THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

A House Full of Flies

a tragic drama by WillieAnn Gissendanner.

Emotionally resonant exploration of intergenerational trauma, spirituality and the ties that both bind and break.

June 19 – July 6, 2025
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM
There will be a performance July 4th

Tickets $20, Students & Seniors $15
Run Time: 1 hour 40 minutes plus 10 minute intermission
THEATER

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)
New York, NY 10003
Directions

Set in a small town in Georgia across two turbulent eras, 1937 and the early 1990s, “A House Full of Flies” weaves a haunting narrative of misunderstanding, delusion, deceit, and ego–fueled by religious dogma and racist mythology– that have heartbreaking consequences.

At the heart of the story is Savannah Holster, a Black American Christian woman who is a widow. She lives by her wits and presents her grown children as siblings, possibly to obscure her age. She is emotionally scarred by racist humiliations her family suffered in her childhood. From her kitchen table, she runs a faith-based healing practice, finding meaning and control in her strict religiosity. Her fraught relationship with her daughter, Deirdre, simmers with unresolved tension. She shares her home with her adult son, named Prayer, who is devoted to his controlling mother and defends their home fiercely.

When Savannah becomes involved with her lawyer, a rising white conservative politician named Jackson Vance, her world begins to unravel. Her adult daughter Deirdre, while seeking help with a legal matter of her own, inadvertently reveals to Vance that Savannah is her mother.  That realization shatters Vance’s ego, triggering a night of confrontation that ends in tragedy. In the aftermath, visions, guilt, and grief descend upon Savannah in the form of a prophetic dream that warns of doom for her young grandson. When that vision comes true it is devastating, but through it all, the bonds of kinship remain strong and hope endures. Even as shadows gather, the light of faith and fierce maternal love refuses to go out.

The play is resonant with the folklore, atmosphere and dialect of 20th century central Georgia.  The flies referred to in the title are, symbolically (and literally), evils.  Playwright Gissendanner explains, “When somebody has sent a spell, it could be manifested by flies and this is one of Savannah’s deep beliefs.” The spells symbolize the collective anxieties weighing on southern Black women of her generation.

“A House Full of Flies” is a production of Theater for the New City’s Emerging Playwrights Program. This program is integral to the theater’s mission, which includes being a center for new and innovative theater arts, discovering relevant new writing and nurturing new playwrights.

WillieAnn Gissendanner, born and raised in Gordon, Georgia, is a graduate of Paine College (Augusta, GA) and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (NYC). Her theatrical acting resume includes Euripides’ “Medea” (Workshop Theater Company) and the solo plays “BO” by G. C. Sullivan (Workshop Theater Company, John Houseman Theater and Staten Island Armory) and “Woman” by Lawrence Holder (Paul Robeson Theatre, Brooklyn). She created, produced, and directed the NAACP ACT-SO Evening of Theater. She is author of “Pearls and Swine/This Body Is Mine,” which premiered at Theater for the New City in 2023 and was praised for its bold, unapologetic take on women’s bodily autonomy.   Her plays “Pearls and Swine/This Body is Mine” and “A Houseful of Flies” were selected for Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning’s Meet the Playwright Festival and scenes from both plays were presented there.  She is a member of SAG-AFTRA and AEA.

Gissendanner writes, “Theater For The New City is a theater community where dreams can be realized. Its arms are open to artistic souls seeking expression as playwrights, poets and actors. I am privileged and thankful to be welcomed into this community and to have my work presented on its stages. So grateful to Ms. Crystal Field and the founders of TNC for bringing into existence this vital community for performing artists.”

CAST
WillieAnn Gissendanner – Savannah
Kai Brown
Marcia Hopson
Sania Hyatt
Lola Lukas
Obinna Nwako
Aubrey Smith
Bill Tatum
Douglas Walker
Scott Williams