29 March - 20 April, 2024
Director: Ti Ames
Part Two of Donja R. Love’s "The Love* Plays" trilogy, which explores Queer love through Black history, FIREFLIES centers on the Civil Rights Movement. A story of endurance and empowerment with language that is rich, rhythmic, and riveting.
Arianna Jones as Olivia
Simeon Brown as Charles
Christiana Mitchell as Olivia U/S
Kieryn Burton as Charles U/S
Ti Ames - Director
Khadijah Williams - Production Stage Manager
Kieryn Burton - Assistant Stage Manager
Bee Smith - Scenic Designer
Ant Ma - Mentor (Scenic Design)
AV Légere - Props Designer/Set Dressing
Laurence Hugo - Lighting Designer
John Holdren - Sound Designer
Kasey Brown - Costume Designer
Daniel Kunkel - Fight Choreographer
Laura Rikard - Intimacy Consultant
Before the lights come up in FIREFLIES, we hear the insects humming, then see them flying in a bright red sky, and hear a repetitive boom … boom … boom. It’s the fall of 1963 and four Black children have just been killed in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Olivia is the speechwriter for, and force behind, her charismatic husband. As the galvanizing leader Reverend Charles Emmanuel Grace returns home, we witness their marriage at crisis point as secrets are laid bare.
Check out the study guide here to learn more about Donja R. Love, the true events that inspired the show, and a look at the Civil Rights movement.
“A jaw-dropping and explosively dramatic two-hander … Love crafts an intimate story that comes to feel cosmic in its enormity by the end.” – TheaterMania.com
