“Appropriate,” the 2014 Obie Award winner for Best New American Play, will be staged at Westport Country Playhouse, from August 15 through September 2. The story of family secrets is written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, 2016 MacArthur Genius Grant Recipient, and directed by David Kennedy, Playhouse associate artistic director.
“Jacobs-Jenkins has written a truly great American family play that, like the verb form of the title suggests, borrows liberally, intelligently and playfully from the American theatrical canon,” said Kennedy. “Like all such plays in the genre, ‘Appropriate’ uses family as a metaphor for the nation, going right to the heart of important questions about who we are and where we come from. It’s a bit of theatrical bravura—funny, profound, shocking, moving. I think audiences will love it.”
When the Lafayette children gather at the crumbling Arkansas plantation of their recently deceased father to catalog his estate, they discover a shameful legacy. In the tradition of American family dramas, from “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” to “August: Osage County,” this funny, award-winning play unleashes a series of surprises. The play contains mature themes and language.
The cast includes Betsy Aidem as Toni (Broadway’s “All the Way,”” Beautiful”; television’s “Madame Secretary,” “The Americans,” “Rescue Me,” “The Big C,” “Nurse Jackie,” “Law & Order”); David Aaron Baker as Bo (Westport Country Playhouse’s “All My Sons,” “Dinner with Friends”; Broadway’s “Once Upon a Mattress,” “Abe Lincoln In Illinois,” “The Rainmaker,” “The Merchant of Venice”; television’s “Homeland,” “Orange Is the New Black”); Christian Michael Camporin as Ainsley (Broadway’s “Finding Neverland,” “Matilda the Musical”; voiceovers for the Sprout series "Super Wings" and the Disney short film “Frozen Fever”); Anna Crivelli as River (recent graduate of the Yale School of Drama, MFA in Acting; Yale School of Drama’s “The Three Sisters,” “The Skin of Our Teeth”).
Also, Diane Davis as Rachael (Broadway’s “Golden Boy,” “Festen,” “Old Acquaintance”; NYC’s Primary Stages, Manhattan Theatre Club; television’s “Elementary,” ”Person of Interest,” “Blue Bloods,” “Law & Order”); Shawn Fagan as Franz (Westport Country Playhouse’s “Nora”; NYC’s Pearl Theatre, Mint Theater Company, Soho Rep; regional theater’s Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Dallas Theater Center, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival); Nick Selting as Rhys (Shakespeare in the Park’s “Julius Caesar”; recent graduate of New York University, MFA in Acting); and Allison Winn as Cassie (regional theater’s Williamstown Theatre Festival, Harbor Lights Theater Company; television’s “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” “Daredevil”).
Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' credits include “Everybody” (Signature Theatre), “War” (LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater), “Gloria” (Vineyard Theatre; Pulitzer Prize finalist), “Appropriate” (Signature Theatre; Obie Award), “An Octoroon” (Soho Rep; Obie Award) and “Neighbors” (The Public Theater). He is a Residency Five playwright at Signature Theatre and under commissions from LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater, MTC/Sloan, and Steppenwolf Theatre Company. His recent honors include the MacArthur Fellowship, the Windham-Campbell Prize for Drama, the Benjamin Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation Theatre Award, the Steinberg Playwriting Award, and the Tennessee Williams Award.
The design team includes Andrew Boyce, scenic design; Emily Rebholz, costume design; Matthew Richards, lighting design; and Fitz Patton, sound design.
“Appropriate” Production Sponsor is the Eunice and David Bigelow Foundation.
Performance schedule is Tuesday at 7 p.m., Wednesday at 2 and 8 p.m., Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. Special series feature Taste of Tuesday (Aug.15), LGBT Night OUT (Aug. 17), Opening Night (Aug. 19), Sunday Symposium (Aug. 20), Together at the Table Family Dinner (Aug. 22), Open Captions (Aug. 27), Backstage Pass (Aug. 30), Playhouse Happy Hour (Aug. 31), and Thursday TalkBack (Aug. 31). Post-show conversations will follow most performances in the Smilow Lounge on the mezzanine level.
Single tickets start at $30; buy early for best prices.
Westport Country Playhouse’s 2017 Season continues with “Sex with Strangers,” a look at a modern relationship in the digital age, written by Laura Eason and directed by Katherine M. Carter. When Ethan, a young sex blogger, turned best-selling author, meets Olivia, a reclusive, thirty-something novelist, dating turns dark as self-reinvention is just a click away. The play will be staged September 26 through October 14. The season culminates with one of the greatest love stories ever told, “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare. The tale of two star-crossed teenagers, who fight to love each other in a violent world, will run October 31 through November 19, directed by Mark Lamos, who the New York Post said, “is among the finest Shakespearean directors in the world.”
All play titles, artists, and dates are subject to change.
For more information and to buy tickets, visit westportplayhouse.org or call the box office at (203) 227-4177, toll-free at 1-888-927-7529, or visit Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport. Stay connected to the Playhouse on Facebook (Westport Country Playhouse), follow on Twitter (@WCPlayhouse), and on YouTube (WestportPlayhouse).