Based on the novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, George Aiken's play was one of the most popular American works from 1852 into the 1920s. It unfolds like our own, rough Shakespearean play: a sprawling epic that dramatizes a long, dark moment in our history. Tome and I began working on our adaptation as part of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab. We both felt the play's history had become misunderstood, and the term "Uncle Tom" had become an epithet that reduced the original character to a stereotype of aquiescence and betrayal of his own people. Our adaptation aims to restore Uncle Tom's name and re-envsion his story as one of self-assertion, faith, and human dignity.

In an inner-city classroom, a teacher tries to save an at-risk student by introducing him to American novelist, Horatio Alger, Jr. As the play moves across two worlds—urban America today and 19th-century New York—the conflict between fact and fiction leads to hard lessons about the American dream and the myth that we can all pull ourselves self up by our bootstraps. Learn more at New Play Exchange

You never know a person 'til you walk in her heels.  1969 New Orleans:  It’s standing room only at The Golden Lantern. The band strikes up and begins to play the opening number for “Miss Blanche”, the hottest drag act in the Quarter — but instead, a fiery young man takes the stage. With the aid of a mysterious wardrobe trunk, he explores clues of his family’s past, sings songs about his own life, and sets the course for a new future. Inspired by the imagination of Tennessee Williams, this intimate and seductive musical takes us on one man’s journey of desire, self-expression and liberation. Miss Blanche Tells It All (Official Website)