Bongani by Gabrielle Maisels
Monday, October 17, 2016 - 7 pm at Goddard Riverside's Bernie Wohl Center - 647 Columbus Avenue @ 92nd St, New York, NY 10024
BONGANI
by Gabrielle Maisels
The mesmerizing tale of a love that could never be
DIRECTORS - Kate Holland and Chuk Obasi
STAGE MANAGER - Kendra Augustin
featuring
Adrian Baidoo * Maggie Benedict * Rob Benson * Michelle Ghatan * Nonhlanhla Kheswa * Sheila Moikangoa * Denise Mosiana * Tomike Ogugua * Blake Williams * Judylee Vivier
In post-apartheid South Africa, Bongani hurtles toward destruction. Corinne, from an activist Jewish family, thinks she can rescue him...and her struggling country. Bongani thinks she should rescue herself.
Several of South Africa’s finest actors join a multi-national cast in a staged reading of “BONGANI,” a new play about post-apartheid South Africa, set for Monday, Oct 17, at the Bernie Wohl Center at 7pm. Nonhlanhla Kheswa (THE LION KING), from Johannesburg, recently starred in BAM’s acclaimed THE SUIT.
Maggie Benedict, from Pretoria, is familiar to South African and BBC World viewers as Akhona on hit South African soap GENERATIONS, and now calls New York City her home.
Denise Mosiana was recently picked to star in the New York production of DUELING VOICES. More of the African continent is represented by AdrianBaidoo, born in Ghana, playing the title role of Bongani, and Tomike Ogugua, of Nigerian parents, who can be
seen as US Marshall on the hit STARZ Network series POWER, produced and starring 50 Cent.
In the play, set in 1990’s South Africa, Bongani (Adrian Baidoo) hurtles toward destruction. Corinne (Michelle Ghatan), from an activist Jewish family, thinks she can rescue him...and her struggling country. Bongani thinks she should rescue herself. This mesmerizing tale of a love that could never be is a call to action for the America of 2016.
Rounding out the multi-national cast are Rob Benson of the U.K.
(writer of DEADSHOT MARY), Michelle Ghatan of the U.K. (PLAYGROUND PLACENTA/29th Street Playwrights Collective) Judylee Vivier (ORANGES LIKETHE SUN), originally from South Africa, and Blake Williams (THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST/TheInstigators). Kate Holland directs, and Chuk Obasi is dramaturg.
Bongani was first performed as a one-woman show at the NY Fringe Festival in 2011 and has been reimagined with a full cast. Set in the turbulent and heady time of the transition from apartheid to democracy, the show deals with the thorny and persistent issues of race, identity, and home. Playwright Gabrielle Maisels is the granddaughter of Israel Aaron Maisels, leader of the defense team that secured
the acquittal of Nelson Mandela and the 29 others accused of treason by the apartheid government in the “Treason Trial” of 1956-61. Gabrielle studied Political Theory at Harvard and Columbia Universities, graduated cum laudeand authored two books. BONGANI and her previous play, TWO GIRLS, are inspired by her family’s experiences in South Africa.
BONGANI
by Gabrielle Maisels
The mesmerizing tale of a love that could never be
DIRECTORS - Kate Holland and Chuk Obasi
STAGE MANAGER - Kendra Augustin
featuring
Adrian Baidoo * Maggie Benedict * Rob Benson * Michelle Ghatan * Nonhlanhla Kheswa * Sheila Moikangoa * Denise Mosiana * Tomike Ogugua * Blake Williams * Judylee Vivier
In post-apartheid South Africa, Bongani hurtles toward destruction. Corinne, from an activist Jewish family, thinks she can rescue him...and her struggling country. Bongani thinks she should rescue herself.
Several of South Africa’s finest actors join a multi-national cast in a staged reading of “BONGANI,” a new play about post-apartheid South Africa, set for Monday, Oct 17, at the Bernie Wohl Center at 7pm. Nonhlanhla Kheswa (THE LION KING), from Johannesburg, recently starred in BAM’s acclaimed THE SUIT.
Maggie Benedict, from Pretoria, is familiar to South African and BBC World viewers as Akhona on hit South African soap GENERATIONS, and now calls New York City her home.
Denise Mosiana was recently picked to star in the New York production of DUELING VOICES. More of the African continent is represented by AdrianBaidoo, born in Ghana, playing the title role of Bongani, and Tomike Ogugua, of Nigerian parents, who can be
seen as US Marshall on the hit STARZ Network series POWER, produced and starring 50 Cent.
In the play, set in 1990’s South Africa, Bongani (Adrian Baidoo) hurtles toward destruction. Corinne (Michelle Ghatan), from an activist Jewish family, thinks she can rescue him...and her struggling country. Bongani thinks she should rescue herself. This mesmerizing tale of a love that could never be is a call to action for the America of 2016.
Rounding out the multi-national cast are Rob Benson of the U.K.
(writer of DEADSHOT MARY), Michelle Ghatan of the U.K. (PLAYGROUND PLACENTA/29th Street Playwrights Collective) Judylee Vivier (ORANGES LIKETHE SUN), originally from South Africa, and Blake Williams (THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST/TheInstigators). Kate Holland directs, and Chuk Obasi is dramaturg.
Bongani was first performed as a one-woman show at the NY Fringe Festival in 2011 and has been reimagined with a full cast. Set in the turbulent and heady time of the transition from apartheid to democracy, the show deals with the thorny and persistent issues of race, identity, and home. Playwright Gabrielle Maisels is the granddaughter of Israel Aaron Maisels, leader of the defense team that secured
the acquittal of Nelson Mandela and the 29 others accused of treason by the apartheid government in the “Treason Trial” of 1956-61. Gabrielle studied Political Theory at Harvard and Columbia Universities, graduated cum laudeand authored two books. BONGANI and her previous play, TWO GIRLS, are inspired by her family’s experiences in South Africa.
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