Broke-Ology at Lyric Stage
Nathan Louis Jackson Play March 25 – April 23, 2011
By: Lyric - Mar 09, 2011
The Lyric Stage Company of Boston continues its 2010-11 season with BROKE-OLOGY, a warm and wrenching play about a loving African-American family facing its troubles with humor, resiliency, and grace. Set in a beleaguered Kansas City neighborhood, two grown brothers try to balance the challenges of their own lives with their desire to care for their ailing father. Even as they remember simpler times, tension builds between the brothers as their conflicting interests churn into a surprising outcome.
The cast consists of Johnny Lee Davenport (William King); Patrice Jean-Baptiste (Sonia King, William’s wife); and David Curtis and Monty Cole as (Malcolm King and Ennis Kings, William and Sonia’s two sons). Benny Sato Ambush makes his Lyric Stage directing debut.
Cast
Monty Cole (Malcolm) is making his Lyric Stage debut. Recent credits include Bud, Not Buddy; Light up the Sky;The Bluest Eye; Harold's Fall or King Will; and he will soon appear in a site-specific production of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal. He recently was a faculty member at The National High School Institute for Theatre (“Cherubs”) in Evanston, IL. Monty is an ensemble member for the comedy troupe Chocolate Cake City at Emerson College. This May, he will graduate from Emerson with a B.A. in Theatre Studies.
David Curtis* (Ennis) is making his Lyric Stage debut. His stage credits include The Sing Song Show (Boston Arts Academy); ONE4DeBROVAS (New Federal Theatre); The Last Days of Judas Iscariot and A More Perfect Union (Company One); Mother G, Dark as a Thousand Midnights, Spunk, Ascension, and Mama, I Want to Sing (Our Place Theatre, Inc.); A Streetcar Named Desire, 12 Angry Jurors (Roxbury Repertory Theatre/Roxbury Community College/Emerson Stage). David’s film credits include 4 Cambridge Center, The Maiden Heist, Under the Hood, Edge of Darkness, The Last Harbor, The Proposal, and Possessions. David is also an experienced musician, having been a percussionist/drummer, producer, engineer, and composer. David dedicates this show to all 5 of his brothers
Johnny Lee Davenport* (William) is making his Lyric Stage debut. Johnny was recently nominated for an IRNE best supporting actor award for his role as Parcell Sytes in The Huntington’s Vengeance Is The Lord’s. In Company One’s Neighbors, as Richard Patterson, he received critical acclaim. This veteran of stage and screen is making Boston his new theatre home.
Patrice Jean-Baptiste (Sonia) is making her Lyric Stage debut. Area credits include work with Zeitgeist Stage Company, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, and Actors' Shakespeare Project. She lives in Milton and has taught at Milton Academy for twelve years. Her education and training are from Boston University and Trinity Rep Conservatory.
Creative Team
Nathan Louis Jackson (Playwright) Plays include Broke-ology (Lincoln Center Theater, Williamstown Theatre Festival); When I Come to Die (Lincoln CenterTheater/LCT3); The Mancherios; and The Last Black Play. Directing credits: The Colored Museum, The Island (Ebony Theatre). Television credits: "Shameless" (ShowTime), "Lights Out" (FX), "Southland" (NBC). He has participated in The Kennedy Center Summer Playwriting Intensive, the William Inge 24-Hour Play Festival, Ebony Theater’s “The Word” (monthly poetry slam), and was on the Kansas State University Speech Team. He is a two-time AFA Prose Interpretation champion, a two-time Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award winner, a Mark Twain Comedy Playwriting Award winner, and a recipient of the Kennedy Center’s Gold Medallion. Mr. Jackson attended Kansas State University and trained at The Juilliard School.
Benny Sato Ambush (Director) is making his Lyric Stage directorial debut. Directing credits: AmericanConservatory Theater, Old Globe Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, South Coast Rep, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Arizona Theatre Company, Magic Theatre, Florida Stage, Geva Theatre, Oakland Ensemble Theatre, Playwrights Horizon, Ford’s Theatre, TheatreVirginia, Philadelphia Festival Theatre for New Plays, Lincoln Center Theater Institute, Rites and Reason Theatre Company, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, New Harmony Project, Actors Guild of Lexington, Alaska Theatre of Youth, International Theatre Festival of Chicago, Sacramento Theatre Company, National Black Theatre Festival, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre, The Lost Colony. He is a consultant, published commentator, and former Artistic Director of professional theatres, including one LORT theatre. Formerly: Director of the Institute for Teledramatic Arts and Technology, California State University, Monterey Bay; Co-Artistic Director, San Francisco Bay Area Playwrights Festival; Associate Artistic Director, Anna Deavere Smith’s Institute on the Arts & Civic Dialogue, Harvard University. He has taught and directed at many colleges and universities nationally, has worked abroad, and is active nationally in the advocacy of cultural equity, non-traditional casting, and pluralism in the American theater. Currently: Distinguished Producing Director in Residence, Emerson Stage; acting faculty member, Department of Performing Arts, Emerson College.