First published in the Aug. 13 print issue of the Glendale News-Press.
The Glendale-based Antaeus Theatre Company will present the Los Angeles-area premiere of “Everybody,” a “funny, provocative and very modern riff” on a 15th-century morality play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins from Sept. 16 through Oct. 17.
Performances will be at the Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center at 110 East Broadway in Glendale. Low-priced previews begin Sept. 11. Tickets to all performances are $40; tickets to previews are $20.
Directed by Jennifer Chang and adapted from the medieval morality play “The Summoning of Everyman,” Jacobs-Jenkins’ “Everybody” is an allegorical journey through life in which the title character, Everybody, searches for a companion — Somebody — who will accompany them to their appointment with Death (Anne Gee Byrd). Overseeing Everybody’s quest are God (Cherish Monique Duke), Time (Dawn Didawick) and Love (Alberto Isaac). Meanwhile, Everybody and the Somebodies, who include among them Friendship, Beauty and Stuff, are portrayed on a rotating basis by actors Lisa Sanaye Dring, Nicole Erb, Harry Groener, Antonio Jaramillo and Gerard Joseph.
Representing the randomness of death, each of these roles is assigned by lottery at every performance — resulting in 120 possible combinations. Each of these actors must memorize the entire script and be prepared to play any role.
“I’ve always been a huge fan of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s writing and his playful approach to intense topics, such as, in this case, life and death,” Chang said in a statement. “It’s an important reminder to us all to appreciate life because we don’t know how long we’ve got. As part of the fun, to make it clear that this play really is about everybody — about all of us — we’re setting it in Glendale. We hope that as audiences enter the theater, they’ll be reminded of the street they just left behind.”
Everybody premiered off-Broadway at the Signature Theatre in 2017 and was a 2018 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The Huffington Post calls it “theater rather unlike anything you might have seen … unusual, unconventional and eye-opening … not only provocative and involving, it is also funny. Wildly funny, in fact.”
Jacobs-Jenkins, who the New York Times calls “one of this country’s most original and illuminating writers,” is a Brooklyn-based playwright whose most recent honors include the Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright from the London Evening Standard, a London Critics’ Circle Award for Most Promising Playwriting, a MacArthur Fellowship (commonly but unofficially known as the “Genius Grant”), the Windham-Campbell Prize for Drama, the Benjamin H. Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Steinberg Playwriting Award and the inaugural Tennessee Williams Award.
The Antaeus creative team includes scenic and props designer Nicholas Ponting, costume designer Adriana Lámbarri, lighting designer Bryan Ealey, sound designer Salvador Zamora and projection designer Yi-Chien Lee. The dramaturg is Ryan McRee, the assistant stage manager is Jess Osorio and the production stage manager is Trixie Hong.
