Birthright

On August 23rd, 2005 Tropical Hurricane Katrina, one of the deadliest hurricanes in our history, flooded almost all of New Orleans and many of its neighboring parishes for weeks. It was the sixth-strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded causing $82.1 billion of damage and costing at least 1,900 lives. Award-winning author/director Jackie Alexander’s Birthright takes place one year after Katrina in Slidell, Louisiana, fifteen miles northeast of New Orleans.

The play is an intensely volcanic drama centering around the Thomas and Boudreaux families. It opens at the start of the 2006 Atlantic Hurricane Season. But the storm brewing inside the Boudreaux and Thomas homes is one that has been gaining strength for fifteen years; its origins cemented in infidelity and domestic abuse. Katrina’s ravages pale in contrast to the damages inflicted on these families by the inescapable demons of their childhood.