Milk Like Sugar
October 13-November 27, 2011 By Kirsten Greenidge
Directed by Rebecca Taichman
With potential for more but nowhere to put it, sixteen-year-old Annie’s got a choice: honor the pregnancy pact she made with her friends, or find the path to a brighter future. In this searing, sharply observant new play, Kirsten Greenidge finds savage humor and gritty poetry in one inner-city girl’s struggle to carve out a life beyond the only one she knows.
“REMARKABLE … Milk Like Sugar is one of the works of art for which 2011 will be remembered.” – Variety
“A TERRIFIC CAST. With their tart backchat and slangy humor, the high school girls played with beaming verve by Cherise Boothe, Angela Lewis, and Nikiya Mathis are a delight to watch. THE GREAT TONYA PINKINS gives a sensational, frame busting performance, biting into the humor with ferocious intensity.” – The New York Times
“Smart and unsettling and remarkably acted drama that makes a noteworthy New York debut for the author. Rebecca Taichman directs a fine-tuned production and topflight cast.” – NY Daily News
Kirsten Greenidge
(Playwright) is the author of the plays Bossa Nova (Yale Rep); The Luck of the Irish (Huntington Theatre Company); Rust (Magic Theatre); The Curious Walk of the Salamander, Sans-Culottes in the Promised Land (Actors Theatre of Louisville); 103 Within the Veil and The Gibson Girl (Company One, Moxie). She has developed her work at Sundance (Utah and Ucross), Magic Theatre, National New Play Network, Cardinal Stage, South Coast Repertory, Madison Rep, Page 73, Hourglass, Bay Area Playwrights, Playwrights Horizons, New Dramatists, The Mark Taper Forum, A.S.K., The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Guthrie Theater, Mixed Blood, McCarter Theatre Center, Humana Festival of New American Plays, Moxie Theatre and New Georges. She is the recipient of a Huntington Theatre Playwriting Fellowship, an NEA/TCG residency at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and was recently Playwright-in-Residence at Company One. Ms. Greenidge has also received Sundance’s Time Warner Award for Bossa Nova. She attended Wesleyan University and The Playwright’s Workshop/University of Iowa and is a member of New Dramatists and Rhombus. Recipient of Aspen Theater Masters’ Visionary Playwright Award. (As of October 2011)
Rebecca Taichman
(Director): NEW YORK: Off-Broadway: LCT3: Luck of the Irish by Kirsten Greenidge; Playwrights’ Horizons: Milk Like Sugar by Kirsten Greenidge ; Classic Stage Company: Orlando by Sarah Ruhl; Music Theater Group/Gotham Opera at John Jay: Dark Sisters music by Nico Muhly libretto by Stephen Karam (world premiere),; Orpheus by Telemann at New York City Opera; Second Stage: The Scene by Theresa Rebeck ; The Ohio Theatre: Menopausal Gentleman (Special Citation Obie Award/world premiere). Upcoming: Gotham Opera:Rappacinni’s Daughter. REGIONAL: Upcoming: Old Globe: Time and the Conways; Yale Repertory Theater & American Repertory Theater: Marie Antoinette (world premiere), by David Adjmi; La Jolla Playhouse; Sleeping Beauty Wakes , Milk Like Sugar (world premiere); Oregon Shakespeare Festival: She Loves Me; Shakespeare Theater Company:A Winter’s Tale, Cymbeline, Twelfth Night (Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Resident Play) & Taming of the Shrew; McCarter Theatre: A Winter’s Tale, Twelfth Night; Sleeping Beauty Wakes book by Rachel Sheinken, music and lyrics by Groove Lilly; Woolly Mammoth: Dead Man’s Cell Phone by Sarah Ruhl (world premiere), The Clean House by Sarah Ruhl (Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Resident Play); Yale Repertory; The Evildoers by David Adjmi (world premiere), Iphigeneia at Aulis by Euripides; The Huntington: Mauritius by Theresa Rebeck (world Premiere); The Humana Festival: The Scene by Theresa Rebeck (world premiere); The Prince Music Theatre: The Green Violin by Elise Thoron with music by Frank London (2003 Barrymore Award for Outstanding Direction of a Musical – world premiere); The Market Theater: Swimming in March by Kate Robin (world premiere); Curently co-creating new piece Vengeance in collaboration with Paula Vogel for OSF and Yale Repertory Theater (As of March 2013).
