So, everyone is probably familiar with Danai Gurira, the actress who plays "Michonne" on "The Walking Dead" . . .
But what you may not know is that Danai is also an accomplished playwright. Her play, "Eclipsed," follows the lives of a group of women during the last civil war in Liberia.
When "Eclipsed" was playing at the Yale Repertory Theater, Lupita understudied one of the leads while studying at Yale Drama, but she never got to go on.
(The one on the left is Adepero Oduye, who won raves, Oscar buzz, and a spot on the Vanity Fair Hollywood issue cover as the star of the film Pariah, about about a closeted, Brooklyn teen struggling with her sexuality, family, relationships, and gender identity)
Fast Forward to 2015 and Lupita will reprise the role proper. "Eclipsed" is going to have a run at the Public Theater in NYC.
Danai, Lupita, and "Eclipsed's" director Liesl Tommy sat down with the NYT for a Q&A
Danai on "Eclipsed" finally coming to NYC . . .
Quote:
I got to see it done in other countries. It was done twice in South Africa, it was done in Zimbabwe. It was just done in London. It’s always been kind of thrilling to see how it’s been rebirthed in different places. But New York is the mecca, and it never got to touch here.
Lupita on why she’s returning to the stage . . .
Quote:
I did a lot of expressing of myself during the campaign for “12 Years,” and I needed to get back to who I was as a performer, as an actor, as a beginner. The thing about winning a prestigious award is that in a sense you’re being told that you’re an expert. But when you play a role, you’re always a beginner. And I love the communal experience of theater, of getting to really go deep and to play with other people and create together.
I grew up in a country and in a world that consumed a lot of Western popular culture, and so I was starved for stories about people like me. This seemed like a prime opportunity to do a story about Africans that also really allowed me to stretch myself, to experience totally different circumstances from the ones I grew up in.
Liesl on why "Eclipsed" is special . . .
Quote:
One thing about “Eclipsed” is that we save ourselves in this play. No white person, no American, no aid worker or U.N. person comes in, which has generally been what audiences have wanted to see in the past. I think with this play what we’re teaching folks is that there are plenty of interesting stories that happen on the vast continent of Africa, and that you can relate to them without seeing yourself, your race, or a version of yourself in it.
Designers get ready. Looks like these ladies are going to need dresses for the Tonys .
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