Jonathan Payne World Premiere Announces Cast, Creatives

The Playwrights Realm has announced the cast and creative team for its upcoming world premiere of Jonathan Payne's The Revolving Cycles Truly and Steadily Roll'd, directed by Awoye Timpo, at the Duke on 42nd Street. The show runs September 7-October 6, with opening night set for September 19.

Kara Young, Lynda Gravátt, and Kenneth Tigar will star in the production, along with Deonna Bouye, Toni Ann Denoble, Donnell E. Smith, Keith Randolph Smith, and James Udom. The creative team will include Kimie Nishikawa (set designer), Stacey Derosier (lighting designer), Lisa Renkel (projections designer), Buddhabug Records (sound designer), Andrea Hood (costume designer), Alexander Wylie (prop designer), and Kara Kaufman (stage manager).

The Revolving Cycles is described as follows: "Karma (Kara Young), a black teenager in the foster care system, is looking for her foster brother Terrell, who has gone missing within the Oblong — a fictional inner city that Payne describes as 'an island isolated by poverty.' Maybe he's run away; maybe it's drugs; maybe he's dead; or maybe he's simply lost somewhere in the depths of an uncaring society. As Karma sleuths, she pries clues from a wide variety of characters: an undertaker who profits from abundant death (Lynda Gravátt), a veteran teacher with a poor recollection of his students (Kenneth Tigar), and several others, all of whom tend to be quick to disregard her."