WINE IN THE WILDERNESS

Alice Childress (1916-1994) was an American playwright, novelist and actress well known for her poignant stories centering on the lived experiences of Black Americans. Originally from South Carolina, Childress moved to Harlem, NY at the age of nine to live with her grandmother, the daughter of a slave. Childress’ grandmother encouraged her to pursue her talents in writing and acting from a young age. In 1939, Childress began studying Drama at the American Negro Theatre (ANT) and performed for the company for 11 years, appearing in multiple productions, including Phillip Yudan’s Anna Lucasta which moved to Broadway and became the longest-running all-Black play in Broadway history. In 1949, Childress began her writing career with her first play, Florence, which she directed and starred in, and which reflected many themes that would be prominent in her later writing: the empowerment of Black women, interracial politics and working-class life. The success of Childress’ works and their resonance with the public allowed her to bring Harlem’s first all-union Off-Broadway contracts into practice. Trouble in Mind, Childress’ first full-length, dramatic play, ran for 91 performances at Stella Holt’s Greenwich Mews Theatre in 1955 and was heading for a Broadway debut, but these plans fell through when Childress refused to change the play’s ending, at the request of white Broadway producers. Had it opened, Trouble in Mind would have been the first play by an African American woman to open on Broadway (a title taken by A Raisin in the Sun four years later). In 2021, Roundabout Theatre’s acclaimed revival of Trouble in Mind brought the show to Broadway, where it was nominated for four Tony Awards. Other plays by Childress include Gold Through the Trees (1952), Wedding Band (1966), String (1969), Young Martin Luther King, Jr. (1968), Wine in the Wilderness (1969), Mojo: A Black Love Story (1970), When the Rattlesnake Sounds (1975), Let’s Hear It for the Queen (1976), Sea Island Song, later retitled Gullah (1977), Moms: A Praise Play for a Black Comedienne (1987).

BRANDON J. DIRDEN (CAESAR WILKS) recently appeared on Broadway starring in the Tony Award winning production of Take Me Out and Skeleton Crew for which he received a Drama Desk nomination.  He also appeared on Broadway as Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Tony Award-winning production of All the Way, with Bryan Cranston, as ‘Booster’; the Tony Award winning revival of August Wilson’s Jitney; Clybourne Park; Enron; and Prelude to a Kiss. Off-Broadway, he has appeared in The Piano Lesson, for which he won Obie, Theatre World and AUDELCO awards; The First Breeze of Summer and Day of Absence at Signature Theatre; Detroit ’67 at the Public Theater and Classical Theatre of Harlem; Peter and the Starcatcher at New York Theatre Workshop; and as ‘Brutus’ in TFANA’s production of Julius Caesar. On screen he has appeared in “The Good Wife”, “For Life”, “Evil”, “The Big C”, “Public Morals”, “Manifest”, “The Get Down”, “The Accidental Wolf”, “Blue Bloods“, “The Quad”, the FX miniseries “Mrs. America” and four seasons of FX’s “The Americans” as Agent Dennis Aderholt. He has directed numerous plays by Dominique Morisseau and August Wilson and recently Wine in the Wilderness by Alice Childress for Two River Theater. Brandon is an Associate Arts Professor on the faculty of Tisch Grad Acting at NYU; a frequent volunteer at the 52nd Street Project; and a proud member of both Actor’s Equity Association and Fair Wage On Stage.    

ALEX MURPHY (ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER) (he/him/they) returns to Two River Theater after Stage Managing the world premiere of Kate Hamill’s adaptation of The Scarlet Letter. Previous Two River Theater credits include: Two Sisters and a Piano, Wine in the Wilderness.  Regional: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer the Musical, Justice at War (Coterie Theatre); A Christmas Carol, Still Ready (Actors Theatre of Louisville), American Prophet (Arena Stage). National Tour: The Prom. Off-Broadway: The Harder They Come, Romeo and Bernadette, Two’s a Crowd. Alex was the Resident Stage Manager for Kansas City Actors Theatre in Kansas City, MO, for three seasons, working on such productions as Death and the Maiden, And Then There Were None, and Skylight. 

Nikiya Mathis (WIG DESIGNER)

RICHARD H. MORRIS JR. (Scenic Designer) is a Cleveland, Ohio based Scenic and Lighting designer. Recent designs include, Two Trains Running, Pittsburgh Public Theatre,  Bourbon at the Border, Allegheny Play Shop theatre, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Karamu House.  Mr Morris has designed Scenery for over 150 Productions,  and was the recipient of the 2011 National Black Theatre Festival award for “Outstanding Achievements in Scenic Design”. In 2013, Mr Morris was  Keynote Speaker at Alabama State University on African Americans In Scenic Design.  He is currently Technical Director/Resident Scenic Designer for Weathervane Playhouse in Akron Ohio.  Mr. Morris’ Scenic and Lighting Designs have been seen at Akron School of Performing Arts, Ensemble Theatre Cleveland, Cleveland Public Theatre, Oberlin College Theatre, Dobama Theatre, Akron Civic Theatre, and  Rabbit Run Theatre. Mr. Morris holds a B.A. in Scenic and Lighting Design from Kent State University.

Kathy A. Perkins (LIGHTING DESIGNER) has designed lighting for Broadway (Trouble in Mind), Off-Broadway, and regional theatres such as American Conservatory Theatre, Arena Stage, Berkeley Repertory, Seattle Repertory, St. Louis Black Repertory, Alliance, Goodman, Steppenwolf, Baltimore Center Stage, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, New Federal Theatre, Mark Taper, Yale Repertory, Actors Theatre of Louisville, People’s Light, and Playmakers Repertory.

