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By Lynn nottage | DIRECTED BY eric ruffin

 

About


Two-time Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur Genius Award recipient Lynn Nottage’s satirical tale that follows successful African-American publicist Undine, as she stumbles down the social ladder after her husband steals her hard-earned fortune. Broke and now pregnant, Undine is forced to return to her childhood home in the projects, where she must face the realities of the life she left behind. Penned with “the firecracker snap of unexpected humor" (New York Times), Fabulation reveals the folly of outrunning where we come from, and the challenge of returning home.​

Read the letter from Ari Roth, Founding Artistic Director

Lead Underwriters: Leonade Jones with The Capital Group Companies Charitable Foundation

 

AUG 21–SEPT 22, 2019

Runtime: 2 hours with one intermission. 
This production contains profanity, drug use, and sexual content.

 

Creative Team


 
Andrew Cohen
Set Designer

OFF-BROADWAY: The Lincoln Center: Where Words Once Were; 59E59: Occupied Territories. REGIONAL: Studio Theatre: Murder ballad [Helen Hayes Award Nomination for Outstanding Set Design]; Folger Theatre: King John, Olney Theatre Center: The Crucible, Theatre J: The Jewish Queen Lear, Broken Glass; Mosaic Theater Company of DC: Satchmo at the Waldorf, Marie and Rosetta; Kennedy Center TYA: Earthrise, Darius & Twig; Imagination Stage: Charlotte's Web, Anatole: Mouse Magnifique, A Year with Frog and Toad; Theater Alliance: Flood City, Still Life with Rocket; MFA in Scenic Design from University of Maryland. www.andrewcohendesigns.com

Christylez Bacon
Rhythm/Musical Consultant

Christylez Bacon (pronounced: chris-styles) is a GRAMMY® Nominated Progressive Hip-Hop artist and multi-instrumentalist from Southeast, Washington, DC. As a performer, Christylez multi-tasks between various instruments such as the West African djembe drum, acoustic guitar, and oral percussion, while continuing the oral tradition of storytelling through his lyrics. In 2011, Christylez began a cross-cultural collaborative concert series in Washington, DC, “Washington Sound Museum” (WSM). WSM is a monthly intimate celebration of music featuring guest artists from diverse musical genres. Christylez has collaborated with artists from various cultural backgrounds, ranging from the Hindustani & Carnatic music of India, the contemporary Arabic music of Egypt, and the music of Brazil. Christylez is constantly pushing the envelope – from performances at the National Cathedral, to becoming the first Hip-Hop artist to be featured at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, and collaborating with the National Symphony Orchestra on numerous occasions.

John D. Alexander
Lighting Designer

John D. Alexander is excited to work with MTC again after having done Marie & Rosetta directed by Sandi Holloway. Recent designs include: HERstory (The John F. Kennedy Center); Topdog Underdog (Avant Bard); A Civil War Christmas (1st Stage) and Skeleton Crew (Theatre Squared). OFF-BROADWAY: Migration: Reflections on Jacob Lawrence (New Victory Theater). Upcoming designs include: Royale (Theatre Squared); Paradise Blue (Detroit Public Theatre); Airness (Keegan Theater & 1st Stage) and Drumfolk (New Victory Theater). He also serves as the lighting supervisor for Urban Bush Women’s national tour of Hair and Other Stories and is a part-time lighting instructor at Duke Ellington School of the Arts. He holds a BFA in Lighting Design from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

Kim James Bey
Dialect Coach

Regional: Woolly Mammoth: The Convert; Everyman: The Brothers Size, A Raisin in the Sun; Arena Stage: Ruined (Helen Hayes Award: Outstanding Resident Play), Cuttin’ Up, The Goat, or, Who is Sylvia?, Piano Lesson; Studio Theatre: Invisible Man, Passing Strange, In the Red and Brown Water; Round House Theatre: Once on this Island (Helen Hayes nomination: Outstanding Resident Musical); Ford’s Theatre: Necessary Sacrifices, Tonya Pinkins in Black Pearl Sings! (Helen Hayes nomination: Outstanding Lead Actress); TheatreJ: The Call, In Darfur (Helen Hayes award: Outstanding Lead Actress); African Continuum: Intimate Apparel, …Young Lady from Rwanda (Helen Hayes nomination: Outstanding Lead Actress); Adventure Theatre: Three Little Birds, Mirandy and Brother Wind. Education: M.F.A. Rutgers University; Certified Associate Teacher Fitzmaurice Voicework. Teaching: Howard U

Moyenda Kulemeka
Costume Designer

Moyenda Kulemeka is a costume designer based in the DC area. Recent credits include: The Brothers Size (1st Stage); A Raisin in the Sun (Caine Lyric Theatre); Like Water for Chocolate, In the Time of the Butterflies, and La Foto: A Selfie Affair (GALA Hispanic Theatre); Tinker Bell (Adventure Theatre); Singin’ in the Rain, Fallen Angels, and East of Eden (NextStop Theatre Co.); Tilting, and Ad Nauseam (The Catholic University of America); Macbeth, Pericles, and The Dog In The Manger (We Happy Few Theatre Co.) among others. Moyenda holds a B.A. in Theatre from the University of Maryland. Upcoming productions include Trying (1st Stage), and Life is a Dream (GALA Hispanic Theatre) www.moyenda.wix.com/design

