Rehearsals are underway for the world premiere of Danai Gurira’s The Convert at McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, NJ, January 13 through February 12, 2012 (press opening: January 20). Directed by Emily Mann, The Convert is produced in association with Center Theatre Group (Los Angeles) and The Goodman Theatre (Chicago). The cast features Pascale Armand, Cheryl Lynn Bruce, Zainab Jah, Kevin Mambo, LeRoy McClain, Warner Joseph Miller, and Harold Surratt.
Set in 1895 in the region that would become Zimbabwe, The Convert tells the story of a girl forced to choose between her family’s traditions and the Christian faith and Western values she has embraced. Born in the U.S. and raised in Zimbabwe, Gurira has a unique perspective and distinctive voice have created a compelling new play filled with humor and compassion.
“Danai’s voice is unique among American Playwrights due to the experience she brings as an individual who has spent much of her childhood in Zimbabwe,” says Emily Mann. “Her dual perspectives allow her to integrate an important part of Africa’s history into American culture in a way that is both extraordinarily accessible to us and completely authentic. I firmly believe that this play will become part of the new American repertoire.”
Ms. Gurira notes, “The Convert is part one of my cycle on Zimbabwe and Zimbabwean identity. In the play I go back to the inciting incident: when Zimbabwe became a colony and the first uprising against the colonial structure occurred.
The concepts of ownership and cultural identity, right and wrong and moral ideals, and of course questions of faith and Christian identity -- all these things still flood who we are today. The Convert was really exploring all of that in myself...I felt the need to explore my own Zimbabwean identity and the country as a whole the only way I know how, which is through dramatic writing.”
Danai Gurira, an award-winning Zimbabwe-American actor and playwright, co-created and performed in the award-winning two-woman play In the Continuum, which premiered off-Broadway and toured the U.S. and Southern Africa. For her work on that production, Ms. Gurira won a 2006 Obie Award, the 2006 Outer Critics John Gassner Award, and the 2004 Global Tolerance Award (Friends of the United Nations), in addition to being honored by the Theatre Hall of Fame. Ms. Gurira was most recently seen in the Shakespeare in the Park production of Measure for Measure, the acclaimed film The Visitor (with Oscar-nominated actor Richard Jenkins), and on Broadway in Lincoln Center Theater's production of Joe Turner's Come and Gone. Her play Eclipsed, about Liberian women in war, was developed at McCarter, and had productions at Woolly Mammoth, CTG's Kirk Douglas, and Yale Rep. Eclipsedwon Best New Play at the 2010 Helen Hayes Awards and Ms. Gurira won Best Playwright at the 2011 NAACP Theater Awards. She was the recipient of '08 TCG New Generations travel grant for Eclipsed and has taught playwriting and acting in Liberia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. For The Convert, Ms. Gurira was named recipient of the 2011 Barrie and Bernice Stavis Playwriting Award by The National Theatre Conference. She is a Hodder Fellow at Princeton University.
