blood work
National Black Theatre
National Black Theatre & Chelsea Factory Present
blood work
Thursday, June 27 at 7:30PM
Friday, June 28 at 7:30PM
Saturday, June 29 at 2:00PM & 7:30PM
Sunday, June 30 at 2:00PM
$25
70 minutes
When Neisha, a panicked mother-to be seeks help at the hospital, a bold team of nurses administers cutting-edge treatment. Despite her mother advocating for more conventional remedies, the medical team sends Neisha propelling into an Afro-futuristic odyssey through past and present. As Neisha grapples with this unconventional antidote, she learns healing happens in mysterious ways. With the baby's life in the balance, ten generations of women unite to confront a cure that transcends the physical, co-laboring to pave a healthy path for the future.
Creative Team:
Playwright | Kristen Adele Calhoun
Director | Tiffany Nichole Greene
Scenic Designer | Yi-Hsuan (Ant) Ma
Costume Designer | Sarita Fellows
Assistant Costume Designer | Brittani Beresford
Lighting Designer | Amara McNeil
Assistant Lighting Designer | Dariel Garcia
Sound Designer | Daniela Hart, Bailey Trierweiler & UptownWorks
Props Designer | Belynda M'Baye
Technical Director | Will Cornell
Production Stage Manager | Cello “Lo” Blanks
Assistant Stage Manager | Sydneii Colter
Production Assistant | Jacob Smith
Production Management Support | Rachael Harris
Casting Director | Sujotta Pace
Cast:
Lizan Mitchell | Nurse Bit
Vickie Washington | Nurse Dove
Thursday Farrar | Nora
Gayle Turner | Nurse Sook
Kalyne Coleman | Neisha
Christiana Clark | Sister
Katherine George | Sister
Darlene Hope | Sister
Ashley Lalonde | Sister
Abigail C. Onwunali | Sister
About the Creative Team:
Kristen Adele Calhoun (Playwright):
Kristen Adele Calhoun is a writer for HBO’s adaptation of Toni Morrison’s SULA created and helmed by showrunner, Shannon M. Houston. Kristen is also on the writing team for BLKNWS directed by Kahlil Joseph, produced by A24 and Participant. She is an I AM SOUL Playwriting Resident at Dr. Barbara Ann Teer’s National Black Theatre, the founding Program Director of ArtChangeUS, an Assistant Editor of Contemporary Plays by Women of Color and a co-producer of InterFest, an intersectional arts and ideas festival that began at the Harlem School of the Arts.
Kristen is the co-curator of BLKSPACE along with InterFest co-producer, Nikki Vera. Time at BLKSPACE is granted to Black artists whose work forwards Black liberation. BLKSPACE seeks to simultaneously provide an expansive dreaming space for the individual and a collective practice ground for freedom.
Tiffany Nichole Greene (Director):
Tiffany Nichole Greene is thrilled to be in community and collaboration with NBT. Her most recent credits include Kristen Adele Calhoun’s Black Cypress Bayou at the Geffen Playhouse; world premiere of York Walker’s Covenant at Roundabout Theatre Company (New York Times Critic’s Pick); Jonathan Larson’s Rent at Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Hamilton: An American Musical (National Tour Resident Director); world premiere of Steph Del Rosso’s 53% Of at Second Stage Theater; Christina Ham’s Nina Simone: Four Women at Arizona Theatre Company; world premiere of Vichet Chum’s High School Play: A Nostalgia Fest at the Alley Theatre; Invincible, a new musical, at The Wallis Annenberg, working alongside Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo; Adrienne Kennedy’s Ohio State Murders at the Goodman Theatre; and Lydia R. Diamond’s Whiterly Negotiations and Lynn Nottage’s What Are The Things I Need To Remember with Octopus Theatricals (New York Times Critic’s Pick).
