Fisher Center LAB/Civis Hope Commission
A work-in-progress reading of a libretto by Suzan-Lori Parks
Inspired by Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha
Directed by Steve H. Broadnax III
Photos: Scott Joplin c/o Encyclopædia Britannica; Suzan-Lori Parks by Tammy Shell
July 11–13
“Now that we free
Who we gonna be?”
Join us in the LAB for a special first glimpse of a musical in the making, the first of Fisher Center LAB’s Civis Hope Commissions.
Replete with dancing bears and bags of luck, and set on the day after the Emancipation Proclamation, Jubilee joyfully asks what the world might become when all people are truly free. Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks (Topdog/Underdog) has drawn inspiration from Scott Joplin’s 1910 ragtime opera Treemonisha to create a magical, hilarious, and timely fable about a young woman who leads her community out of adversity and into a new way of being.
This staged reading of Suzan-Lori’s libretto for Jubilee, commissioned by Fisher Center LAB, offers audiences a rare opportunity to engage directly with the development of a major new musical, which the Fisher Center will premiere as a full production in the near future.
The Sunday, July 13 performance of Jubilee—as well as the postshow talk—will be ASL-interpreted. For more information, please contact the Box Office by phone at 845-758-7900 or via email at [email protected].
Dear Friends,
A warm welcome to the opening of SummerScape 2025, which begins with two major works by leading contemporary artists—Pastoral, a world premiere created by our choreographer in residence Pam Tanowitz with composer Caroline Shaw and artist Sarah Crowner, and a preview staged reading of the libretto of Jubilee, a new musical inspired by Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha, with book and lyrics by Suzan-Lori Parks and directed by Steve H. Broadnax III.
Both projects were incubated and produced by Fisher Center LAB—our residency and commissioning program and will have significant futures beyond Bard. We’re thrilled to have you in the very first audiences to encounter them. Both also exemplify the Fisher Center’s dedication to supporting contemporary artists as they develop projects that are rooted in works of the past (in this case, Beethoven’s “Pastoral” symphony and Scott Joplin’s opera Treemonisha), and which call to the future.
Pastoral is Pam Tanowitz’s third SummerScape premiere. Over the ten years of her collaboration with the Fisher Center, she has developed a well-deserved reputation as one of the world’s finest choreographers. Her dances are serious and playful, fiendishly complex but lovingly human. She is well matched by Caroline and Sarah, both leaders in their fields, whose works are inspired by curiosity and invention. Watching their collaboration grow has been a delight, and we can’t wait to share it with you.
Suzan-Lori Parks is likewise among the most inventive and acclaimed playwrights of our time. From The America Play and Topdog/Underdog to the Father Comes Home from the Wars trilogy and Sally and Tom, her plays investigate questions of American history and personhood with a formal daring and theatricality that is breathtaking. She has been developing Jubilee “in the LAB” for several years, and we’re excited to offer you a window into her creative process this summer, in advance of a full production in a future edition of SummerScape.
Jubilee is also the first of the Civis Hope Commissions, a major new program at the Fisher Center, supported by the Civis Foundation, that commissions new works that investigate and transform items from the American archive to explore the subject of hope. We are grateful to Civis for their visionary philanthropy and to all of you who make our work possible.
The festival continues with a rare production of Smetana’s opera Dalibor, with the Bard Music Festival, which this year explores the life and work of Bohuslav Martinů, and of course with the beloved Spiegeltent. We look forward to welcoming you back to other performances this summer, and thank you for joining us.
Best wishes,
Gideon Lester
Artistic Director and Chief Executive
It seems like in America these days, we are all having to decide who we’re going to be. Being free is often taken for granted, and aside from “free,” who are we? Who’s going to be invited in? Who’s going to be kept out? Who’s going to be respected? Who’s going to be cherished? Who’s going to be included? Who’s going to be allowed to belong? Whose ways are going to be seen as important and valid, and whose ways are going to be seen as the stuff that needs to be discarded and discounted?
I’m setting Jubilee, my reimagining of Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha, at the dawn of a very important era for all Americans: January 1, 1863, when the majority of enslaved people in this country were being granted their freedom. They’re moving forward! It’s a celebration! And it’s complicated.
