After selling out New York’s Public Theater in 2014 and 2015, the play “Eclipsed,” which stars Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o (pictured right), will be moving to Broadway in February. In preparation for its next run, the play’s creators are launching the “10,000 Girls Campaign” to give young women free access to the critically acclaimed play.
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Focusing on four women, “Eclipsed” is set in Liberia during its civil war and features “The Color Purple’s” Akosua Busia (pictured top) as “Rita,” Zainab Jah as “Maima,” Saycon Sengbloh as “Helena,” Pascale Armand as “Bessie,” and the aforementioned Nyong’o as “the girl.”
While the first run of the play was a critically acclaimed hit, the play’s creators, which includes award-winning playwright and celebrated actress Danai Gurira (pictured at right) and Director Liesl Tommy, realize that less than 10 percent of youth under the age of 18 and only 9.2 percent of Blacks and Hispanics actually attend shows on Broadway.
With Broadway show tickets usually being cost prohibitive for those groups, “Eclipsed” creators have partnered with the Broadway Education Alliance to launch its “10,000 Girls Campaign” to ensure that 10,000 young women between the ages of 16 and 24 who live in the Tri-State area receive free tickets to see the play between February 23 and June 19th.
They are encouraging companies as well as individuals to sponsor the campaign.
Donate to the 10,000 Girls Campaign by visiting https://npo.justgive.org/BroadwayEducationAlliance and then selecting the “Eclipsed 10,000 Girls Campaign” program dropdown or contact Alia Jones-Harvey of Front Row Productions by phone at 917-327-1899 or e-mail at ajones@frontrowprod.com.
Watch Gurira and Tommy discuss “Eclipsed” here:
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