Next up for Tiffany is the world premiere of Dominique Morisseau’s Bad Kreyol at New York’s Signature Theatre. Tiffany is a Lincoln Center Directors Lab alum, a Soho Rep Directors Lab alum, and a member of SDC. She holds an MFA from Brown University/Trinity Rep. www.tiffanynicholegreene.com
Amara Payton McNeil (Lighting Designer):
Amara Payton McNeil is a New York-based, Hartford-raised, theatrical lighting designer. She holds a B.A. in Theater from Fordham University and was the 2023 Howell Binkley Fellow. As a visual storyteller, she aims to create an immersive experience for the audience, using vibrant colors and dynamic angles to bring texture to the stage. She enjoys work created for and by the black community and projects that blend performance and culture. She dedicates this production to her entire mother lineage, most importantly her grandmother, Barbara Lucille, and her great aunt, Cecelia. Credits include Broadway: Come From Away 2nd Nat Tour (Asst. LD), The Wiz Pre-Broadway Tour (HBB Fellow), Once Upon A One More Time (LD Intern), Parade (LD Intern); Regional/Off-Broadway: Fabulation…or (LD at The Billie Holiday), Like They Do In The Movies (Assoc. LD at PAC NYC), Teeth (Asst. LD @ Playwrights Horizons), Vegan Chitlins (LD at The Flea ), Hair (Assoc. LD at Two River), The Untitled, Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical (ALD at La Jolla Playhouse).
Yi-Hsuan (Ant) Ma (Set Designer):
YI-HSUAN (Ant) MA is an international scenic and production designer, now based in New York and DC. Ant's approach to design is interdisciplinary and poetic. Her theatrical installation work Samuel at The Tank has been nominated as a Notable Effects Show in the Hewes Design Awards. Off-Broadway selected credits: Smart at Ensemble Theater; The Slow Dance at 59E59; The Great Divide at HERE ART; Robin and Me at Theater Row; Bloom Bloom Pow at ART/NY. Outside of NYC: You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown at Weston Theater(VT), Much Ado About Nothing at Opera Arts House(ME), and As You Like It at Catskill Mountain(NY). Associate/Assistant credit: The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window at James Earl Jones Theatre; The Best We Could at MTC; Wolf Play at MCC Theater. Check her works: ant-setdesign.com
Sarita Fellows (Costume Designer):
Sarita Fellows was born in Freetown Sierra Leone, and her more recent works include projects such as Death of a Salesman, Broadway; The Ally, A Bright Room Called Day ,The Public Theater; Travels, Ars Nova; Drinking in America, Audible Minetta Lane Theater; Odyssey, Acting Theater Co; Bite Me, WP project; King James, The Old Globe; Theater of the Mind, Denver Center of Performing Arts; Elyria, Atlantic Theater Co; Blues for An Alabama Sky and Sweat, Guthrie theater; Joy and Pandemic, and Our Daughters Like Pillars, Huntington Theater; Loving and Loving, Actors Theater of Louisville; Seize The King, Alliance Theater; Fefu and Her Friends, American Conservatory Theater. In the dance world, Sarita has worked with choreographers such as Liz Lerman, and Edisa Weeks. MFA in design from Tisch School of Design. Awarded Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design (The National Black Theater Festival 2022). Lily Award (2020).
Daniela Hart (Sound Designer):
UptownWorks is a collaborative design team specializing in theater, film, podcasts installations and other media. Guided by a shared love for storytelling, our collective merges skills and perspectives, while fostering a human first approach to design work. Select sound design highlights include Dangerous Days (Miami New Drama); Las Borinqueñas (EST); Importance of Being Earnest (Pittsburgh Public Theatre/Baltimore Center Stage); Murder on the Orient Express (Syracuse Stage); FIVE The Parody Musical (Visceral Entertainment); Hotel Happy (Houses on the Moon); Munich Medea (WP/PlayCO); To The Ends of the Earth (JACK); Lady Day (Baltimore Center Stage); Working: A Musical (CUBoulder); Tiny Father (Barrington Stage/Chautauqua); BMLD (NBT); Avaaz (South Coast 13 Rep); Singularity Play (HarvardTDM); Black Odyssey (Classic Stage); Chicken & Biscuits (Asolo Rep); Espejos:Clean (Hartford Stage/Syracuse Stage); Which Way To The Stage (Signature DC); the ripple, the wave...(Berkeley Rep/Goodman); Complicity Island (Audible); Blues Clues & You! (Round Room Live); Queen (Long Wharf Theater/A.R.T.NY); Choir Boy, Today is my Birthday (Yale Rep); Fires in the Mirror (Baltimore Center Stage/Long Wharf Theatre), already there (The REACH at the Kennedy Center) First Down (59E59). This design was led by Daniela Hart (uptownworksnyc.com), Bailey Trierweiler (btsounddesign.com) and Noel Nichols (noelnicholsdesign.com). Daniela, Noel & Bailey received their MFAs in Sound Design from the Yale School of Drama.
