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Theater Program of ��Ӱֱ�� and Haverford Colleges presents Gruesome Playground Injuries

Directed by Akeem Davis

Friday–Sunday, Nov. 12-14, 2021
Thursday–Saturday, Nov. 18-20, 2021
All performances at 7:30 p.m.
Hepburn Teaching Theater, Goodhart Hall

Gruesome Playground Injuries by Rajiv Joseph is the fast-paced, intense story of Kayleen and Doug, two characters whose intertwined histories and romantic tension play out over scenes that span different ages in their lives. Bouncing between grade school interactions and adult clashes, the play races toward a desperately consequential final reckoning in their lives. An ensemble of actors will bring this poignantly turbulent story to life by not only inhabiting the two characters at their varied ages but shifting the stage to create the different settings of their lives. 

The Creative Team

Mark Lord and Catharine Slusar, Producers
Akeem Davis, Director
Celia Child (BMC '22), Stage Manager
Maiko Matsushima, Set and Costume Designer
Thom Weaver, Lighting Designer
Jordan McCree, Sound Designer
Justin McDaniel, Technical Director
Henry Bradford (HC '15), Assistant Technical Director
Amy Radbill, Production Manager and Props Designer
Kimiye Maeshiro (BMC '23), Graphic Designer

Cast

Miles DeClue, BMC '22
Seun Eisape, BMC '24
Freya Marr-Johnson, BMC '23
Michael McCarthy, HC '24
Lillian Moffat, BMC '22
Kanicha Nulkahir, BMC '25
Regan Riehl, BMC '24
Eliza Waterman, BMC '22

About the Writer and Director

, of Miami, Fla., is a Philadelphia-based actor and educator. He is a six‐time Barrymore Award nominee, recipient of the 2015 F. Otto Haas Award for Emerging Artist, and a nominee for Theatre Washington's Helen Hayes Award. His roles at Philadelphia's Arden Theater include Tiny Beautiful Things (a stage version of Cheryl Strayed's bestselling book), Ibsen's A Doll’s House (Barrymore Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor), and August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean. When a scheduled Arden role in A Streetcar Named Desire was postponed due to the pandemic, Davis pivoted to appear in Lantern Theater’s virtual play reading of Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona. He has also performed at People’s Light and Theater, Theatre Horizon, InterAct Theatre, Theatre Exile, and the Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival. Akeem, who is from Miami, is a graduate of Florida State University and a man of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.

's play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo was awarded a grant for Outstanding New American Play by the National Endowment for the Arts. Rajiv’s New York productions include Animals Out of Paper (Second Stage Theatre, summer 2008), The Leopard and the Fox (Alter Ego, fall 2007), Huck and Holden (Cherry Lane Theatre, 2006), and All This Intimacy (Second Stage Theatre, 2006). In Los Angeles Huck and Holden was produced by The Black Dahlia Theatre in 2006. Through the Lark Play Development Center, Rajiv has traveled to Mexico and Romania, where Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo was translated into Spanish and Romanian, respectively, and performed in staged readings. Rajiv has been awarded the Paula Vogel Award by the Vineyard Theatre and the 2009 Kesselring Fellowship. Rajiv is a Founding Member of the new New York based theater company The Fire Department and was a contributing writer on their first two theatrical events, Speakeasy and At War: American Playwrights Respond to the War in Iraq. He is a former Lark Playwriting Fellow and Dramatists Guild Fellow. His plays have been published by Samuel French, Dramatists Play Service, and Smith & Kraus. He received his B.A. in Creative Writing from Miami University and his M.F.A. in Playwriting from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and he is currently a Language Lecturer at NYU with the School of Art and Public Policy and the Expository Writing Program. He served for three years in the Peace Corps in Senegal, West Africa.

“Rajiv Joseph is an artist of original talent.” —NY Times.