Arena Stage Casts Veterans of All the Way to Lead The Great Society
(© Stan Barouh)
Arena Stage has announced complete casting for its D.C. premiere of The Great Society, the second half of Robert Schenkkan’s epic drama about President Lyndon Baines Johnson. Running from February 2-March 11, 2018, the production comes on the heels of Arena Stage's 2016 run of All the Way, Schenkkan’s Tony-winning first installment. Kyle Donnelly directs.
Jack Willis, who originated the role of LBJ in All the Way at Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2012 and reprised his performance at Arena Stage in 2016, will return to the role again the lead the cast of The Great Society.
The cast features additional returning actors from All the Way, including Bowman Wright as Martin Luther King Jr., Desmond Bing as Bob Moses, JaBen Early as Stokely Carmichael, Cameron Folmar as Governor George Wallace, Richmond Hoxie as J. Edgar Hoover, Lawrence Redmond as Hubert Humphrey, Susan Rome as Lady Bird Johnson, John Scherer as Robert F. Kennedy, Stephen F. Schmidt as Senator Everett Dirksen, Craig Wallace as Ralph Abernathy, and Tom Wiggin as Robert McNamara.
Joining the company are Elliott Bales as Adam Walinsky, Deonna Bouye as Coretta Scott King, Gary-Kayi Fletcher as James Bevel, Megan Graves as Pat Nixon, and Andrew Weems as Mayor Richard Daley.
The Great Society chronicles Johnson's second term as he seeks to maintain his relationship with King and complete a raft of impossibly ambitious social policy projects.
The creative team includes set designer Kate Edmunds, costume designer Nan Cibula-Jenkins, lighting designer Nancy Schertler, original music and sound design by David Van Tieghem, and projection designer Aaron Rhyne.
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