TJ LOVES SALLY 4 EVER
February 13 - 29, 2020
At a Virginia university established by a founding father, TJ is a university dean and Sally his work-study student. But TJ’s power has limits and Sally knows it. In TJ Loves Sally 4 Ever, playwright James Ijames hotwires a ride that leaves history’s burdens in the dust and off-roads a trail for the future.
Playwright: James Ijames
Director: Jordana De La Cruz
Producer: Chris Ignacio
Assistant Director: Talia Paulette Oliveras
Scenic Design: Gerardo Díaz Sánchez
Lighting Design: Megan Lang
Costume Design: Azalea Fairley
Sound Design: Kathy Ruvuna
Choreographer: Candace Taylor
Dramaturg: Nissy Aya
Production Stage Manager: Janeill Cooper
Featuring: John Bambery*, Aja Downing*, Drew Drake*, Starr Kirkland, Sierra D. Leverett
*Performing courtesy of Actors' Equity.
Performance Dates & Times
*Post show Talkbacks
Thursday, February 13th at 7:30pm (preview),
Friday, February 14th at 7:30pm,
Saturday, February 15th, at 7:30pm
Sunday, February 16th at 4:00pm,
Thursday, February 20th at 7:30pm,
*Friday, February 21st at 7:30pm (talk back)
Saturday, February 22nd at 7:30pm,
Sunday, February 23rd at 4:00pm,
Wednesday, February 26th at 7:30pm,
Thursday, February 27th at 7:30pm,
Friday, February 28th at 7:30pm (talk back)
JUST ADDED: Saturday, February 29th at 3 pm
Saturday, February 29th at 7:30pm.
*Post show Talkback information:
Friday, February 21st after the performance there will be a talk back conversation on Alternative Ticketing Models Towards Diversity with Elena Chang, Director of Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity at Theatre Communications Group, Corinna Schulenburg of Flux Theater Ensemble, director Jordana De La Cruz and producer, Chris Ignacio.
Friday, February 28th after the performance there will be a talk back conversation with playwright James Ijames and members of the TJ Loves Sally 4 Ever creative team.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
James Ijames (Playwright) is a Philadelphia based performer and playwright. James’ plays have been produced by Flashpoint Theater Company, Orbiter 3, Theatre Horizon (Philadelphia, PA), The National Black Theatre (NYC), Ally Theatre (Washington DC) and have received development with PlayPenn New Play Conference, The Lark, Playwright's Horizon, Clubbed Thumb, Villanova Theater, Headlands Art Center, and Victory Garden. James is the 2011 F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Artist recipient, a 2011 Independence Foundation Fellow, a 2015 Pew Fellow for Playwriting, the 2015 winner of the Terrance McNally New Play Award for WHITE, the 2015 Kesselring Honorable Mention Prize winner for ....Miz Martha the 2018 Kesselring Prize Winner for Kill Move Paradise and a 2017 recipient of the Whiting Award. James is a founding member of Orbiter 3, Philadelphia’s first playwright producing collective. James is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Villanova University and resides in South Philadelphia.
Jordana De La Cruz (Director) is a theater maker and Co-Director of JACK in Brooklyn, New York. She creates performances, gatherings, and public programs that question what it means to be free and more urgently, how we are helping each other achieve this freedom. Her practice sparks cross-cultural dialogue and expands the concept of community. Before joining JACK, Jordana served as a program curator, community organizer, and producer at several non profit organizations including Park Avenue Armory, Story Pirates, and INTAR Theatre, among others. Jordana is a freelance director and proud member of Theatre Communications Group’s Rising Leaders of Color Program.
Gerardo Díaz Sánchez (Scenic Design) is a NYC-based scenic designer from Guayama, Puerto Rico. His theater credits include: Pride and Prejudice (Long Wharf Theatre), For Carmen in San Sebastián (Merry-Go-Round Theatre), El Huracán (Yale Repertory Theater), Tent Revival and Romeo and Juliet (Yale School of Drama). Other recent credits include Novios Part 1, Yale Dragball, It’s not about my mother, Mud, This American Wife, Re:Union, Yale School of Drag 2017 (Yale Cabaret); and The Trojan Women (Yale Summer Cabaret). Gerardo received his MFA from the Yale School of Drama, and his BA in environmental design from the School of Architecture at the University of Puerto Rico, with a double major in theatre design and techniques.