Thank you for joining us!
| Treemonisha | DeWanda Wise |
| Monisha | Portia |
| New-Ned | Brian Marable |
| Remus | Alano Miller |
| Lucy/Lala | Crystal Lucas-Perry |
| Andy/Arlo/Bear | Derrick Sanders III |
| Zodzetrick/Zak Parson AllTalk |
Wendell Pierce |
| Luddud/Ruth | Trezana Beverley |
| Cephus/Calvin/Bear | Leland Fowler |
| Simon/Sally | Patrice Johnson Chevannes |
| Librettist | Suzan-Lori Parks |
| Director | Steve H. Broadnax III |
| Lighting Designer | Stacey Boggs |
| Casting Director | Taylor Williams |
| Stage Manager | Jason Kaiser |
The Actors and Stage Managers employed in this production are appearing through an Agreement between this theater and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers.
Suzan-Lori Parks (Librettist) is a multi-award-winning American writer and musician. She is the first African-American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Topdog/Underdog, which recently enjoyed its twentieth-anniversary Broadway revival and won the 2023 Tony Award. Other notable plays include Sally & Tom (2024), Plays for the Plague Year (Drama Desk Best Music, 2023), and Father Comes Home From the Wars (2014). Parks’ first marathon writing “diary play” 365 Days/365 Plays—in which she wrote a play a day for an entire year—was produced at more than seven hundred theaters worldwide, creating one of the largest grassroots collaborations in theater history. A MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, her novel Getting Mother’s Body is published by Random House. She also writes extensively for the screen, most recently as the showrunner/executive producer/head writer for the television show Genius: Aretha. She is an alumna of New Dramatists and of Mount Holyoke College, where she studied creative writing with James Baldwin, who encouraged Parks to begin writing for the theatre. In her spare time, Parks also writes songs and fronts her band SLP & The Joyful Noise.
Steve H. Broadnax III (Director) Thoughts of a Colored Man (Broadway), Suzan-Lori Parks; Sally and Tom at the Guthrie Theatre and The Public in New York (World Première); Katori Hall’s 2021 Pulitzer Prize Première The Hot Wing King at The Signature Theatre; Lee Edward Colston’s The First Deep Breath at Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles and Chicago’s Victory Garden Theatre (Premiere and Winner of Jeff Awards Best New Work); Dominique Morisseau’s Sunset Baby at The Signature Theatre (NYC); Blood at the Root at the National Black Theatre (Winner of Kennedy Center’s Hip Hop Theater Creator Award); and William Jackson Harper’s Premiere Travisville at NYC Ensemble Studio. He is a member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre and serves as the Artistic Director at Arkansas Rep as well as a Professor of Theatre at Penn State University, where he is Co-Head of MFA Directing.
DeWanda Wise (Treemonisha) most recently made her Geffen Debut with Furlough’s Paradise. Other stage credits include the world premiere of Fireflies at Atlantic Theater Company, originating the role of “Nina” in Dominique Morisseau’s Sunset Baby with Labyrinth Theater, Flight directed by Liesl Tommy at City Theatre, Race at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, In the Continuum at Playmakers Rep, Sundown Names and Night Gone Things with Negro Ensemble Company, and As It Is In Heaven at The Cherry Lane. Recent film credits include the Sundance hit Love, Brooklyn, Blumhouse horror film Imaginary, and Chris Pine’s directorial debut Poolman. Previous credits include Jurassic World Dominion, Someone Great, The Harder They Fall, and Fatherhood, among others. TV: Three Women, Twilight Zone, She’s Gotta Have It, Shots Fired, and Underground. BFA; NYU’s Tisch School of The Arts.
Portia (Monisha) Theater: A Mother (Baryshnikov Arts Center) Another Shot (Pershing Square) Redwood (Ensemble Studio Theatre) To Kill A Mockingbird (Broadway), Stew (Walkerspace, World Premiere, Pulitzer Finalist), The Rose Tattoo (Broadway), Rinse, Repeat (Pershing Square Linney Theatre), Ruined (MTC/Geffen Playhouse), McReele (Roundabout Theatre Company), Regional/International: The Master’s Tools (Wien Festwochen, Vienna Austria) A Midsummer Night’s Dream In Harlem (Pittsburgh Public Theater) Film: This Will Never Work, Lapsis, All The Little Things We Kill, Skin, From Nowhere, St. Vincent, The Greatest, The Messenger, Please Give. Television: Diarra From Detroit, New Amsterdam, Big Dogs, Madam Secretary, Bull, She’s Gotta Have It, The Blacklist.