Faedra Chatard Carpenter
Dramaturg

Faedra Chatard Carpenter is a freelance dramaturg and an associate professor of theatre and performance studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. She has served as a production and/or development dramaturg for a number of theatre companies, including: Mosaic Theater Company, Baltimore Center Stage, Theater J, Arena Stage, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Theater Alliance, the African Continuum Theatre Company, and Crossroads Theatre Company. Dr. Carpenter’s scholarly analysis can be found in a number of anthologies and peer-reviewed journals and she is the author of the award-winning book, Coloring Whiteness: Acts of Critique in Black Performance.

Cresent R. Haynes
Sound Designer

Cresent Haynes is a freelance Sound Designer for Theatre, and a freelance Live Audio Engineer. ‘DC Metro Theater Arts’ once described her sound design as, “an omniscient, foreboding force, ambitious in scope…” While living in Los Angeles, Cresent embarked on a new journey; Sound for Film/TV. Including on-location recording/mixing, post-audio editing and Foley art. You can find more of her credits on IMDB. She has aspirations to one-day design for Broadway and tour with various performing artists as their live sound engineer, while still doing Sound for Film/TV. Cresent has recently started her own production company, ‘Emitted Visions Entertainment’.

April E. Carter*
Stage Manager

April E. Carter is from Washington, DC and was raised in Columbia, Maryland. With over 25 years of work, some of her local credits include, Fabulation (Mosaic Theater), Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Day (Adventure Theatre), The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (Adventure Theatre MTC), The Shipment (Forum Theatre), Thoroughly Modern Millie, Jr. (Adventure Theatre MTC), just to name a few. April is also the Assistant Production Manager and Casting Director at Mosaic. She is a proud graduate of Howard University (97’) were she received her B.F.A in Theatre with a concentration in Musical Theatre.

Willow Watson
Properties Designer

Willow Watson is a freelance props and scenic designer based out of Washington, DC and a William R. Kenan Jr. Fellow at the Kennedy Center. Previous prop designs with Mosaic include Native Son, Sooner/Later, and Fabulation Or, The Reeducation of Undine.. Recent scenic designs in the DC Area include The Laramie Project at Studio 39 and the Capital Fringe Curates Series. More information available at www.willowscenic.com.

Laurel VanLandingham*
Take Over PSM

Laurel VanLandingham is a freelance, AEA stage manager in the DC area, who moonlights as a stage technician, Diva flyer, bus builder and pusher, puppet maker, and wardrobe supervisor. She is excited to be back with Mosaic Theater Company. Her most recent credits include: Director of Logistics for the Staunton Music Festival, Fabulations (Mosaic Theater, Stage Manager), Sooner/Later (Mosaic Theater, Production Stage Manager), Shame (With Comments from the Populace) (Mosaic Theater, Production Stage Manager), Agitators (Mosaic Theater, Production Stage Manager).

Rashida Bumbray
Movement Consultant

Rashida Bumbray is an accomplished performance artist, choreographer, and curator whose artistic practice draws from traditional African-American vernacular and folk forms, including ring shouts, hoofing, and blues improvisation. Like Zora Neale Hurston and Katherine Dunham, Bumbray brings a curatorial/ethnographic lens to her work. Bumbray collaborates with musicians and visual artists; she is in an ongoing collaboration with Simone Leigh that is inspired by Isamu Noguchi and Martha Graham’s collaborative efforts. Her performances have been presented by Tate Modern, the New Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harlem Stage, Project Row Houses, and SummerStage.

Jared Smith
Assistant Director

Jared Smith is an actor, director, and aspiring playwright. A graduate of the Mississippi School of the Arts, Jared was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame. Jared has played as Lord Ingram in Jane Eyre, Don Pedro in The Rover, Doc Porter in Crimes of the Heart, and Richard in Richard III. At MSA he directed Agamemnon and Death and the Kings Horseman. Jared was one of three Artistic Directors for for the 2018 Black History Program. He currently is a sophomore year at Howard University. As a freshman, he participated in the 2018 Howard Players 8x10 play festival, where one of his plays received 2nd place. Jared is eager to begin his career in the DC theatre scene.

 

Press


“Felicia Curry is a force-of-nature” 

“With its stinging satirical precision and looming awareness of risk and loss, Fabulation is never just a fable.”

The Washington Post

“Fabulation combines hilarity with heartfelt honesty with show-stopping performances—and it’s an outright joy.”

“Fabulation is fabulously funny. Just go.”

DC Theatre Scene

 

“ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ”

DC Theatre Scene

“Nottage wrings sardonic humor and a clarion ring of truth”

MetroWeekly

 

Media