Megan Lang (Lighting Design) is a New York based lighting designer. She has designed at BAM, La Mama, Abrons Arts Center, EST, Under St. Mark's, the Wild Project, Dixon Place, 59E59, JACK, Atlantic Stage 2, among others. Recent designs include A Star Has Burnt My Eye (BAM Next Wave, directed by Paul Lazar), Riot Antigone (La Mama, directed by Seonjae Kim), and Furry/La Furia! (The Bushwick Starr, directed by William Burke). She is the resident lighting designer for the Ubumuntu Arts Festival in Rwanda. Assistant/associate special effects work includes Sting's The Last Ship, Our Lady of Kibeho and An Act of God. BA: Fordham University.
Kathy Ruvuna (Sound Design)is New York based sound designer and composer originally from San Antonio, Texas. She is a recent graduate of the Yale School of Drama, where her credits include Tent Revival, Pentecost, and Much Ado About Nothing. Her work has also been heard in Good Faith (Yale Repertory Theatre), Fireflies, Taking Warsan Shire Out of Context on the Eve of the Great Storm, It’s Not About My Mother, the feels… (KMS), In the Red and Brown Water, The Meal, The Red Tent, Ni Mi Madre, Enter Your Sleep (Yale Cabaret); and Mies Julie (Yale Summer Cabaret). She holds a B.F.A. in sound design from the Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University.
Azalea Fairley (Costume Design) is a costume designer, wardrobe Wonder Woman, and stylist living in New York city. She has attended the Theater School at Depaul University in Chicago and the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. Using her experience as an actor and with her background in fashion and research, she has merged her two passions into costume design and styling. Azalea believes that the magic of theater and film are made possible through the individual and collective imagination of every artist on and off stage and camera. Above all, she believes in color and the uniqueness of each story, artist, and perspective.
Candace L. Taylor (Choreographer) is an experienced and passionate performer, choreographer, and entrepreneur. She was able to find the union of her studies, passion, professional pursuits, and faith in the creation and performance of movement as an act of ministry and worship. She sees her art as the ultimate expression of her divine truth and aims to share movement with people all over the world. She has worked as a choreographic associate for Swing Us Sky Rainbow with Shani Collins-Achille, Lempicka (Williamstown Theatre Festival), If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka (Playwrights Horizons), and A Strange Loop (Playwrights Horizons) with Raja Feather Kelly. Candace has most notably featured her own choreographic work at the National Theatre of Nicaragua in the completion of a dance anthropology Fulbright research grant.
Nissy Aya (Dramaturge) is a Black girl from the Bronx. She and all her younger selves tell stories and tall tales. They lead workshops, too. As an artist and cultural worker, we believe in the transformative nature of storytelling, placing those most affected by oppressive systems in the center, and examining how we move forward through holistic healing and joy. We explore history/memory, and both the absence and presence of love. The love is mutual between her and a bunch of organizations, feel free to reach out and ask which.
Chris Ignacio (Producer) is a New York based theatre artist, musician, puppeteer, producer and educator. He is a Culture Push Fellow, and Queens Council on the Arts: Community Engagement Commissioning grantee for his project, Co-written, which involves collaborative songwriting with young people of color. Previously, Chris served as Associate Producer for the Obie Award winning Ma-Yi Theater Company (KPOP, Teenage Dick).
Janeill Cooper (Production Stage Manager) is a dance maker, performing artist and proud native of Queens, NY. Janeill was a member of Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE and is currently collaborating with Christal Brown’s INSPIRIT. Now residing in Brooklyn, she is creating, performing, teaching, and working in arts administration. Janeill has presented her work at Center Performance Research, Movement Research at the Judson Church, and in New Dance Alliance's Performance Mix Festival 33. In 2018, Janeill was a BRIClab Artist in Residence, and BAX Upstart Artist. Through her work, creatively and otherwise, Janeill seeks to be a small contributor to the great community of those working to increase the visibility, access, and quality of life for people of color, inside and outside of artistic spaces.
Talia Paulette Oliveras (Assistant Director) is an Afro-Latina theatre maker who foregrounds collectivity, identity, and challenging theatre’s limits in her work. She primarily collaborates on new work as an actor and director and has worked with MTF, Playmachine, NYC Department of Corrections (Fine & Performing Arts Programs), Dixon Place (HOT! Fest), Theatre Mitu (Hybrid Arts Lab), Ars Nova (Makers Lab/ANT Fest), BAM (Next Wave Festival), and The Public (Under the Radar). She’s also currently in the 2019-21 Writer/Director Lab at Soho Rep where she’s developing [Untitled Afrofuturist Event] with her artistic soulmate Nia Farrell. BFA Drama: NYU Tisch.