, lighting design by Jen Schriever, and sound design by Rob Kaplowitz.
LEMON ANDERSEN (Playwright) For a decade, his performances have rocked iconic venues including San Francisco’s Theatre On The Square, Gammage Performing Arts Center in Arizona, Charleston’s Spoleto Festival, New Haven’s Arts & Ideas Festival, the Chicago Theatre and the Kodak Theatre in L.A. Spike Lee produced Andersen’s memoir County of Kings at The Public, which was published in 2010, and awarded the New York Book Festival’s Grand Prize. Andersen won a Tony Award in 2003 for Def Poetry Jam, produced by Russell Simmons and broadcast on HBO for six seasons. He trained with The Public’s Shakespeare Lab and his work has received support from the Sundance Institute. As an author, he has publish a book of new poems titled Straightrazor and his writing was excerpted by actor/activist Hill Harper in Letters To An Incarcerated Brother.
ELISE THORON (Director) is a playwright, director, and educator who brings stories which have not been widely heard to life on the stage. She developed and directed Andersen’s County of Kings with Andersen performing it at The Public, Spotleto, and venues around the world. Her plays have been produced in the U.S. and Europe, including Green Violin, music by Frank London; Prozak and the Platypus, music by Jill Sobule (also album/graphic novella); and Charlotte: Life? or Theater? based on paintings of the German Jewish artist, Charlotte Salomon. She also created Recycling: washi tales, a theater piece from the art work of distinguished Japanese paper artist Kyoko Ibe. At American Place Theater, Thoron with Wynn Handman, co-founded Literature to Life, a performance-based literacy program, which presents professionally staged adaptations of American literary works and partners with NYC schools and performing arts centers around the country. She continues as its Associate Artistic Director today.
PHILLIP JAMES BRANNON (Annabelle Jones) has appeared Off-Broadway in Bootycandy, The City of Conversation, Love and Information, and Belleville. His film and television credits include Contagion; and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”
DAN BUTLER (Sheriff Jody) has appeared at The Public Theater in Much Ado About Nothing and on Broadway in Twentieth Century, Biloxi Blues, and The Hothouse. His additional Off-Broadway credits include The Weir; Olive and the Bitter Ends; The Irish Curse; Beast, Old Money; The Only Worse Thing You Could Have Told Me, which he also wrote; The Lisbon Traviata; Waiting for Godot; and True West. His film and television credits include The Silence of the Lambs, Captain Ron, The Fan, “Roseanne,” “From the Earth to the Moon.” Suddenly Susan,” “Frasier,” and many others.
TEDDY CAÑEZ (G.I. Joe) has appeared on Broadway in A Streetcar Named Desire. His film and television credits include Sleepwalk with Me, A Most Violent Year, “The Wire,” “How to Make It in America,” “The Mob Doctor,” and “Madame Secretary.”
KEITH DAVID (Dolomite) has appeared at The Public in Othello, The Pirates of Penzance, Waiting for Godot, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, La Boheme, Coriolanus, Titus Andronicus, The Winter’s Tale, and Kit Marlow. His Broadway credits include Hot Feet, Seven Guitars, Hedda Gabler, Jelly’s Last Jam, Macbeth, As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet, and The Lady from Dubuque. His film and television credits include Armageddon; There’s Something About Mary; Pitch Black; Where The Heart Is; Highway; Sons of Liberty; “Gargoyles”; “The Job”; “The Big House”; “ER”; “Adventure Time”; “Community”; and many others.
HILL HARPER (Hard Rock) has appeared at The Public in Dogeaters, and his additional Off-Broadway credit includes Blue. His film and television credits include He Got Game; Beloved; In Too Deep; The Skulls; The Visit; The Breed; 30 Days; The Volunteer, 1982; Parts Per Billion; “City of Angels”; “The Handler”; “CSI: NY”; “Covert Affairs”; and others.
JOHN EARL JELKS (Stackolee) has appeared on Broadway in Holler If Ya Hear Me, Radio Gold, and Gem of the Ocean. His Off-Broadway credits include Fetch Clay, Make Men; The Break of Noon; and The First Breeze of Summer. His film and television credits include A Powerful Thang, Enter the Dangerous Mind, and “Blue Bloods.”
JONATHAN EARL PECK (Hobo Ben) has appeared on Broadway in The Lion in Winter; Words & Music; and The Rothschilds. His Off-Broadway credits include Three Sisters, A Soldier’s Play, and Black.
ARMANDO RIESCO (Jesse James)’s theater credits include The Happiest Song Plays Last, Olives and Blood, Water by the Spoonful, Becky Shaw, Sonia Flew, Four, Eleven Rooms of Proust, Bash, and This is our Youth. His film and television credits include Adult World, CHE, Putzel, Fever Pitch, National Treasure, 25th Hour, Garden State, “Elementary,” Blue Bloods,” “A Gifted Man,” “Army Wives,” “Kings,” “Fringe,” and others.
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Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon and Taxman. She has guest starred on “One Life to Live,” “As the World Turns,” and “New York Undercover.” Lia starred as Carole Barbara in Lorey Hayes’ Power Play at the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C., with Pauletta Pearson Washington and Roscoe Orman. She is profiled in Jade Magazine.
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