(WEST ORANGE, NJ) -- Luna Stage presents the ripple, the wave that carried me home from May 1-25, 2025 on the MainStage. This is a story of racial justice, political legacy and family forgiveness by 2025 Steinberg Playwright Award winner and Tony nominee Christina Anderson.
the ripple, the wave that carried me home is a moving exploration of a family’s response to injustice and a daughter’s reckoning with her political inheritance.
Janice’s childhood was steeped in her parents’ activism as they fought for the integration of public swimming pools in 1960’s Kansas and taught scores of Black children to swim. But Janice later steps away from her parents’ politics and starts her own life and family far away—until she’s pressed into speaking at a ceremony honoring her father.
Directed by Adrienne D. Williams (Playwrights Horizons, Yale Repertory Theatre, Crossroads Theatre) the play will begin previews May 1 for a May 3 opening, and runs through March 25, 2025. Performances are Thursdays at 7:30pm, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm and Sundays at 3:00pm, with a special 1:00pm matinee on Thursday May 8. Wednesday 10:00am matinee performances are available for school groups by arrangement.
To support equity and access, all Luna Stage productions are pay-what-you-choose. Tickets range from $10-$60 and are available for purchase online.
Playwright Anderson was described by American Theatre Magazine as one of fifteen artists "whose work will be transforming America's stages for decades to come.” A Tony nominee and recipient of the 2025 Steinberg Playwright Award, her work has been produced at theaters across the country, including the Yale Repertory Theatre, the Penumbra Theatre Company, Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theatre, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
Luna Stage develops and produces vibrant plays about local and global experiences, and brings communities together for artistic events that spark conversations, create understanding, and inspire change. Founded in Montclair, NJ in 1993, Luna Stage moved to West Orange in 2010 to become an arts anchor of the underserved Valley neighborhood. As producer, innovator, and educator, Luna is dedicated to eliminating barriers to participation, and nurturing the next generation of audiences and artists.
Luna received the NJ Arts People’s Choice Award for Favorite Small Theatre in New Jersey, the 2024 Giles R. Wright Designation for Excellence in African American History, and has contributed to the development of over 100 new works for the stage. The theatre’s 2024 production of Lonely Planet was named to two year-end Best New Jersey Production lists, while Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Libraryappeared on two lists of the 2024 Best Plays in New York.
Luna World Premieres include Tony winner Matthew Lopez’s breakout play The Whipping Man, which became one of the most widely-produced plays in the United States, three World Premieres by Obie-winner Nikkole Salter, and Jenny Lyn Bader’s Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library, which last month completed two extended runs Off-Broadway.