Cello “Lo” Blanks (Production Stage Manager):
Cello “Lo” Blanks is a Multi-Disciplinary Stage Manager & proud graduate of the NYU Tisch Drama Production & Design Studio. Upon graduating amid a global pandemic, Cello has worked on a variety of shows ranging from immersive theater to new work & plays, including Sleep No More (Punchdrunk), Odyssey (The Acting Company), Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine (The Billie Holiday Theatre) & residencies at Vassar College and the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University. Thanks to my beautiful friends and community for their endless love and support! Email: celloblanks@gmail.com
Sydneii Colter (Assistant Stage Manager):
Sydneii Colter is excited to be collaborating with the National Black Theatre for the first time. Off-Broadway: Bernarda's Daughters, Evanston Salt Costs Climbing, Black No More (The New Group), Covenant (Roundabout Theater). Other recent credits include: Self-Portraits (Bushwick Starr), Sweet Chariot (Shiva Theatre), Sparrows at the Bar (Theatre Aspen), Echoes in the Garden (The Chain Theatre).
Belynda M’Baye (Prop Designer):
Belynda M’Baye is a Harlem planted dweller uprooted from Baltimore many years ago. One summer day in August, she stepped into NBT's doors and expressed her desire to stage manage. She found her purpose: The art of serving the artists She services the artists by managing theater, dance and film. Belynda currently serves as the L.A.B. Soul Series Residency Program Manager which 10 years ago. Supporting the playwright, director and producing residents through their tendency at NBT from development to production has been only a part of her work here at NBT. She has been the Production Stage Manager for many of NBT's productions, implemented extensions to the residency program such as the Keep Soul Alive Development Reading Series and our monthly cohort meetings. In addition to serving artists, NBT serves the community as a whole. It is my heart-driven desire to serve the community of Harlem so that they can experience life and the art created by it. NBT asks: What is your plan for liberation? To liberate myself and in turn to liberate others, I intend to serve the community that liberates me. She has experience working with mainly new developments of plays. including the powerful (pray) directed by nicHi douglas and produced by Ars Nova and NBT. Recently traveled to Sweden as PSM with Jason "Timbuktu" Diakite in "A Drop of Midnight". Delighted to have worked with playwrights, nicHi douglass, Marjuan Canady, Jason Michael Webb, Lelund Durond Tompson, Kambi Gathesha, Mfoniso Udofia, Lee Edward Colton II, Liza Jessie Peterson and Aurin Squire to name a few. New Plays with Producing Teams like Harlem 9, The New Black Fest, Now Africa, and Springboard @ Lincoln Center Stage Manager for Festivals; NYMF , NAMT Festivals, Going Down To The River Festival.
About the Cast:
Lizan Mitchell (Nurse Bit):
Broadway: Ohio State Murders; Electra; Having Our Say; So Long on Lonely Street. Off-Broadway includes: The Refuge Plays; The Half-God of Rainfall; Shadow/land; Bodies They Ritual; On Sugarland; Cullud Wattah; Passage; First Noel; Brownsville Song; Trojan Women; Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death. Regional includes: Our Daughters, Like Pillars; Skeleton Crew; Raisin in the Sun; Richard lll; The Tempest; Gem of the Ocean. Film/TV includes: “If I’m Alive Next Week…,” “Evil,” “Brooklynification,” “Monsters and Men,” “Detroit,” “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” “Deadbeat,” “We’ll Never Have Paris,” “Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight,” “Golden Boy,” “The Good Wife,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “John Adams,” “The Human Stain,” “The Wire,” “The Preacher’s Wife,” “Law & Order.”
Vickie Washington (Nurse Dove):
Primer for a Failed Superpower (The TEAM), POTUS (Stage West), A Raisin in the Sun (Water Tower), Crowns (Dallas Theatre Center), for colored girls…, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Piano Lesson, (Theatre Three), Contribution, From the Mississippi Delta (Soul Rep), The Tempest (Shakespeare Dallas). Television: Random Acts of Flyness (HBO); Indie films, Meta Care, They Charge for the Sun, Swimming in Your Skin Again (official Sundance selection); and Steps of Faith. Directing: Whitelisted, Responders, Blood Knot, What to Send Up When It Goes Down, Seven Guitars, Hairy and Sherri, The Mountaintop, Schoolgirls; or the African Mean Girls Play, Are you now, or have you ever been…, Fences, Passing Strange, Single Black Female, Sunset Baby, Fabulation, Angela’s Mixtape. Recipient of two Irma P. Hall Black Theatre Awards and Dallas Observer best 3 direction for the world premiere of Jonathan Norton’s Mississippi Goddamn. Podcast: Live From Mount Olympus.
