Karen Hartman's Good Faith: Four Chats about Race and the New Haven Fire Department has joined Yale Repertory Theatre's 2018–2019 season and will have its world premiere in February directed by Tony winner Kenny Leon. A Yale Rep commission, the new play is inspired by the landmark labor 2009 case Ricci v. DeStefano, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the City of New Haven violated the civil rights of a group of firefighters who were passed over for promotion.
Good Faith is an imaginative response to transcripts, interviews, and the many histories of New Haven. Performances will run February 1–23, 2019.
Read: YALE REP REVEALS 2018–2019 SEASON
The production joins the previously announced world premiere of Cadillac Crew by Tori Sampson, a new play by Charise Castro Smith, a new work by two-time Tony Award winner Peter Brook and his longtime collaborator Marie-Hélène Estienne, and an Afro-futurist take on Twelfth Night.
“It is a pleasure to welcome Karen Hartman and Kenny Leon, in their Yale Rep debuts, to a season that promises five thrillingly singular theatrical experiences for adventurous theatregoers,” said artistic director James Bundy. “I am thrilled that Yale Rep audiences will be the first to see Good Faith, a remarkable new American play that speaks of and to New Haven and its place in national conversations about what is fair and just.”
Hartman's recent works include Roz and Ray, The Book of Joseph, and Project Dawn. Other works include Goldie, Max, and Milkn, SuperTrue, Goliath, Gum, Leah’s Train, Going Gone, and Girl Under Grain, among others.
For more information visit YaleRep.org.