(HOBOKEN, NJ) -- Mile Square Theatre proudly announces the regional premiere of Rabbit Summer, a play written and directed by multi-hyphenate performer, playwright and director, Tracey Conyer Lee. This production marks a historic moment as the first time the playwright will direct her own work. Starring Steven St. Pierre as Wilson, Tsebiyah Mishael Derry as Claire, and Ricky Lynée as Ruby, Rabbit Summer is a thought-provoking and emotionally charged production. Performances run from March 6-30, 2024.
Rabbit Summer explores the lives of Ruby and Wilson, a couple celebrated as the epitome of "black love, marriage and parenthood." With successful careers, a beautiful home, and the joy of raising a child, their world is shattered when Ruby's longtime friend, Claire, becomes a tragic statistic. Claire loses her unarmed black husband to the quick trigger of a white police officer.
Simultaneously, Wilson, a police officer, upholds the idealized image of a perfect marriage, ignoring the controversies surrounding his profession and burying his own complicated relationship with his father. Tired of feeling trapped in her "Huxtable-like existence," Ruby pushes Wilson to break out of his plastic shell and confront the legacy of false manhood. Unbeknownst to her husband, Ruby hatches a secret plan to address the pervasive issue of gun violence in America.
Talkbacks will occur on Sundays following performances including events with Moms Demand Action on Sunday, March 10th.
Performances begin on March 6, 2024, and continue through March 30, 2024. All performances take place at Mile Square Theatre (1400 Clinton Street) in Hoboken, New Jersey. For $24 tickets, use code NEWYEAR2024 (good through February 24, 2024). All other tickets start at $35, with special student tickets (Under 18 or with a Student ID) available for $21 - $40. Artist appreciation night with all tickets $10 on Friday, March 8th, 2024. Tickets are available for purchase online or calling 201-683-7014. Mile Square offers multi-show subscription packages, available now starting at just $44. Each subscription package includes a different level of special benefits – see their website for details. Accessibly priced youth subscriptions are available for children under 18 with the purchase of an adult subscription.
"I have been watching Tracey Conyer Lee develop characters about upwardly mobile black people for years, and I am thrilled to present her complicated, humorous work on our stage." says Kevin R. Free, Artistic Director of Mile Square Theatre.
Mile Square Theatre’s 2023-2024 lineup also features Show Up, Kids (April 24 - May 19, 2024).
Mile Square Theatre offers all audiences the opportunity to enhance their theater experience access programs and services are available at all productions, including audio-described performances, American Sign Language interpreted and open-captioned performances, Braille and large-print programs, and assistive listening devices.
Programs, dates, and artists are subject to change.
The production features scenic design by Matthew Fick, costume design by Allison Essanason, and lighting design by Nina Agelvis. Arielle Legere* is the Production Stage Manager.
Ricki Lynée* is an award-winning New York City-based actress, writer, and producer. She is the co-owner and Head of Development at Nuanse Entertainment, a resident artist with New Light Theater Project, and a recipient of the 2021 All Stars Project & Castillo Theater Fellowship for Young Artists of Color. Ricki is a graduate of CUNY Brooklyn College where she studied Theatre and studied acting at HB Studios, AADA, and New Federal Theatre. She officially embraced her passion for filmmaking with the award-winning webseries, “Anthology” produced by Nuanse Entertainment in 2013.
Steven St. Pierre is a New York based professional actor, writer, director, award winning filmmaker who has appeared on Swagger (Apple TV), FBI: Most Wanted (CBS), and High Maintenance (HBO). He’s performed improv comedy at The PIT and Upright Citizens Brigade.
Tsebiyah Mishael* Derry (she/her) is a NYC based actor, singer, and writer, a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and The British American Drama Academy, Tsebiyah has over a decade of experience in making experimental, contemporary, classical, and musical theater. She makes solo music and performs regularly as a part of the rock band Faceplant. She was a 2022 Hermitage Artist Retreat fellow, and a 2021 NYC Artist Corps grant recipient. Stage work includes: Skinfolk, Collective Rage: A Play in Five Betties, Nina Simone Four Women.
Tracey Conyer Lee (writer/director) is a full-time actor-playwright living in New York City. Her plays Standing Up: Bathroom Talk & Other Stuff We Learn From Dad, Poor Posturing, and The First Time appeared in the New York International Fringe Festival, The Fire This Time festival of short plays, or in readings and development through Urban Stages, National Black Theatre and The Fire This Time festival. Poor Posturing received a Boston run of a selected 6 of the 25+ plays from TFTT's first four seasons. With The First Time Ms. Lee was nominated for New York Innovative Theatre's 2016 Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award (NYITA) and was selected for Congo Square's 2015 August Wilson New Play Initiative. Ms. Lee was the 2010-2011 resident playwright for Don't Miss A Beat, Inc., an arts and education program in Jacksonville, FL which introduces marginalized youth to the world of theater, music, and dance. She has written for Boomerang Theatre's Rock-N-Roles series, LDTG and was invited to guest blog for the Huffington Post on “Gratitude”, of which she is in abundance. Ms. Lee is a 2018 MFA merit scholar candidate in Writing For the Stage & Screen at New Hampshire Institute of Art, for which she has written a full length musical, a tv pilot, and the play you are about to see thanks to Buzz McLaughlin, who mentored the birth of Rabbit Summer.
*Performing courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association.
Mile Square Theatre, your neighborhood professional theatre, located at 1400 Clinton Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, presents engaging and diverse theatrical productions that resonate with the community.