Cherise Booth
(Talisha) is thrilled to be making her Playwrights Horizons debut! Ms. Boothe was recently seen performing the role of Talisha in the World Premiere of Milk Like Sugar at La Jolla Playhouse. New York theater credits include Ruined (original cast: Goodman/Manhattan Theatre Club, Intiman/Geffen Playhouse; 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama); August Wilson’s 20th Century (Kennedy Center); Ohio State Murders (TFANA; Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Revival); King Hedley II (Signature); A Christmas Carol (McCarter); The Blacks (Classical Theatre of Harlem); Huck & Holden (original cast: Cherry Lane); The Book Club Play, Insurrection: Holding History (BTF); Blues for an Alabama Sky (BTF/Actors Theatre). Film/TV: Inside Man (dir. Spike Lee), Then She Found Me (dir. Helen Hunt), The Wool Cap (w/Keke Palmer and William H. Macy), “Everyone’s Hero” (animation), “The Good Wife,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Gossip Girl.” NYU Graduate Acting Program. (As of October 2011)
Angela Lewis
(Annie) is thrilled and honored to be the first to realize Annie in the World and New York Premieres of Milk Like Sugar. Her Off-Broadway credits include: Pidgeon (Ensemble Studio Theater); The Brother/Sister Plays and Unconditional (The Public Theater); Inked Baby (Playwrights Horizons); The Tempest (Brave New World Theatre Company); Sand (Women’s Project); and Hoodoo Love (Cherry Lane Theatre, Audelco Award Nomination, Best Lead Actress). Ms. Lewis is a graduate of the University of Michigan (B.F.A.) and a member of the LAByrinth Theater Company. (As of October 2011)
Nikiya Mathis
(Margie): Her recent credits include the World Premiere of The Brother/Sister Plays: Shun in In the Red and Brown Water and Shaunta Iyun in Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet (The Public Theater, McCarter Theatre); Maima in Eclipsed (McCarter Theatre, In Festival); Juliet/Tybalt/Benvolio in The Continuum Company’s Romeo and Juliet (Villa La Pietra, Italy); Latonya in Seed (Classical Theater of Harlem workshop); Maime in Intimate Apparel (Two River Theater); Laura in The Glass Menagerie (New Century Theater); Sliding into the Beast (Continuum Company). Ms. Mathis’s film credits include Compliance and Knucklehead. M.F.A. from NYU Graduate Acting Program. (As of November 2011)
LeRoy McClain
(Antwoine): Broadway: Cymbeline, The History Boys. Selected Off-Broadway: Born Bad, Measure for Measure, Othello, The Good Negro, Oroonoko, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Huck & Holden and In Search of Stanley Hammer. International: Othello. Selected regional: August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson (Connecticut Critics Circle Award, Best Actor), Antony & Cleopatra, The Whipping Man, The Good Negro, Blue/Orange, Elmina’s Kitchen, Othello, Trouble in Mind, The Comedy of Errors, Rough Crossing, Richard II, Three Days of Rain, Private Eyes, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Like Sun Fallin’ in the Mouth, The Taming of the Shrew, King Lear, Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella and Twelfth Night. TV/Film: The Happy Sad, “Rubicon” (recurring), The Adjustment Bureau, “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “Guiding Light” (recurring), Breaking In, The Stage and After. Education: M.F.A. Yale School of Drama, Loyola Marymount University, Royal National Theatre Acting Studio (London). (As of October 2011)
J. Mallory-McCree
(Malik): Recent credits include: (Film) The Last Keepers, We Need to Talk About Kevin and Recreator (Cannes, 2011), White Sugar in a Black Pot, Real Talk; (TV) “Law & Order”; (Theatre) Samuel K. in Samuel J. & K. (Passage Theatre, NJ); Marcus in Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet (Studio Theatre, DC); Victor Tate in Zooman and the Sign (Signature Theatre, NYC); Player in Colored People’s Time (Midtown International Theatre Festival, NYC); Doey in The Etymology of Bird (Summerstage, NYC). Training under the artistic direction of the late Israel Hicks at Rutgers University, J. received his B.F.A. in Theatre Arts. He also received classical training at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, England. Member of the Negro Ensemble Company. Many blessings to the cast and crew of Milk Like Sugar! (As of September 2011)
Adrienne C. Moore
(Keera) is excited to be at PH for the first time. She recently starred as Angel Unaware in Daniel Beaty’s Tearing Down the Walls (Riverside Theatre). Other New York credits include Suzan-Lori Parks’ 365 Plays/365 Days (The Public Theatre); The 24 Hour Plays (Lucille Lortel); Hattie McDaniel in Opening (Sam French Festival; winner, Best Play); Countess of Rossillion in All’s Well That Ends Well; Mrs. Rummel in Pillars of Society; and Tituba in The Crucible. Regional credits include The Women + War Project (7 Stages Theatre). M.F.A., The New School for Drama. (As of October 2011)
Tonya Pinkins
(Myrna) Broadway: Radio Golf; Caroline, or Change (Olivier, Tony Award nominations); The Wild Party; Play On (Tony nomination); Chronicle of a Death Foretold; Jelly’s Last Jam (Tony Award); Merrily We Roll Along. New York Shakespeare Festival, Public Theater: Caroline, or Change (Obie Award, Audelco Award); All’s Well That Ends Well; Measure for Measure; The Merry Wives of Windsor. TV/Film: “Army Wives,” “24,” Enchanted, “All My Children.” Next Fall, Ms. Pinkins will reunite with Play On playwright Cheryl West for Pullman Porter Blues at the Seattle Repertory Theatre. Founder of The Actorprenuer Attitude, author of Get Over Yourself: How to Drop the Drama and Claim the Life You Deserve. (As of October 2011)
MILK LIKE SUGAR with Cherise Boothe, Angela Lewis, and Nikiya Mathis
Photo by Ari Mintz
MILK LIKE SUGAR with Nikiya Mathis, Cherise Boothe, Angela Lewis, and LeRoy McClain
Photo by Ari Mintz
MILK LIKE SUGAR with Angela Lewis, Cherise Boothe, and Nikiya Mathis
Photo by Ari Mintz
MILK LIKE SUGAR with Angela Lewis, Cherise Boothe, and Nikiya Mathis
Photo by Ari Mintz
MILK LIKE SUGAR with Angela Lewis, Cherise Boothe, and Nikiya Mathis
Photo by Ari Mintz
MILK LIKE SUGAR with Angela Lewis and J. Mallory-McCree
Photo by Ari Mintz
MILK LIKE SUGAR with Tonya Pinkins and Angela Lewis
Photo by Ari Mintz
MILK LIKE SUGAR with J. Mallory-McCree and Angela Lewis
Photo by Ari Mintz
MILK LIKE SUGAR with Adrienne C. Moore and Angela Lewis
Photo by Ari Mintz
MILK LIKE SUGAR with Adrienne C. Moore, Cherise Boothe, Nikiya Mathis, and Angela Lewis
Photo by Ari Mintz
