PERFORMANCE DATES
Now Playing
RUNNING TIME
95 minutes with no intermission
WHERE
2ST UPTOWN
McGinn/Cazale Theater
NOW PLAYING – McGINN/CAZALE
PATIENCE
BY
JOHNNY G. LLOYD
DIRECTED BY
ZHAILON LEVINGSTON
Daniel plays solitaire. Professionally. He’s very good – some would say the best. But he is ready to retire and settle into that perfect new house with his husband-to-be, Jordan. He’s just got to hold it together through one final, career-defining match. A sports-inspired fantasia, Patience is a meditation on black excellence, next chapters, and playing a very long game alone.
“PATIENCE is special to me because it's my take on the coming of age story - one where becoming is equally about questioning as it is about growing. I hope it's both the kind of quiet where you can hear yourself think and the kind of funny where you see yourself in the joke. When writing PATIENCE, I was inspired by the space between life’s chapters, by Venus Williams, by the oppression of competition – and by the magic of playing a card game against yourself.”
– Johnny G. Lloyd
Generous support for New Play Development is provided by WarnerMedia. Second Stage’s 2021-22 Season is supported by the Howard Gilman Foundation.
**Please note this production uses strobe lighting.**
ZAINAB BARRY
Zainab Barry (Ella) was born and raised in the DMV and received a BA in Theatre from James Madison University. She is so excited to be making her Off-Broadway debut with Patience! Recent credits include A Christmas Carol (American Shakespeare Center); Before the Meeting (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Intimate Apparel, Parade, Equus (James Madison University). Love and thanks to her family and friends, to Binta for all her help, and to her dream team at A3 Artists Agency!
JONATHAN BURKE
Jonathan Burke (Jordan) TV: ‘Harlem’ (Amazon Prime Video); ‘New Amsterdam’ (NBC); ‘Only Murders in the Building’ (Hulu); ‘Bridge and Tunnel’ (EPIX). Broadway: The Inheritance (Tony Award - Best Play); Choir Boy; Tuck Everlasting. Off-Broadway: Toni Stone (Roundabout); Joan of Arc: Into the Fire (Public); Langston in Harlem (Urban Stages). Tours: Mary Poppins; A Christmas Story; Joseph...; Cats. Select Regional: Berkeley Rep, Goodspeed, Eugene O’Neill, Muny, Syracuse Stage, Portland Center Stage, Baltimore Center Stage. Co-creator of @notlookingtheseries. BFA, Ithaca College. Facebook: Jonathan Burke. Twitter: @itsjonburke. Instagram: @itsjonathanburke.
NEMUNA CEESAY
Nemuna Ceesay (Nikita) (she/her) is an actor/director/educator based in NY. Favorite Theatre Credits: Two River Theater, Woolly Mammoth, A.R.T., The Public, OSF, Theatre Calgary, Moscow Art Theatre. Favorite TV Credits: Bull, Broad City, Younger, FBI, Prodigal Son, and Katy Keene. Nemuna is the founder of an all BIPOC training program called The Blueprint and is currently the Associate Director of the Tony Award winning A Strange Loop. IG: @_nemuna_ and @theblueprintartist. Website: www.nemunarceesay.com or www.theblueprintartist.com.
JUSTIIN DAVIS
Justiin Davis (Daniel) is thrilled to be onstage again alongside an amazing cast, crew, and creative team! TV: ‘The Boys’ (Young Stan Edgar), ‘Boardwalk Empire’ (Lester White), ‘The Equalizer’, ‘The Politician’; Film: ‘Due Season’, ‘Catfight’, ‘Central Park’. Thanks to Dave McKeown, Leslie Zaslower, & the team at Edge Entertainment and Buchwald. “I’d like to dedicate this performance to my grandmother Doretha and my family, whose support has gotten me to where I am today. I am forever grateful!” To all: You are more than enough
MARY E. HODGES
Mary E. Hodges (Mother) Broadway: The Lehman Trilogy US (Nederlander Theatre); Off-Broadway: The Hope Hypothesis (The Sheen Center), Macbeth3 (HERE Arts Center); The Test (Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre). Regional: Disgraced; Best of Enemies (Florida Repertory Theatre); Othello; King Lear; Hamlet (Harlem Shakespeare Theatre); Big Love (Long Wharf Theatre & Berkeley Repertory Theatre). TV: 'Law & Order: SVU’ (*recurring); 'The Enemy Within'; 'Blue Bloods'; 'It’s Bruno'; 'Wu-Tang Clan'. Graduate of VCU Drama Department and University of Connecticut at Storrs.
JOHNNY G. LLOYD – PLAYWRIGHT
Johnny G. Lloyd is a New York-based writer and producer. Johnny was the winner of the Bay Area Playwrights Festival (The Problem With Magic, Is:) and has been commissioned by Clubbed Thumb and Second Stage Theatre. Currently he is a member of the Ars Nova PlayGroup and was previously a member of the Clubbed Thumb Early-Career Writers Group and Liberation Theatre Company’s Writing Residency. Johnny is a collaborator with Theater in Quarantine and SalonSéance. He is the Director of Artistic Development at The Tank and Producing Director for InVersion Theatre. MFA: Columbia University.
ZHAILON LEVINGSTON – DIRECTOR
Zhailon Levingston is a Louisiana-raised storyteller, director, and activist. He is a Board Member for the Broadway Advocacy Coalition, which he co-created, and teaches the Theatre of Change course at Columbia University. He is a Music Mentor Fellow and has done work with Idina Menzel’s A Broader Way Foundation. His directing credits include: “Neptune” (Dixon Place, Brooklyn Museum), “The Years That Went Wrong” (Lark, MCC), “The Exonerated” (Columbia Law School), “Chariot Part 2” (Soho Rep., for The Movement Theatre Company), “Mother of Pearl” (LaGuardia Performing Arts Center).He is the associate director of “Primer for a Failed Superpower” with Tony Award-winner Rachel Chavkin, and “Runaways” at The Public Theater with Sam Pinkleton. Most recently, he directed “Chicken and Biscuits,” which premiered on Broadway this fall. Zhailon is also the resident director at “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical” on Broadway and the associate director of “Hadestown” in South Korea.