Join us at the Balch Arena Theatre at Tufts University or virtually on Saturday, April 15th at 2pm for a workshop reading of Morning, Noon, and Night, a new play by C1 Resident Playwright Kirsten Greenidge. Drawing from Greenidge’s experiences with absurd realism, Morning, Noon, and Night follows the relationship between Mia and her daughter Dailyn as they navigate generational conflict, fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, familial reckoning, and social media’s omnipresent role in modern society.
This workshop reading will be directed by C1’s Associate Artistic Director and Co-Founder Summer L. Williams and stage managed by Liz Diamond, with dramaturgy by C1's Director of New Work Ilana M. Brownstein and performances by Christa Brown, Jennifer Brown, Rachel Cognata, Becca A. Lewis, and Chance Walker.
Morning, Noon, and Night was commissioned by Company One Theatre as part of the National Mellon Foundation Resident Playwright Program through HowlRound. C1 is committed to developing this play towards a world premiere in 2024.
>> About the Artists
Christa Brown (she/her) – Miss Esther
Christa is a Black, queer storyteller, actor, and public speaker with a passion for bringing under-explored stories to life. Her recent performance credits include: Suffrage in Black and White with Plays in Place, Wolf in Snakeskin Shoes with the Front Porch Arts Collective, An Education in Prudence with Open Theatre Project, Both/And with Catalyst Collaborative at MIT/Central Square Theater, and Revolt.She Said.Revolt Again with Company One Theatre.
In 2019, Brown founded the Free Soil Arts Collective in Lowell, MA, as a means to bridge the gap for opportunities for artists of color in the Merrimack Valley. She’s the recipient of the 2022 New England Foundation for the Arts’ Newell Flather Award for Leadership in Public Art, and named as one of WBUR’s The Makers in 2022, a cohort of 15 emerging artists of color making an impact in Greater Boston. Christa holds a B.F.A. in Theater Performance from Longwood University, and a Certificate in Nonprofit Management and Leadership from the Institute for Nonprofit Practice. Follow her on Instagram @choice2bhappy.
Jennifer Brown (she/her) – Chloe
Jennifer Brown is a queer biracial actress, singer, and photographer. She attends Tufts University and plans on double majoring in Theatre and Biology. While she spends most of her time as an actress, Jenny’s currently training to be a stage manager and hopes to continue her passion for directing and photography as a part of Tufts’ TUTV club, creating music videos. Jenny has been a part of numerous theatrical productions in recent years; some of her favorite roles include Dani in The Interrobangers (Tufts University), Medea in Ben Power’s Medea, and Marci in Almost, Maine (Hall’s Black Box Theatre, West Hartford, CT). One of her goals in theatre is to create a space where your race, sexual orientation, and gender doesn’t limit the roles individuals dare to portray. To continue to encourage diversity and originality, and to create the same magical feeling for young people of color as she felt when she first saw Whitney Housten in the 1997 Cinderella. She would like to thank Company One for this fantastic opportunity!
Ilana M. Brownstein (she/her) – Dramaturg
Ilana M. Brownstein is the Director of New Work at C1, and a parent-artist specializing in new plays, social justice, and public advocacy. She is the Founding Dramaturg at Playwrights’ Commons. Previously, she created the Playwriting Fellows program and Breaking Ground Festival at The Huntington; led the dramatic literature and dramaturgy curriculum at Boston University for 10 years; and has served as a freelance dramaturg for new play festivals, including The O’Neill, New Harmony, and the Kennedy Center among others. Dramaturgy with C1 includes works by Kirsten Greenidge, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Young Jean Lee, Aditi Kapil, Natsu Onoda Power, Lauren Yee, Mia Chung, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Josh Wilder, Kristoffer Diaz, A. Rey Pamatmat, Qui Nguyen, and Idris Goodwin. She is the senior dramaturg for the C1 PlayLab program, which has provided script and professional development to 60+ playwrights over 11 seasons. She is a member of the 2019 NAS Creative Community Fellows Cohort, artEquity’s 2017 anti-racism facilitator cohort, and holds an MFA in Dramaturgy from Yale. Ilana has been a Kilroys nominator, served on the National Advisory Board for HowlRound, and is a two-time winner of the LMDA Elliott Hayes Award for excellence in dramaturgy.
Rachel Cognata (she/her) – Mia
Rachel’s recent credits include: VOICE - Isolated Incidents (Broadway Podcast Network/Rattlestick Playwrights), Echoes (Huntington Theatre) STAGE - Gloria: A Life (American Repertory Theatre), Hype Man, Greater Good, and Really (Company One Theatre); Cardboard Piano (New Repertory Theatre); The Book Club Play (Boston Playwrights Theatre). A graduate of both the Boston Arts Academy and Tufts University, Rachel is from Boston, MA and currently resides in Columbus, OH.
Liz Diamond (they/them) – Stage Manager
Liz is thrilled to once again be joining Company One in a new play production. Recent credits with Company One include their VoltLab Showcase, can i touch it?, and Black Super Hero Magic Mama. Liz is very grateful to once again be working in New Plays and is delighted to be working alongside friends and colleagues in Boston.
