Theater News

New Aleshea Harris Play to Have Its World Premiere

Whitney White will direct ”What to Send Up When It Goes Down”, a new work from the playwright of ”Is God Is”.

Whitney White will direct the world premiere of What to Send Up When It Goes Down.
Whitney White will direct the world premiere of What to Send Up When It Goes Down.
(© Tricia Baron)

The Movement Theatre Company has announced that it will present the world premiere of What to Send Up When It Goes Down, a new play by Is God Is playwright Aleshea Harris. Directed by Whitney White, it will run in the Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre at the A.R.T./New York Theatres November 11-December 8, with opening night set for November 19.

The play is described as "a community ritual created in response to the deaths of Black people as a result of racialized violence. As lines between characters and actors, observers and observed blur, a dizzying series of vignettes build to a climactic moment where performance and reality collide, highlighting the absurdity of anti-blackness in our society. Through facilitation and dialogue we must decide how to cope, resist and move forward."

Complete casting will be announced later. The production will feature sets by Yu-Hsuan Chen (The Homecoming Queen), costumes by Andy Jean (Scraps), lighting by Cha See (Cute Activist), and sound design by Sinan Refik Zafar (And She Would Stand Like This).