As a scholar, she is the editor of seven anthologies focusing on women both nationally and internationally, including Selected Plays: Alice Childress.  She is a senior editor of the Routledge Companion to African American Theatre and Performance. 

Kathy has traveled to nearly fifty countries as both designer and lecturer and is the recipient of numerous research and design awards, including Ford Foundation, Fulbright, National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and an NAACP Image Award.  She received the 2021 United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) Distinguished Achievement Award for both Education and Lighting Design.

In 1995, Kathy co-curated ONSTAGE: A Century of African American Stage Design at New York’s Lincoln Center.  In 2016 she served as theatre consultant for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture inaugural exhibition Taking the Stage.

In 2007 she was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Theatre. She received her BFA from Howard University and her M.F.A. from the University of Michigan.

Kathy is faculty Emerita at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

KAREN PERRY (Costume Designer) previously designed August Wilson’s King Hedley II, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Jitney, Two Trains Running, Seven Guitars and Radio Golf at Two River, as well as Love in Hate Nation, Oo-Bla-Dee, Lives of Reason, Your Blues Ain’t Sweet Like Mine, Guadalupe in the Guest Room, Third and Trouble in Mind. Her most recent credits include Run-Boy-Run & In Old Age (New York Theatre Workshop), Mothers (Playwrights Realm), Jazz (MTC), Lackawanna Blues with Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Mark Taper Forum), Fun Home (Baltimore Center Stage), Steel Magnolias, Hair, Dreamgirls (DTC), Oklahoma! (Houston Ballet at TUTS) and Cinderella Ballet (Eglevsky Ballet Company). Other credits include Danai Gurira’s Familiar (Woolly Mammoth, Guthrie, Seattle Rep), Cabin in the Sky (Encores!), Pearl Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky (Pasadena Playhouse), John Grisham’s A Time to Kill, dir. Ethan McSweeny (Arena), Crowns, stop. reset, Trinity River Trilogy by Regina Taylor (Goodman, STC, DTC/Arena), The Trip to Bountiful, Walter Mosley’s The Fall of Heaven, dir. Marion McClinton (Cincinnati Playhouse), The Brother/Sister Plays by Tarell McCraney, dirs. Tina Landau and Robert O’Hara (The Public/McCarter), Having Our Say by Emily Mann (McCarter), and Resurrection by Daniel Beaty (Arena). She has designed every play in August Wilson’s American Century Cycle except Fences. Film/TV credits include Gregory Hines Show, Saturday Night Live, and The Brother from Another Planet by director John Sayles. Wine in the Wildness is proudly Karen’s 14th production with TRTC. Currently: Raisin in the Sun @ the Public Theater.

Caity Mulkearns (ASSOCIATE COSTUME DESIGNER) is excited to kick off her 10th Season working with Two River Theater! Broadway: Lackawanna Blues. West End: Mad House. Off-Broadway: A Raisin in the Sun (Public Theater), The Alchemist, The Government Inspector (Red Bull Theater), The Headlands (LTC3), SEARED (MCC) The Thanksgiving Play, Noura (Playwrights Horizons). Tour: RENT JAPAN, RENT National US Tour, Small Mouth Sounds, Underground Railroad Game. Regional: Other World: A New Musical; Two River Theater, New York City Dance Alliance.  MFA from Rutgers University and avid self-taught baker.

Kay Richardson (SOUND DESIGNER) is a two-time Suzi Bass nominated Sound Designer and Audio Engineer. Wine in the Wilderness marks Kay’s return to the Two River family. Regional Theatre designs include: The Hound of the Baskervilles at Alpine Theatre Project in Whitefish, MT, August Wilson’s Radio Golf and King Hedley II at Two River Theatre in Red Bank, NJ, Eclipsed at Synchronicity Theatre, Thurgood at Theatrical Outfit, Between Riverside & Crazy, Smart People, Fetch Clay Make Man and Gut Bucket Blues at Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company all in Atlanta, GA. Additional design work includes: A Man of No Importance, Spring Awakening, The Colored Museum, A Song for Coretta, and Seven Guitars. Kay has toured in all 50 of the United States and in over 45 countries mixing live sound for musicals and concerts. Currently she is the Sound Supervisor at Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts in Princeton, NJ.

KAJA DUNN (INTIMACY AND MOVEMENT) is delighted to return to Two River Theatre, she is a multi-hyphante artist, scholar and intimacy professional. Resident Intimacy and Cultural Consultant for Folger Theatre, and associate professor at Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. Intimacy work includes: Broadway: A Strange Loop (Assoc. Intimacy Director); Television: The Best Man, Final Chapters, Harlem, Mayor of Kingstown, The Equalizer. Two River Theatre: Wine In The Wilderness; Folger Theatre: The Winter’s Tale, Our Verse In Time To Come, Metamorphoses,  The Reading Room; Arena Stage: American Prophet; Denver Center for the Arts: Choir Boy, 5th Ave; ACT Theatre (Seattle): Choir Boy; St. Louis Rep.: Private Lives, Confederates; Penumbra Theatre: Sugar In Our Wounds;Awards: Kennedy Center American Theatre Award, Playwrights Project Excellence in Arts Education; Publications: Intimacy Coordinator’s Guidebook, Arden Contemporary Shakespeare, Intimacy Direction For Theatre, Theatre Symposium, HowlRound, Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (UK). This winter she will be directing Lauren Gunderson’s new world premier at the Folger Theatre and Cincinnati Rep. Her favorite role is mom to Ian, Zeke and Auggie.