Kirsten Greenidge (she/her) – Playwright
Kirsten Greenidge’s work presents African American experiences on stage by examining the nexus of race, class, and gender. Kirsten is currently an Artist-in-Residence at Company One Theatre in Boston Massachusetts, where she helps run Company One’s playwriting program, PlayLab. She is the author of Baltimore, a commission from the Big Ten Consortium at the University of Iowa, which toured to the National Black Theatre Conference; Bud Not Buddy, an adaptation of the children’s novel by Christopher Paul Curtis, with music by Terence Blanchard, which will be produced this winter at Metro Stage Company in St. Louis; The Luck of the Irish (Huntington Theatre Company; LTC3); and Milk Like Sugar (La Jolla Playhouse; Women’s Theatre Project; Playwright’s Horizons), which was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award and received an Independent Reviewers of New England Award, and San Diego Critics Award, and an OBIE Award. She is a 2016 winner of the Roe Green Award for new plays from Cleveland Playhouse for Little Row Boat; or, Conjecture, a play about Sally Hemings, James Hemings, and Thomas Jefferson, commissioned by Yale Rep. Her play As Far As a Century’s Reach toured to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August, after being part of the Royal Exchange’s B!RTH Project. She is a proud author of Audacity, part of Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Every 28 Hours Plays, and she’s enjoyed development experiences at Family Residency at the Space at Ryder Farm, the Huntington’s Summer Play Festival, Cleveland Playhouse (as the 2016 Roe Green New Play Award recipient), The Goodman, Denver Center Theatre’s New Play Summit, Sundance, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Sundance at Ucross, and the O’Neill. Kirsten is currently working on commissions from Company One, La Jolla Playhouse, OSF’s American Revolutions Project, The Goodman, and Playwrights Horizons. She is an alum of New Dramatists, and has proudly graced the Kilroys list of New Plays by women and women identified Playwrights several years running. Her play Familiar, a winner of the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival New Play Award, was presented by Harvard’s A.R.T. Institute this winter. She is an alum of Wesleyan University, and the Playwrights Workshop at the University of Iowa. She oversees the Playwriting Program at the School of Theatre at Boston University.
Becca A. Lewis (she/her) – Heather
Becca A. Lewis is grateful to get to work on developing a new Kirsten Greenidge play! Previously, she has workshopped and performed in GRIMM, Splendor, and most recently, Greater Good. Other C1 credits include Revolt. She said. Revolt again. and Voyeurs De Venus, both directed by Summer L. Williams.
Chance Walker (she/her) – Dailyn
My name is Chance Walker, and I am a sophomore at Tufts University studying Economics and Film/Media. At Tufts, I am largely involved in the performing arts sector both on and off the stage. I am the founder of Envision Black Theater, and aim to build more creative spaces for self-expression, self-liberation, and self-realization. I just finished directing our debut production and am looking forward to continuing my acting career with Company One.
Summer L. Williams (she/her) – Director
Summer L. Williams is an award-winning director and Co-Founder/Associate Artistic Director of Company One Theatre in Boston. Her most recent directing credits include sandblasted by Charly Evon Simpson with Vineyard Theatre and WP Theater, Off-Broadway, The Arboretum Experience at American Repertory Theater (A.R.T), Daddy Issues at Salt Lake City Acting Company New Play Sounding Series, and the Digital World Premiere of Downtown Crossing at Company One Theatre.
Regional credits: Wolf Play at Company One Theatre, School Girls, or The African Mean Girls Play at SpeakEasy Stage Company; Miss You Like Hell with Company One Theatre and OBERON at American Repertory Theater, the World Premiere of Leftovers at Company One Theatre, Wig Out! with Company One and OBERON at A.R.T.; Smart People at Kitchen Theatre Company in Ithaca, NY and Geva Theater in Rochester, NY; Barbecue at Lyric Stage Company of Boston—Winner of the 2018 Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director; Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. at Company One Theatre; Bootycandy at SpeakEasy Stage Company; An Octoroon and Colossal with Company One Theatre—Winner of the 2016 Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director for both productions; Intimate Apparel at Lyric Stage Company of Boston; Shiv as a part of The Displaced Hindu Gods Trilogy; Shelter of Last Resort by Miranda Craigwell as a part of XX PlayLab 2014; the New England Premiere of Jackie Sibblies Drury’s We Are Proud To Present A Presentation About The Herero Of Namibia, Formerly Known As Southwest Africa From The German Sudwestafrika Between The Years 1884-1915; Idris Goodwin’s How We Got On; Lynn Nottage’s By The Way, Meet Vera Stark at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston; The Brothers Size and Marcus; Or The Secret Of Sweet as part of The Brother/Sister Plays (2012 Elliot Norton Award nominated for Outstanding Production and winner of the 2012 IRNE Award for Best Play); Neighbors, Grimm; The Good Negro; Voyeurs De Venus (Winner of 2009 Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director); The Bluest Eye (IRNE and Elliot Norton Award nominated); The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot; Spell #7 (IRNE nominated); Jesus Hopped The A Train (2004 Elliot Norton Award for Best Fringe Production); and Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 (IRNE nominated).