[1] The year of the drama continues as Actors Theatre introduces the next installment in artistic director Les Waters’ debut season.
First, there was the tragic (and well-staged) Romeo and Juliet [3]. Next came Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night. Then, the gritty True West [4]came across the boards.
Now, Actors Theatre brings to life another dramatic tale, The Whipping Man, a play that opened off-Broadway in 2011 starring Andre Braugher (remember Homicide: Life on the Street [5]?)
Written by Matthew Lopez [6], The Whipping Man tells of a Jewish Confederate soldier at the end of the Civil War. He comes home to find that he has lost everything—except two of his family’s slaves who still live on his land.
Says director Meredith McDonough, “Matthew’s play is where history ends and life begins…[the] play is set in the background of an enormous moment in history. It is a very human story of what freedom means to this family, the responsibilities that come with that and how difficult and complicated that can be.”
The Whipping Man features three newcomers to Actors Theatre, including Frankie J. Alvarez, who has appeared in NBC’s Smash, and Michael Genet, who may be familiar to audiences as Lamar Griffin, from As the World Turns, a role he held for six years.
The Whipping Man is sponsored by Brown-Forman and runs January 8th through February 2nd. Tickets start at $30 and can be purchased online [7] or by calling the Actors Theatre box office at 502-584-1205.
Actors Theatre offers several discount ticket offers which can be seen here [8].
Image: Courtesy Actors Theatre