The Harold Clurman Laboratory Theater Company is returning to live production following a four-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, has announced the Los Angeles premiere of Pipeline by Dominique Morisseau, directed by HCLAB associate artistic director Bryan Keith, at the Art of Acting Studio in Hollywood. Running for 12 performances only, the cast will feature (in alphabetical order) Lou Acosta, Jon Gentry, Fadia Carmelle Marcelin, Nate Memba, Jennifer Sorenson, Ariana Sucar, and Omari Williams. Opening is set for Wednesday, August 2, at 8pm, and the show will run Wednesday thru Saturday at 8pm through Saturday, August 19.
Morisseau’s hard-hitting drama takes a deep look into the American educational system for underprivileged students. Nya is an inner-city high school teacher desperate to give her son opportunities that her students will never see. When a controversial incident at his upstate private school threatens to get him expelled, Nya must confront his rage and her own choices as a parent. Pipeline won the 2016 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award and received its world premiere in the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center in 2017.
Set design is by Johnny Patrick Yoder, lighting design is by Raymond Jones, costume design is by Aja Morris-Smiley, and sound design is by Carter Dean. The stage manager is Cristina Glezoro.
Dominique Morisseau‘s other plays include Detroit ’67, Sunset Baby, Blood at the Root, Paradise Blue, and Skeleton Crew, among others. She received a MacArthur Fellowship (also known as the ‘Genius Grant’) in 2018, she was named an honoree for the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award, which recognizes plays and performance texts created by women that present a feminist perspective and contain significant opportunities for female performers, and she is a two-time winner of the NAACP Image Award. She was on the list of Top 20 Most Produced Playwrights in America in 2015–16, when there were 10 productions of her plays happening nationwide. She was a story editor and co-producer for the Showtime series Shameless, and she wrote the book for the Broadway musical Ain’t Too Proud—The Life and Times of the Temptations. She was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical, becoming only the third Black woman to do so.
Bryan Keith is the associate artistic director of the Harold Clurman Laboratory Theater Company. An actor and director, he began his professional work in The Production Office for The Muny in St. Louis for executive producer Paul Blake. He co-founded and was the artistic director for a non-profit theatre company in LA from 2008–15, producing new and established works. TV and film acting credits include Agents of Shield, Shooter, The Mick, Days of Our Lives, Dedication (Cannes Film Festival), ConSINsual (Prime Video), Recognition. Selected theatre credits: Medal of Honor Rag (STL Actors Studio), Hamlet (St. Louis Shakespeare), Down the Road (LA), The Woolgatherer. Directing credits include Thom Pain (based on nothing) in the 2022 Hollywood Fringe Festival, a staged reading of Invisible by Douglas Lyons, (IAMA Theatre New Works Festival); Motherf*cker with the Hat, In the Blood, and Our Lady of 121st Street, (all at Art of Acting Studio); We Are Proud to Present… (Third Culture Theatre Company). Other directing credits: Intimate Apparel, The Play about the Baby, The Shape of Things, bash: latterday plays, A Raisin in the Sun, Jack and Jill, Two Rooms. He recently directed Dutchman for Leo Rising Theatre Co.
Tickets are $18 in advance and may be purchased online at https://cloud.broadwayworld.com/rec/ticketclick.cfm?fromlink=2248944®id=9&articlelink=https%3A%2F%2Fweb.ovationtix.com%2Ftrs%2Fpr%2F1166054?utm_source=BWW2022&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=article&utm_content=bottombuybutton1 or by phone at (323) 601-5310. Thirty minutes prior to curtain, remaining seats are Pay What You Can. The Harold Clurman Laboratory Theater is located at the Art of Acting Studio, 1017 N. Orange Drive in Hollywood, 90038.
