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New Group's Downtown Race Riot, Starring Chloë Sevigny, Opens

Scott Elliott directs Seth Zvi Rosenfeld’s drama.

The cast of Downtown Race Riot: Moise Morancy, Cristian DeMeo, Sadie Scott, Daniel Sovich, Chloë Sevigny, David Levi, Josh Pais.
The cast of Downtown Race Riot: Moise Morancy, Cristian DeMeo, Sadie Scott, Daniel Sovich, Chloë Sevigny, David Levi, Josh Pais.
(© Anita and Steve Shevett)

The company of the New Group's world-premiere production of Seth Zvi Rosenfeld's Downtown Race Riot celebrated opening night last night, December 3, at Pershing Square Signature Center. Scott Elliott directs the production, which runs through December 23.

The cast includes Cristian DeMeo, David Levi, Moise Morancy, Josh Pais, Sadie Scott, Chloë Sevigny, and Daniel Sovich. Scott Elliott directs, and the production features set design by Derek McLane, costume design by Clint Ramos, lighting design by Yael Lubetzky, sound design by M.L. Dogg, and fight direction by UnkleDave's Fight-House.

Director Scott Elliott, playwright Seth Zvi Rosenfeld, Lily Thorne, and Josh Hamilton celebrate opening night of Downtown Race Riot
Director Scott Elliott, playwright Seth Zvi Rosenfeld, Lily Thorne, and Josh Hamilton celebrate opening night of Downtown Race Riot
(© Anita and Steve Shevett)

Downtown Race Riot is described as follows: "On a hot late summer day in 1976, a mob of young men — all white except one — descended on Washington Square Park with pipes and bats, and attacked any people of color they could find. Seth Zvi Rosenfeld takes us back to that day, to the cramped Village apartment of Mary Shannon, a strung-out, freewheeling single mom, as her son Pnut and his Haitian best friend, Massive, wrestle with their obligation to join the riot. The boys, torn between loyalty to each other and to the neighborhood, grasp for ways to keep the violence from destroying their friendship forever. A snapshot of a time not so different than today, when a new social freedom ran smack into the forces of reaction, and when the stakes were truly life and death."

For tickets and more information, click here.