Theater News

The Flea Sets 2023 Season of World-Premiere Productions

Zora Howard will debut her new play ”Hang Time” in the Flea’s upcoming season.

Zora Howard's Hang Time will have its world premiere with the Flea in spring 2023.
Zora Howard's Hang Time will have its world premiere with the Flea in spring 2023.
(© Jason Zeren)

The Flea has announced two mainstage productions slated for its 2023 season.

In spring 2023, the Flea will present the world premiere of Hang Time, written by Pulitzer Prize finalist Zora Howard (STEW) who also makes her directorial debut. The play is described as follows: "Three men chew the fat under an old, wide tree. In Hang Time, we peek into the interiority – the great loves and bitter blues – of Black men in America. Setting the romantic and the macabre in sharp relief, Hang Time invites the viewer to envisage the living Black body triumphant over the legacy of violence that it holds."

Hang Time is produced in partnership with WACO (Where Art Can Occur) Theater Center and will have a 2024 west coast premiere in Los Angeles.

In fall 2023, the company will debut Cheeky Little Brown, a world-premiere play with music, written by and starring Nkenna Akunna in her New York City debut. The story is described as follows: "In Cheeky Little Brown audiences stumble upon Lady, an equal parts messy and determined charmer in the midst of crashing (and lowkey ruining) her best friend Gemma's birthday party in London. Nothing goes as planned and audiences get a front-row seat to Lady's desperate antics. Pain, distress, introspection, pigeons, and a whole lot of Doner meat — this coming of age story with original songs by playwright and star Nkenna Akunna, examines the complicated devastation of a friendship break up between two queer Black women with diverging journeys toward self-love and acceptance."

The Flea was refounded in 2021 with the mission to support and invest in experimental art by Black, brown, and queer artists. The Flea provides space, financial support, producing partnership, and other resources so that they may develop and share their vision in community with audiences.