Gayle Turner (Nurse Sook):
Gayle Turner is a 2024 Lucille Lortel "Outstanding Ensemble" award winner for (pray) directed by "awarded" Director NicHi Douglas. She has been in the performing arts for forty plus years. A graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, she made her Broadway debut in "The Wiz" as the Dorothy Understudy to Stephanie Mills. She was in the New York Times "Critic Pick" Production of (pray) written by NicHi Douglas and produced by Ars Nova Theatre and National Black Theatre. Performing Credits include Little Shop of Horrors, The First Noel, Langston in Harlem, Once on This Island, Constant Star, Having our Say, Nunsense, Spunk, 1940's Radio Hour, Abyssinia and TV "And Just like That", "Law & Order SVU. Winner of 7 John Barrymore Awards, 2 Carbonell Awards and a member of the Tony Awarded Broadway Inspirational Voices Gospel Choir with Artistic Director Allen Rene' Louis. "Blood Work" will be her 2nd Production with National Black Theatre. She also has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communications and a Master of Arts Degree in Media Studies.
Thursday Farrar (Nora):
B’way: Aida, Parade, Once Upon a Mattress. Off-B’way: The Bandaged Place (Roundabout Theatre, Love & Science (City Center), Regrets (Manhattan Theater Club), Lolita, My Love (York Theater), St. Louis Woman (Encores!) Nat'l tours: Flashdance, Les Miserables (Fantine),Carousel, Dreamgirls. Regional: The Davinci Code (Ogunquit Playhouse), Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (Cincinnati Shakespeare), Steel Magnolias,To Kill a Mockingbird (Weston Playhouse), Proposals (Flat Rock Playhouse), First Wives Club (Old Globe), Merrily We Roll Along (Kennedy Center), Harmony (La Jolla Playhouse), Into the Woods (Theater Works Palo Alto). TV: Poker Face, That Michael Che, FBI, Manifest, Gotham, Bull, Blue Bloods, Modern Love, For Life, Blacklist, Search Party,The Americans,Ugly Betty, Film: Brian Banks Movie,Holiday in Harlem, Darla in Space, White Pickett Fence, Across the Tracks, Dropped!. Web series: The Boys Who Brunch, New York Picture Company, The Clash & the Change. Recordings: You Oughta Be On Broadway, a Richard Rogers Collection, SSF Records. American Musical & Dramatic Academy NYC (Scholarship graduate). Awards: Audelco, New Hampshire Theater, Drama~Logue.
Kalyne Coleman (Neisha):
Kalyne Coleman was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. She is a graduate of the Brown University Trinity Rep MFA in Acting Program and a University of Pennsylvania alum. TV Credits include: Grace, Interview With A Vampire (AMC), So Help Me Todd (CBS), Evil (CBS), and the 2020 ABC Discovers Talent Showcase. Off-Broadway credits include Four, What To Send Up When It Goes Down (BAM), Lorraine Hansberry & Nikki Giovanni, Lessons in Survival (Vineyard Theater); and Leigh, America v. 2.1 The Sad Demise and Eventual Extinction of the American Negro (Barrington Stage). This past fall, Kalyne made her Broadway debut in Jaja’s African Hair Braiding by Jocelyn Bioh.
Christiana Clark (Sister):
Christiana Clark is a proud Chicago native who cut her teeth in the Twin Cities theatre community working with incredible artists such as Marion McClinton, Lou Bellamy, and Faye Price at Penumbra, Pillsbury House, The Guthrie, and more. She's most recently made her Broadway debut covering the role of Mrs. Muller in Roundabout's revival of DOUBT. Her previous Off-Broadway credits are FLEX with Lincoln Center Theatre and Pure Confidence at 59E59. Her work has been seen regionally from The Shakespeare Theatre in DC to The Goodman, Dallas Theatre Center and Berkeley Rep to name a few; and she spent 9 years as a company member of The Oregon Shakespeare Festival Theatre. She's been honored to originate characters in World Premieres by phenomenal playwrights such as Regina Taylor, Christian Anderson, and Universes plus breathe new life into classics with the likes of Lileana Blain-Cruz, Bill Rauch, Bob Falls, and Mary Zimmerman.
