'What To Send Up When It Goes Down' announces casting

The production will begin performances at Playwrights Horizons on September 24.

Casting has been announced for What To Send Up When It Goes Down, the season-opening production at Playwrights Horizons. Rachel Christopher (as One/Made), Ugo Chukwu (as Six/Miss), Kambi Gathesha (as Two), Denise Manning (as Eight/Song Leader), Javon Q. Minter (as Seven), Adrianna Mitchell (as Three), and Beau Thom (as Five/Man/Driver) will perform in Aleshea Harris's play.

What To Send Up When It Goes Down is described as a play, ritual, pageant, and homecoming experience played out in a series of vignettes. It is an acknowledgement of anti-Blackness and racism as well as of the resilience of the Black people who have historically endured these hardships and still do. Their stories are told through a mix of song, dance, parody, and conversations that audiences are invited to participate in as well.

As previously announced, Whitney White will direct the production. She has helmed What To Send Up When It Goes Down in its two previous iterations: at The Public Theater in early 2020 and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in summer 2021. 

What To Send Up When It Goes Down will begin performances September 24 and run through October 17 as part of Playwrights Horizons' Redux series, which re-mounts work that previously had limited runs. The rest of the Playwrights Horizons 2021-2022 season includes the New York premiere of Sylvia Khoury's Selling Kabul as well as the world premieres of Dave Harris's Tambo & Bones, Sanaz Toossi's Wish You Were Here, and Will Arbery's Corsicana.

What To Send Up When It Goes Down tickets will be on sale soon.

^{Photo credit: Simon Luethi}