Until the Flood

Until the Flood

By Dael Orlandersmith, Directed by Neel Keller

Streaming November 15, 2020 – Fall 2023

On August 9, 2014 Darren Wilson, a white police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, an African American teenager in Ferguson, Missouri. The shooting ignited weeks of social unrest, propelled the activist movement known as Black Lives Matter and prompted a controversial investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Traveling to the region a few months after the shooting, Orlandersmith conducted interviews with dozens of people who were grievously shaken by the shooting and its turbulent aftermath. From these intimate conversations, she has created eight unforgettable characters who embody a community struggling to come to terms with the personal damage caused by these complex events. Experienced in performance, these voices offer haunting reminders of America’s continuing struggle with racism and justice.

Awarded a Critic’s Pick by The New York Times and acclaimed by critics and audiences across the country, Until The Flood powerfully explores the roiling currents of American history, race and politics that exploded in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri and sent shock waves across the nation. Until The Flood is an unmissable drama that, the Chicago Tribune raved, “achieves a great beauty by bringing us together rather than driving us apart.”

Goodman Theatre is proud to join the following theaters in presenting this stream free to our audiences: Rattlestick Plawyrights Theater in New York, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Portland Center Stage, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, A Contemporary Theatre in Seattle, and the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

Until the Flood was originally commissioned and produced by Seattle Repertory Theatre and subsequently produced in the United States and the U.K. with the same performer, director and creative team.

 

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November 12, 2020: Stream Dael Orlandersmith’s *Until the Flood* Starting Nov. 15

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Dael Orlandersmith

Dael Orlandersmith (Playwright and Performer) first performed Stoop Stories in 2008 at The Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival and Apollo Theater’s Salon Series; Washington, D.C.’s Studio Theatre produced its world premiere in 2009. Her play Monster premiered at New York Theatre Workshop in 1996. The Gimmick, commissioned by McCarter Theatre, premiered in their Second Stage OnStage series in 1998 and went on to Long Wharf Theatre and New York Theatre Workshop. Orlandersmith won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for The Gimmick in 1999. Yellowman was commissioned by and premiered at McCarter Theatre in a co-production with The Wilma Theater and Long Wharf Theatre. Orlandersmith was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and Drama Desk Award nominee for Outstanding Play and Outstanding Actress in a Play for Yellowman in 2002. The Blue Album, in collaboration with David Cale, premiered at Long Wharf Theatre in 2007. Bones was commissioned by the Mark Taper Forum, where it premiered in 2010. She wrote and performed the solo memoir play Forever at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, the Long Wharf, New York Theatre Workshop, Portland Center Stage in 2016 and the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. In 2016, Orlandersmith wrote and performed Until the Flood, commissioned by St. Louis Repertory Theatre. It was later produced at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, ACT Seattle and Goodman Theatre. Orlandersmith has toured extensively with the Nuyorican Poets Café (Real Live Poetry) throughout the United States, Europe and Australia. Yellowman and a collection of her earlier works have been published by Vintage Books and Dramatists Play Service. She attended Sundance Institute Theatre Lab for four summers and is the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Grant, The Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights, a Guggenheim and the 2005 PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award for a playwright in mid-career. She is the recipient of a Lucille Lortel Foundation Playwrights Fellowship and an Obie Award for Beauty’s Daughter. She is currently working on two commissions.

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Dael Orlandersmith (Playwright and Performer) in Until the Flood.

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Dael Orlandersmith (Playwright and Performer) in Until the Flood.

Author: Robert Altman

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