Skeleton Crew | |
---|---|
Written by | Dominique Morisseau |
Date premiered | January 6, 2016 |
Place premiered | Atlantic Theater Company |
Series | The Detroit Project |
Setting | Detroit, Michigan, 2008 |
Skeleton Crew is a play written by Dominique Morisseau about an auto factory on the brink of closure in 2008 Detroit, Michigan. It is the third part of Morisseau's Detroit Project, inspired by African-American playwrights, which also includes Paradise Blue and Detroit '67 . [1]
Skeleton Crew ran Off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company in 2016 and subsequently at the Detroit Public Theatre in 2017. [2] [3] [4] The Atlantic production was also directed by Santiago-Hudson. [5]
It ran on Broadway as a limited-run engagement at Manhattan Theatre Club's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre from December 2021 through February 2022 under the direction of Ruben Santiago-Hudson and starred Phylicia Rashad as Faye. [6] [7] It was one of a series of Broadway shows in the 2021–2022 season written by Black playwrights, and parallels were identified between the play's story and the Omicron surge under which its run fell. [8] [9]
Skeleton Crew premiered in the United Kingdom at the Donmar Warehouse in July 2024 for a one-month run, directed by Matthew Xia. [10]
Year | Award Ceremony | Category | Nominee | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2016 | Obie Awards | Special Citation: Collaboration | Dominique Morisseau and Ruben Santiago-Hudson | Won | [11] |
Drama League Awards | Outstanding Production of a Play | Nominated | [12] | ||
Distinguished Performance | Lynda Gravatt | Nominated |
Year | Award Ceremony | Category | Nominee | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Broadway Play | Nominated | [13] | |
Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play | Brandon J. Dirden | Nominated | |||
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play | Chanté Adams | Nominated | |||
Phylicia Rashad | Nominated | ||||
Outstanding Director of a Play | Ruben Santiago-Hudson | Nominated | |||
Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play | Nominated | [14] | ||
Distinguished Performance | Phylicia Rashad | Nominated | |||
Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play | Nominated | [15] [16] | ||
Outstanding Actor in a Play | Brandon J. Dirden | Nominated | |||
Outstanding Actress in a Play | Phylicia Rashad | Won | |||
Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play | Joshua Boone | Nominated | |||
Tony Awards | Best Play | Nominated | [17] | ||
Best Featured Actress in a Play | Phylicia Rashad | Won | |||
Best Scenic Design in a Play | Michael Carnahan and Nicholas Hussong | Nominated |
The Drama Desk Award is an annual prize recognizing excellence in New York theatre. First bestowed in 1955 as the Vernon Rice Award, the prize initially honored Off-Broadway productions, as well as Off-off-Broadway, and those in the vicinity. Following the 1964 renaming as the Drama Desk Awards, Broadway productions were included beginning with the 1968–69 award season. The awards are considered a significant American theater distinction.
Phylicia Rashad is an American actress. She was most recently dean of the College of Fine Arts at Howard University before her three year contract ended in May 2024. She is best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on the sitcom The Cosby Show (1984–1992) which earned her two Primetime Emmy Award nominations in 1985 and 1986. She also played Ruth Lucas on Cosby (1996–2000).
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given since 1956 by The Village Voice newspaper to theater artists and groups involved in off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City. Starting just after the 2014 ceremony, the American Theatre Wing became the joint presenter and administrative manager of the Obie Awards. The Obie Awards are considered off-Broadway's highest honor, similar to the Tony Awards for Broadway productions.
Victoria Clark is an American actress, musical theatre soprano, and director. Clark has performed in numerous Broadway musicals and in other theatre, film and television works. Her voice can also be heard on various cast albums and in several animated films. In 2008, she released her first solo album titled Fifteen Seconds of Grace. A five-time Tony Award nominee, Clark won her first Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical in 2005 for her performance in The Light in the Piazza. She also won the Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, and the Joseph Jefferson Award for the role. She won a second Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical in 2023 for her performance in Kimberly Akimbo.
