Robert O'Hara

BARBECUE

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Comedy-Drama, Full-length

Barbecue centers on around the O'Mallerys, a dysfunctional group of siblings who come together for a park barbeque in order to stage an emergency intervention for their sister Barbara, whose drug habit has gotten out of hand. However, there are in fact two O'Mallery families, one white and one black. Each appear in different, yet similar scenes that juxtapose to create a dialogue about racial and family politics.

Casting:

8F, 2M James T - white male 40/50ish Lillie Anne – white female 50/60ish Barbara/Zippity Boom – white female 30/40ish Marie – white female 40/50ish Adlean – white female 40/50ish James T – black male Lillie Anne – black female Barbara – black female Marie – black female Adlean – black female It is VERY IMPORTANT that there be No Attempt to make either cast look (physically) like the other, besides wearing the same Costume.

Production Notes

Barbecue had its world premiere at The Public Theater Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director; Patrick Willingham, Executive Director in New York, on October 8, 2015, The play was directed by Kent Gash Barbecue was commissioned by Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago (Martha Lavey, Artistic Director; David Hawkansom, Executive Director)

Photos: Joan Marcus, Public Theatre production, Off Broadway


Author

Robert O'Hara

ROBERT O’HARA has received the NAACP Best Play and Best Director Award, the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play, two Obies and the Herb Alpert Award. Broadway: Slave Play (Tony Nomination). Off Broadway: He directed the world premieres of Jeremy O. Harris’ Slave Play, Nikkole Salter and Dania Guiria’s In the Continuum, Tarell McCraney’s The Brother/ Sister Plays (Part 2), Colman Domingo’s Wild with Happy, Kirsten Childs’ Bella: An American Tall Tale, Baum and Cheri’s Gun and Powder at Signature Theater, Lorraine Hansberry’s Raisin in the Sun at Williamstown Theater Festival, Aziza Barnes’ BLKS at MCC, Inda Craig-Galvan’s Black Superhero Magic Mama at The Geffen Theater, the Universes’ Uni/Son, inspired by the poetry of August Wilson at OSF and Shakespeare’s Macbeth at Denver Center for the Performing Arts, as well as his own plays, Mankind, Bootycandy and Insurrection: Holding History...[FULL BIO]

Barbecue