ABOUT ABANDON

Luella is alone – haunted by the ghost of her son. Joshua is alone – kicked out of his house by his brother. One winter night these two people collide. Luella is looking for redemption; Joshua is looking for family. By the next morning, these two lonely souls are meshed together into an American Family in its truest sense. A world premiere by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright James Ijames, Abandon is sometimes violent, sometimes healing; with a gossamer veil that separates the worlds of the living and the dead, and shame and acceptance.

Melanye Finister (Luella, she/her) is an artist and resident company member at People’s Light, a member of Wilma Hothouse, and an artistic advisory board member at PlayPenn. People’s Light: The Diary of Anne Frank, The Matchmaker, All My Sons, Fences, The Winter’s Tale, Seven Guitars, The Return of Don Quixote, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Something You Did, Fabulation, and The Member of the Wedding. Theatre Includes: Wilma Theater, Arden Theatre Company, Flashpoint Theatre Company, InterAct Theatre Company, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Venture Theatre, Temple Theaters and Walnut Street Theatre. Training: BFA, Carnegie Mellon University.

Brenson Thomas (Gabriel, he/him) is a Black and queer writer, actor, and theatre-maker. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College’s MFA Theatre program, his plays include how i got over, or…red Kool-Aid stains on bubblegum lips; What We Lost & Never Knew; and How We Return, an upcoming commission for Constellation Stage & Screen in Bloomington, IN. Brenson also writes for TV/Film, most recently on Emmy Award winner Lena Waithe’s Twenties on BET. As a performer, Brenson has collaborated with Tony Award Winner Stew, Raja Feather Kelly, Lightning Rod Special in The Appointment (FringeArts/Next Door at NYTW; Barrymore Nominee for Outstanding Ensemble in a Musical), Arden Theatre Company in the world premiere of R. Eric Thomas’ Backing Track, and Into the Woods, and with 1812 Productions for This is the Week That Is: 2020, and the Wilma Theater. When he’s not hunched over his laptop crying about blank Google docs, Brenson enjoys long walks around his beloved Philly, doing bad accents, smashing patriarchal white supremacist structures, and Beyoncé.

FOR TICKETS AND INFORMATION: https://theatreexile.org/shows/abandon/

On today’s podcast, playwright Emily Acker,  who you may know as a founding member of Orbiter3, talks about Azuka Theatre’s world premiere of “Boycott Esther”, an urgent response to the #metoo movement. We discuss the pros and cons of social media,  and conversations that shaped the piece. Here’s my conversation with Emily Acker.