Celia Keenan-Bolger is an American actress and singer. She won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for portraying Scout Finch in the play To Kill a Mockingbird (2018). She has also been Tony-nominated for her roles in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (2005), Peter and the Starcatcher (2012), The Glass Menagerie (2014), and Mother Play (2024).
Lisa D'Amour is a playwright, performer, and former Carnival Queen from New Orleans. D'Amour is an alumna of New Dramatists. Her play Detroit was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Ruben Santiago-Hudson is an American actor, playwright, and director who has won national awards for his work in all three categories. He is best known for his role of Captain Roy Montgomery from 2009 to 2011 on ABC's Castle. In November 2011, he appeared on Broadway in Lydia R. Diamond's play Stick Fly. In 2013, he starred in the TV series Low Winter Sun, a police drama set in Detroit. In 2021, he was nominated for best adaptation by the Screen Writers Guild for the film version of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.
The 60th Annual Tony Awards were held at Radio City Music Hall on June 11, 2006. The award ceremony was broadcast live on the CBS television network in the United States. The 2006 Tony Awards did not feature a host, but instead over 60 stars presented awards at the ceremony.
Alex Timbers is an American writer and director best known for his work on stage and television. He has received numerous accolades including two Tony Awards, a Golden Globe Award, a Drama Desk Award, as well as nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Grammy Award. Timbers received the Drama League Founder's Award for Excellence in Directing and the Jerome Robbins Award for Directing.
Annie Baker is an American playwright and teacher who won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for her play The Flick. Among her works are the Shirley, Vermont plays, which take place in the fictional town of Shirley: Circle Mirror Transformation, Nocturama, Body Awareness, and The Aliens. She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2017.
Thomas Robert Kitt is an American composer, conductor, orchestrator, and musician. For his score for the musical Next to Normal, he shared the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama with Brian Yorkey. He has also won two Tony Awards and an Outer Critics Circle Award for Next to Normal, as well as Tony and Outer Critics Circle nominations for If/Then and SpongeBob SquarePants. He has been nominated for eight Drama Desk Awards, winning one, and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for Jagged Little Pill in 2021.
Carmen Cusack is an American musical theater actress and singer. She is known for playing Elphaba in the Chicago, North American Tour, and Melbourne productions of the musical Wicked and for originating the roles of Alice Murphy and Clare Boothe Luce in the Broadway musicals Bright Star and Flying Over Sunset, respectively.
Charles Randolph-Wright is an American film, television, and theatre director, television producer, screenwriter, and playwright.
Jessica Ruth Mueller is an American actress and singer. She started her acting career in Chicago and won two Joseph Jefferson Awards in 2008 and 2011 for her roles as Carrie Pipperidge in Carousel and Amalia Balash in She Loves Me. In 2011, she moved to New York City to star in a Broadway revival of musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She won the 2014 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for her performance as Carole King in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. She went on to receive two additional Best Actress in a Musical Tony Award nominations for her leading roles in Waitress (2016) and the Broadway revival of Carousel (2018).
Brandon J. Dirden is an American actor, best known for portraying Martin Luther King Jr. in the Broadway production of Robert Schenkkan's All the Way.
Samuel D. Hunter is an American playwright living in New York City.
The Humans is a one-act play written by Stephen Karam. The play opened on Broadway in 2016 after an engagement Off-Broadway in 2015. The Humans was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Play.
Dominique Morisseau is an American playwright and actress from Detroit, Michigan. She has written more than nine plays, three of which are part of a cycle titled The Detroit Project. She received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2018.
Cost of Living is a dramatic stage play written by Polish-born American playwright Martyna Majok. It premiered in Williamstown, Massachusetts, at the Williamstown Theatre Festival on June 29, 2016, and had an Off-Broadway engagement in 2017. The play won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama as well as two Lucille Lortel Awards, including Outstanding Play.
Saheem Ali is a Kenyan theatre director. He is Associate Artistic Director at The Public Theater in New York City.