The Season

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PlayLab: LONG LAYOVER

Directed by: Karen Stephens

Genre: ,

May. 6, 2023 - May. 6, 2023

Historic Arcade Theatre

LONG LAYOVER
by Michelle Tyrene Johnson
Saturday, May 6 | 7 PM

Sponsored by Lee Moore & Dee Whited

Tickets are $25 per reading or $120 for an all-access pass that includes admission to five readings plus the playwright’s panel. To purchase an ALL ACCESS PASS please call 239-332-4488 or visit our box-office

Lorraine is a single black woman at a crossroads. Unhappy with her life in Dallas, big decisions weigh her down. Kelly, her therapist, wants Lorraine to picture herself in her safe space when she’s in a therapy session. Oddly for Lorraine, her safe-space is an airport waiting room. Facing a layoff, Lorraine has the chance to start over – should she move to Africa with her boyfriend…or Amsterdam to start a new career in cosmetics…or back to Memphis to care for her aging father? Long Layover is a powerful and inventive play about a woman trying to figure out what she wants, what she’s become, and how to step into power, happiness, forgiveness, and love.


About the Playwright

Michelle Tyrene Johnson is a public radio journalist, author, and former attorney from the Greater Kansas City, Missouri Area who now lives in Louisville, Kentucky. As an award-winning playwright, Johnson’s plays have been staged nationally, including in California, Texas, Illinois, Nevada, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Utah. Several of her plays, such as Wiccans in the Hood, The Negro Whisperer, Trading Races: From Rodney King to Paula Deen, Echoes of Octavia, and The Green Book Wine Club Train Trip have been in New York City festivals and readings. Her play Only One Day A Year was chosen for the Kennedy Center’s 2020 New Vision/New Voices Festival and received an award from the National Endowment for the Arts for its World Premiere at the Coterie Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri. Johnson received her MFA in Writing, with a focus on playwriting, from Spalding University in May 2022.

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