Tonight’s (11/21) preview performance of THE WIZARD OF OZ  will begin at 8:00pm.

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2023-2024 Season

FIREFLIES

Presented by Pamela Friedman and Ronald Bailey; Sponsored by The City of Charlottesville Department of Social Equity

About This Show

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.    


Cast

Arianna Jones as Olivia

Simeon Brown as Charles

Christiana Mitchell as Olivia U/S

Kieryn Burton as Charles U/S

Production Team

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


Virginia Premiere

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.  

Study Guide

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

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