Brian Marable (New-Ned) Steppenwolf: The Book of Grace; Detroit Public Theatre: Clyde’s, Detroit 67, Skeleton Crew, Pipeline, Paradise Blue, Mud Row, Thurgood; Baltimore Center Stage: Detroit ’67; The Old Globe and People’s Light Theater: Skeleton Crew; People’s Light Theater: Thurgood; Irish Classical Theatre: Thurgood; Studio Theatre: Hot Wing King; Performance Network: The Mountaintop, The Piano Lesson; Purple Rose Theatre Company: Superior Donuts; Tipping Point Theatre: Driving Miss Daisy. Film: Have a Little Faith, The Citizen, Standing in the Shadows of Motown. Television: Low Winter Sun. Education: Howard University.
Alano Miller (Remus) is a versatile actor who moves effortlessly across genres on both stage and screen. Miller can most recently be seen in the hit TV series, The Morning Show (Apple TV+), and in DMZ, directed by Ava DuVernay (HBO Max), opposite Rosario Dawson. He can also be seen in the reboot of Dexter, entitled Dexter: New Blood, where he plays the role of Logan. Previously, he starred as Evan in Ava DuVernay’s anthology series Cherish the Day and as the immensely complicated character of Cato in the hit WGN America series Underground, in a performance described as “fabulous” and “a revelation.” The Hollywood Reporter listed Alano as one of the 30 Best Supporting Actors To Watch Out For, recognizing his work on the acclaimed series. Alano also stars as Raymond Green in Focus Features’ critical darling, Loving by Jeff Nichols. His performance garnered him a 2017 NAACP Image Award nomination.
Other film credits include playing Lacy Parker opposite Tessa Thompson in the Sundance hit, Sylvie’s Love. Other TV credits include starring as twins Roman and Aaron Zazo in the CW critically acclaimed and Golden Globe Award winning show, Jane the Virgin; playing the role of Montague in Atlanta‘s most popular episode, “B.A.N;” and guest appearances on The Red Line, NCIS, Battle Creek, Stalker, Person of Interest, Golden Boy, Ironside, Vegas, Damages, How to Make it in America and Royal Pains. Theater credits include roles asMalcolm King in Nathan Louis Jackson’s Broke-ology at Lincoln Center, Cory in August Wilson’s Fences, G.H. in Richard Wright’s Native Son, and starring in The Brother/Sister Plays trilogy written by Oscar-winning playwright, Tarell Alvin McCraney.
Crystal Lucas-Perry (Lucy/Lala) Broadway: Ain’t No Mo’ (Tony Award Nomination/Dorian Award Winner), 1776 (John Adams). Off-Broadway: The Great Privation, Soho Rep; A Sign of the Times (Audelco Award Nominee), New World Stages; A Bright Room Called Day (Antonyo Award nomination), The Public Theater; Ain’t No Mo’ (Lucille Lortel Award Winner), The Public Theater; Bull in a China Shop, Lincoln Center Theater; Little Children Dream of God, Roundabout Theatre. Regional: Taming of the Shrew (Petruchio), Chicago Shakespeare Theater. TV: Law and Order: SVU (Aneeka Coleman); And Just Like That… (Angelica); The Last O.G. (T’era). Film: Goodnight Mommy (Sandy Liddell), Amazon Studios; Frank and Azalee Austin (Azalee, Craft Acting Award); Never Can Say Goodbye (Shayna Nadal), Brohawk Films. Education: Tisch Graduate Acting M.F.A., New York University.
Derrick Sanders III (Andy/Arlo/Bear) is thrilled to be reading the role of Andy. A recent graduate of the Penn State BFA Acting program, Derrick made his professional theatre debut in Washington, D.C., in Studio Theatre’s 2022 production of Katori Hall’s The Hot Wing King, in the role of Everette. Other highlight roles include Ed Boone in The Curious Incident Of The Dog in the Night-Time, DeAndre in Dominique Morisseau’s Blood at the Root, and Mason Adams in Kimberly Belflower’s John Proctor is the Villain. He extends heartfelt thanks to his mentor, director, and Penn State Professor Steve H. Broadnax III, for his guidance and unwavering encouragement. He also sends his gratitude to his family and friends for their constant support. Follow Derrick and learn more on Instagram @_onlyderrick.
