Staceyann Chin’s “MotherStruck,” an autobiography on stage of the playwright and performer’s journey toward motherhood as a single black lesbian, will make its world premiere at NYC’s Culture Project in a production directed by Cynthia Nixon and produced by Rosie O’Donnell.
Chin will also star in the play, which relates the poet and LGBT activist’s desire for a child despite her lack of health insurance or a “serious, stable financial set up.” The one-woman show explores how her life was changed by motherhood via artificial insemination and what she learned from the process of becoming a nontraditional parent.
“When [Chin] approached me last year about directing ‘MotherStruck,’ I read it and said yes within a matter of hours,” said Nixon. “As when I read her memoir [‘The Other Side of Paradise’], I was stunned by Staceyann’s ability to recall in such depth biographical details of her life, both recent and long ago. She is leading a remarkable life that is fascinating to hear about because of the many seemingly insurmountable obstacles she has overcome, but it is also fascinating because of the way in which she chooses to tell you about it — the humor, the drama, the poetry, the political backdrop, the jaw-dropping specificity — that compels you to listen as long as she is speaking. Staceyann is a national treasure, and I’m so proud and excited to be part of the telling of this most precious chapter in her life.”
Performances will begin on Thursday, September 24, 2015 at Culture Project’s Lynn Redgrave Theater. The play will open on Wednesday, October 7.
[via Broadway World]
