Performances are now underway for the Manhattan Theatre Club production of Donja R. Love's drama Sugar in Our Wounds, part of the playwright's trilogy of plays that explores queer love at pivotal moments in Black history. Watch highlights from the Off-Broadway production, which opens June 19, in the video above.
In Sugar in Our Wounds, a mystical tree stretches toward heaven and protects James, a young slave living on a plantation. When a brooding stranger arrives, James and his makeshift family take the man in—the start of an unexpected bond and striking romance.
Sugar in Our Wounds is playing at The Studio at Stage II – Harold and Mimi Steinberg New Play Series at New York City Center, where it began performances June 5.
Saheem Ali directs a cast made up of Sheldon Best as James, Stephanie Berry as Aunt Mama, Fern Cozine as Isabel, Tiffany Rachelle Stewart as Mattie, and Chinaza Uche as Henry.
Love is a poet, filmmaker, and playwright. He is The Lark's 2016 Van Lier New Voices Playwriting Fellow, The Playwrights Realm's 2016-2017 Writing Fellow, the 2016 Arch and Bruce Brown Playwriting Award recipient, and a Eugene O'Neill 2017 National Playwrights Conference finalist. His plays include The Love Plays (Sugar in Our Wounds, Fireflies, in the Middle) and Soft; Or the Dead N---- Poem.
The creative team for the world premiere of Sugar in Our Wounds is made up of Arnulfo Maldonado (scenic design), Dede Ayite (costume design), Jason Lyons (lighting design), Palmer Hefferan (sound design), Michael Thurber (original music), Darrell Grand Moultrie (movement), and Cookie Jordan (hair and makeup design).