Wendell Pierce (Zodzetrick/Zak/Parson AllTalk) is a prolific, award-winning actor with a body of work on stage, television, and film that spans more than three decades. He currently portrays Captain C.W. Wagner in the critically acclaimed CBS drama Elsbeth, for which he received an AAFCA TV Honor and a Critics’ Choice Celebration of Black Cinema and Television Actor Award. He is also a recurring character, Ishmael “Snaps” Henry, on Starz’s Power Universe’s Raising Kanan.
Universally hailed for his portrayal of Det. Bunk Moreland on HBO’s groundbreaking series The Wire, Pierce was also praised for his starring role as Antoine Baptiste on David Simon’s critically acclaimed series Tremé and as James Greer in the Amazon Originals Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan alongside John Krasinski.
On film, Wendell recently made his Marvel Universe feature film debut in Thunderbolts* and will next be seen this summer in the James Gunn/DC Warner Bros feature Superman. He will also be featured in Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, which premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and will premiere this fall.
Pierce returned to Broadway in 2022 for a limited engagement to reprise his portrayal of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, for which he received a Tony Award nomination for Lead Actor in a Play.
Trezana Beverley (Luddud/Ruth) is the recipient of a Tony Award for her acting work in the Broadway show For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf. She is also a director, writer, and educator who has enjoyed directing and teaching at The Juilliard School and Purchase College. Recent acting credits include King Lear (as a man) at Southwest Shakespeare Festival; Eleanor Roosevelt (Eleanor and Alice) at Urban Stages, NY, and Nana Jackson (Lady Sitting) at The Arden Theater, Philadelphia. She is the author and performer of her one-woman show Mabel Madness. Recent directing credits include Animal Farm and The Mannequin Diaries.
Leland Fowler (Cephus/Calvin/Bear) Off-Broadway: Sally & Tom, Plays for the Plague Year, Henry V, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Public); This Land Was Made (Vineyard); one in two (The New Group); Novenas for a Lost Hospital (Rattlestick); If Pretty Hurts, Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka (Playwrights Horizons); Measure for Measure (TFANA). Leland has also performed at Williamstown, Dorset Theatre Festival, St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, Westport Country Playhouse, McCarter Theatre Center, Yale Rep, and Alliance Theatre. TV credits include City on a Hill. BA: Morehouse College; MFA: Yale School of Drama. Leland is a member of the Actor’s Center.
Patrice Johnson Chevannes (Simon/Sally) Broadway: Racing Demon, The Crucible. Off-Broadway: Endgame, (Irish Rep; Lortel nomination); I’m Revolting, The Homecoming Queen, Halfway Bitches Go Straight To Heaven (Atlantic Theater Company; Audelco nominaition); The Half God of Rainfall, runboyrun & In Old Age (NYTW; Drama Desk, Drama League noms); Steel Hammer (BAM); Henry V (The Public); Tamburlaine, Pericles, Coriolanus (TFANA); Good Grief (Vineyard Theatre); Mies Julie (CSC). Regional: Othello, opposite Sir Patrick Stewart (Shakespeare Theater), The Grove (Huntington), Familiar (Yale Rep). TV/FILM: Undertow, Chambers, POSE, Shrill, EVIL, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The First Lady, The Good Fight. FACULTY: The New School (School of Drama), Speech coach at Columbia University. @patricejohnsonchevannes.
Stacey Boggs (Lighting Designer) is an award-winning lighting designer whose works include City Lyric Opera’s Blackwater, Savior, and La Traviata; Experiments in Opera’s Everything for Dawn and Public; and Montclair University Opera’s La Calisto. She has co-designed with Lucrecia Briceno for Fandango for Butterflies (and Coyotes). Stacey’s other designs include Amp (Winner NYIT Best Lighting Design), Tick, Tick…Boom!, Guys and Dolls, and The Miracle Worker. She has designed for Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Toshi Reagon, Joyce DiDonato, and many others at Carnegie Hall. She has designed with choreographers Bill T. Jones, Dianne McIntyre, Doug Varone, and Christopher Wheeldon. She graduated from NYU’s Graduate Design for Stage and Film. Proud member of USA 829. staceyboggs.com
Jason Kaiser (Stage Manager) Jubilee is Jason’s 26th project at Bard. Select credits: Urban Bush Women’s SCAT! (Bard premiere); Cats: the Jellicle Ball; Grenfell: in the words of survivors (St. Ann’s); Trisha Brown Dance Company tour; Bark of Millions (Sydney Opera House, tour); Monsoon Wedding (St. Ann’s); Kiki & Herb: SLEIGH (BAM); Social! and Party in the Bardo (both at Park Avenue Armory); Oklahoma! (Broadway, St. Ann’s); Taylor Mac’s A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (St. Ann’s, tour); Available Light with Lucinda Childs Dance Co.; Einstein on the Beach (BAM, tour); three world-premiere plays by Athol Fugard. Up next: House of McQueen (premiere at Hudson Yards).
