Trinity Repertory Company announces the workshop of A Seat at the Table, the new play about civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer who risked her life to register black voters in the segregated South. The work is penned by nationally celebrated, multiple award-winning playwright and actress Regina Taylor. The workshop is part of a new partnership between the Brown/Trinity M.F.A. programs and Rites and Reason Theatre at Brown University, part of the University’s Department of Africana Studies, which develops innovative theatrical forms rooted in Africana cultural traditions and expressions.
The week-long workshop will begin on November 27, culminating in an invited reading on December 2, 2017.
Regina Taylor is best known for her portrayal of housekeeper Lilly Harper in the 1991 TV series I’ll Fly Away, which earned her a Golden Globe award for Best Actress, an NAACP Image Award, and two Emmy nominations. As a stage actress she boasts an impressive resume of both classical and contemporary theater, including being the first black woman to play Shakespeare’s Juliet on Broadway in 1986. As playwright, Taylor’s portfolio includes Oo-Bla-Dee (American Critics’ Association New Play Award) and Drowning Crow, produced on Broadway by Manhattan Theatre Club in its inaugural season. Ms. Taylor is a Distinguished Artistic Associate at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre.
