Casting and a creative team have been announced for Alliance Theatre and Goodman Theatre's co-production of Bust, penned by Pulitzer Prize finalist Zora Howard. The production will run February 13-March 16, 2025 at Alliance, and April 19-May 18 at the Goodman. Tony nominee Lileana Blain-Cruz is set to direct.
The cast will feature Mark Bedard (The Gilded Age) as Tomlin/Jack, Cecil Blutcher (The Game, The Hot Wing King) as Trent, Renika Williams Blutcher (P-Valley) as Krystal, Caroline Stefanie Clay (The Little Foxes, Doubt) as Retta, Bernard Gilbert (The Chi, How to Catch Creation) as Zeke, Caitlin Hargraves (A Christmas Carol, Mi Casa) as Ms. Pinto, Jorge Luna (Zero Day) as Ramirez, Victoria Omoregie (Fat Ham, John Proctor is the Villain) as Paige, Keith Randolph Smith (Malcolm X, God of Carnage, Jitney) as Mr. Woods, Ray Anthony Thomas (American Fiction, The Harbinger, Pariah) as Reggie, and Ivan Cecil Walks (K-I-S-S-I-N-G) as Boobie.
Understudies Hannah Rose Broom, Robert John Connor, Jacob Alexander Craig, Warren Levi Haney, Anjil Jeter, Braian Rivera Jimémez, Taloria Merricks, Ty Ravenel, and Gabrielle Lott-Rogers (Goodman production only) round out the company.
Bust follows Retta and Reggie, who are enjoying their usual evening on the porch when a longtime neighbor is pulled over by the police just before turning into his driveway. Everything goes as expected—until the unexpected happens.
“There's a real invitation at the center of the play to experience something new. There's this kind of really amazing, thrilling, complicated emotional journey that happens at the center of this play, and I hope audiences are on the ride to encounter something that they had never considered before,” Blain-Cruz said in a statement. “What I love about theatre is knowing that there are a million individual stories existing inside the audience. What's beautiful is when those whose lives may be very different understand something more, and the people whose lives may be similar find themselves being seen.”
The creative team will include set designer Matt Saunders, costume designer Dominique Fawn Hill, lighting designer Yi Zhao, sound designer Mikaal Sulaiman, special effects designer Jeremy Chernick, dialect coach Jacqueline Springfield, sonic dramaturg DJ Reborn, fight choreographer Rocio Alexis Mendez, stage manager shiku thuo, and assistant stage manager Xiaonan Chloe Liu.
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