On October 14, Academy Award-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o made her highly anticipated New York stage debut in Obie-winning playwright Danai Gurira’s war drama Eclipsed at the Public Theatre. The show had a star-studded soft opening night on October 13 which included icon & The Color Purple producer Oprah Winfrey.
The play, set in 2003 near the end of the civil war in Liberia, is about the survival and resilience of a group of women who are captives of rebels fighting the government. Nyong’o, who made her Academy Award-winning screen debut in “12 Years a Slave,” stars in the role of the “Girl,” the youngest of four captive wives of a rebel commander.
In addition to Nyong’o, the cast also features several Broadway performers, including Saycon Sengbloh (Hair, The Color Purple and Wicked), as well as Pascale Armand (The Trip to Bountiful), Akosua Busia (Mule Bone), and Zainab Jah (In Darfur).
Zimbabwean-American Gurira also stars as the sword-wielding, zombie killer “Michonne” on AMC’s hit series “The Walking Dead”. She’s also appeared in the films “The Visitor” and “Mother of George.” Her stage credits include the role of “ Isabella” in Measure for Measure for which she received the Actor’s Equity Callaway Award. As a playwright, she received an Obie Award, Outer Critics Award, and Helen Hayes Award for In the Continuum. For Eclipsed, Gurira won an NAACP Image Award; the Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play, and the Connecticut Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Production of a Play. Her latest play Familiar will premier in New York at Playwrights Horizons in February 2016.
Eclipsed is directed by Liesl Tommy, who staged the play’s premiere at the Woolly Mammoth Theater in Washington in 2009.
Although the production was originally slated to close Nov. 8, it will now have nine-week run, with a final performance on Nov.29. For tickets and more information, visit here.
#FlashbackFriday via @vintagepopsoul Heading to opening night party! #EclipsedPlay #SayconSengbloh #openingnight #kortomomolu #liberiandesigner @kortomomolu A video posted by BroadwayBlack (@broadwayblack) on
#FlashbackFriday the beautiful ladies of #EclipsedPlay cast @publictheaterny #openingnight A photo posted by BroadwayBlack (@broadwayblack) on