Special thanks to Jason Baruch, Olivier Sultan, Christopher Robinson, and Pro Bono ASL.
The Fisher Center is generously supported by Carolyn Marks Blackwood and Gregory H. Quinn, Jeanne Donovan Fisher, the Martin and Toni Sosnoff Foundation, Felicitas S. Thorne, Andrew E. Zobler, the Advisory Board of the Fisher Center, Fisher Center members and general fund donors, The Shubert Foundation, Smokler/Hebert Family Fund, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
Fisher Center LAB is funded by the Lucille Lortel Foundation and the Fisher Center’s Artistic Innovation Fund, with lead support from Rebecca Gold and additional funding from The William and Lia G. Poorvu Family Foundation.
Major development support for Jubilee has been received from the Fisher Center’s Hope Commissions Fund, generously endowed by the Civis Foundation and Bard College.
Additional developmental support was received in part from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Foundation.
Founded in 1913, Actors’ Equity Association (AEA) emerged from the need to protect the rights and livelihoods of professional stage actors and stage managers in the American theater. In its nearly 110-year history, Equity has championed fair wages and working conditions, notably through its historic 1919 strike, and has consistently advocated for performers’ rights, including efforts against discrimination and in support of civil rights within the industry. Equity’s influence extends beyond contractual negotiations, encompassing programs that foster the art of live theater and provide a wide range of benefits and support to its over 51,000 members.
| Dresser | Sam Bogan |
| Associate Production Manager | Jane Briguglio |
| Deckhand | CLAC ’26 |
| LUMA Head Electrician | Ivy Comer |
| Electrician | Jesse Dewane |
| Electrician | Harry Enriquez |
| A2 | LeeAnn Epstein |
| Lighting Supervisor | Josh Forman |
| Electrician | Dale Gibbons |
| Electrician | McKinley Gray |
| Light Board Programmer and Operator, Electrician | Anna Heath ’27 |
| Electrician | Avery Hudgins ’26 |
| Audio Engineer | Duane Lauginiger |
| Electrician | Olivier Lubin |
| Wardrobe Supervisor | Parker Nelson |
| Dresser | Vinny Rossi |
| Electrician | tobin santoro |
| Electrician | Conor Thiele |
| Electrician | Katie Thorn |
| Electrician | Tim VanEtten |
| Deckhand | Ross Werner Winslow ’25 |
Nearby villages and towns in the Hudson Valley boast a large selection of restaurants, as well as a variety of hotels, motels, inns, and bed & breakfasts.
Eat & StayBard College’s main campus is located in Annandale-on-Hudson (a hamlet of Red Hook), New York, on the east bank of the Hudson River, about 90 miles north of New York City and 220 miles southwest of Boston. The Taconic State Parkway and the New York State Thruway provide the most direct routes to our campus. Click the Google map below, or get directions by entering the following address into your GPS: 60 Manor Avenue, Red Hook, NY 12571.
From the East
If you are traveling from east of the Hudson River in New York State, take the Taconic State Parkway to the Red Hook / Route 199 exit, drive west on Route 199 through the village of Red Hook to Route 9G, turn right onto Route 9G, drive north 1.9 miles, turn left onto Annandale Road, then turn right onto Manor Ave.
From the West
If you are traveling from west of the Hudson River, take the New York State Thruway (I-87) to exit 19 (Kingston), take Route 209 (changes to Route 199 at the Hudson River) over the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge to Route 9G, turn left onto Route 9G, drive north 3.5 miles, turn left onto Annandale Road, then turn right onto Manor Ave.
LUMA Theater
Accessible Seating
Wheelchair-accessible seating is available at all performances. Due to the flexible nature of this performance space, wheelchair seating varies for each production.
Wheelchair-Accessible Restrooms
Restrooms at all locations are wheelchair accessible. Single-use restrooms are available at most locations.
All-Gender Restrooms
Bard College and the Fisher Center support guests of any gender identity/expression in using the restroom of their choice. Additionally, all-gender restrooms are available at all venues.
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