Katherine George (Sister):
Katherine George is an Afro-Latina multi-hyphenate artist and educator from the Bronx, NY by way of the Dominican Republic. Recent acting credits include: the West Coast premiere of Bees & Honey (Marin Theater Company), Clyde's (Denver Center for Performing Arts), Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven (Lenfest Center for the Arts), The Cooking Project (NYTW), Locked Up B*tches (Flea Theater), and The Unusual Tale of Mary and Joseph’s Baby (NYC Fringe Festival). She co-stars in the film Crabs in Barrel which was the winner of HBO’s 2021 Latinx Short Film competition. As a spokenword poet, she represented New York in national and international competitions on the youth, collegiate, and professional adult levels. She was a proud member of the first all-female slam team representing the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. As a vocalist, she has traveled around the country and most recently served as a background vocalist for Jennifer Lopez at her NBC Fourth of July performance and Live Spotify Studio Session. She is a proud member of the Dominican Artist Collective. MFA: Columbia University.
Darlene Hope (Sister):
Perhaps best known as the title character in A Visit From Aunt Flo, the Cannes Lion Award-winning viral video that has received over 3 million views worldwide, Darlene Hope has toured extensively throughout the US, South America and the Caribbean combining her bright and captivating performances with philanthropy, humanitarian relief, and young artist mentorship. OFF BROADWAY: The Doctor, Sistas the Musical, Normalcy. SELECT REGIONAL: Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Asolo Rep, The William Inge Festival, George Street Playhouse, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Miami New Drama, Norwegian Cruise Lines. FILM AND TV: Halston, The Blacklist, Blue Bloods, FBI, God Friended Me, Strut, Don't Shoot The Messenger, Commedia By Fava.
Ashley Lalonde (Sister):
Most recently, she was seen in the hit Broadway musical Hamilton, where she covered all three Schuyler Sisters (Eliza, Angelica, and Peggy/Maria) on the national tour. Ashley has appeared in several world premiere musicals, including The Black Clown (Lincoln Center), Burn All Night (A.R.T.), and Punk Rock Girl (Argyle Theatre). She’s performed at Carnegie Hall, Sony Hall, 54 Below, and more, recently debuting her solo show “Homecoming” to a sold out audience at the Green Room 42. She’ll be making her TV debut in an upcoming highly-anticipated Netflix series. Ashley made history as the first Black woman to star in Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Show. She received her B.A. in Sociology from Harvard University, with a minor in Theater, Dance, and Media, a certificate in Spanish, and an award for Artistic Excellence in Musical Theater. 1 John 4:16
Abigail C. Onwunali (Sister):
Off-Broadway Credits: The Half-God of Rainfall (New York Theater Workshop), For The Honey You Gotta Say When (New York Theater Workshop), Valor (Guthrie). Abigail is a 2022 Princess Grace Winner. As a writer, her play, Jewel, was a Red Bull Theater’s Short New Play 4 Festival winner and her slam poems have been viewed worldwide. Graduate of The Yale School of Drama and Hillman Grad Mentorship Program. Abigail made her Broadway debut as an understudy in JAJA's AFRICAN HAIR BRAIDING. She is based in NY.
About National Black Theatre:
National Black Theatre (NBT) is a Tony and Emmy Award-nominated institution founded in 1968 by Dr. Barbara Ann Teer. NBT is the longest-running Black theatre in NYC founded and consistently operated by a woman of color. NBT uses theatre arts as a means to educate, empower, and inform the national conscience around social issues impacting Black communities. NBT’s multidisciplinary approach to theatre builds upon Black liberation, art, and placemaking as a catalyst for human transformation. NBT has produced over 300 original works, won an Obie award, an Antonyo Award, 56 AUDELCO Awards, and has been nominated for multiple Drama Desk Awards.
Health and Safety Protocols
Chelsea Factory will be implementing the following procedures to help ensure the health and safety of our patrons, staff, and artists:
We practice contactless ticketing and will be checking patrons in by name (no need to show printed or digital tickets).
Masks are optional.
While Chelsea Factory strongly recommends vaccination against COVID-19, proof of vaccination is not currently required for audience entrance to performances and public programs.
Click here for our full Health and Safety Protocols.
