THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field
Presents
The Shine Challenge, 2025
A new play by Ishmael Reed
Directed by Rome Neal
January 30, 2025 – February 16, 2025
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM
Tickets: $20, Students & Seniors $15
Run Time:
THEATER
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)
New York, NY 10003
Directions
Playwright Ishmael Reed explains why he wrote The Shine Challenge 2025: “Like members of most ethnic groups, the purpose of our schooling was to have us fit into the Anglo mainstream. At home and on the playground, other story-telling traditions were available, handed down through the generations as part of an oral tradition. The Bible might be the only book in the house. But there was a story-telling tradition that we kept from our parents because of the bad words. They were “toasts” and “the dozens,” which had endless variations.
“In my great uncle’s house, the only painting on the wall was that of the Titanic. The sinking of the Titanic challenged the boasts of white supremacy. From the collective imagination of the Black streets came the “toast” of “Shine,” who warns the first-class passengers that the ship, thought to be invincible, was taking water. One might consider Shine to be the grassroots nominee for a member of the Black prophetic tradition.”
Ishmael Reed has lengthened the 40 or so lines of the typical Shine rap into a 100-page script in which he expands on the issues addressed in the original toast: race, class, immigration, engineering, and Edwardian morality by putting Shine on trial in which he is both the accused and his own defense attorney.
One of the reasons Reed wrote the play was he found that members of three generations of Blacks had never heard the story of Shine. He calls the play The Shine Challenge, 2025 because he expects that a future playwright will expand upon what he has accomplished. During a time when there is a crackdown on Black culture under the banner of Woke, whose definition has been twisted by our enemies, every possible effort must be made to maintain Black, Brown, Native American and Asian American traditions. Our writers can be like the monks who protected the sacred texts from barbarians.
CAST
Monisha Shiva (Announcer)
Audrey Shon (Bailiff)
Malika Iman (Court Clerk)
Roz Fox (Judge Georgia St. Clair)
Carman Noelia (Prosecutor Francis Nunez)
Brian Simmons (S. Shine, acting as his own defense attorney)
Jesse Bueno (Captain Edward Smith, Captain of the Titanic)
Jordan Barringer (Helen Smith, the captain’s daughter)
Emil Guillermo (J. Bruce Ismay, owner of the Titanic)
Robert Turner (Jake “The Cat” Watson, prosecution witness)
Maurice Carlton (Jack the Shark, defense witness)
Rome Neal (Polar Bear Sam, defense witness)
Joy Reneé LeBlanc (Iceberg Sally)
Sekou Carradine (male understudy)
PRODUCTION
Director – Rome Neal
Writer – Ishmael Reed
Set Design – Chris Cumberbatch
Lighting & Sound Design – Alexander Bartenieff
Costume Design & Costume Mistress – Diana Chaiken
Stage Manager & Props Manager– Emily Yarmey
Production Coordinator – Carla Blank
What 2 critics wrote about The Shine Challenge 2024’s virtual reading”:
“[Ishmael] Reed has brilliantly molded the legendary African American folklore comedic poem of “Shine on the Titanic” into a plausible debate, questioning what really happened on the Titanic….’The Shine Challenge 2024’ is a crazy, rousing, slapstick tour…with more laughs than “Blazing Saddles” and more facts than Google, floating in the ocean of race, class, inequality, immigration, and what really happened on that ship. Look closely past all that insane humor and pay attention. Reed has pulled the covers off Shine. The truth is the light. Shine on.”
Ron Scott, New York Amsterdam News, April 4, 2024
In a Brilliant Burlesque on History, … America’s most inventive storyteller Ishmael Reed, the ever-insightful satirist has given us yet another masterwork that tickles our funny bone, stimulates our intellect, titillates our emotions, and challenges our imagination. All the while giving us a solid history lesson in his inimitable style….A rare and brilliant achievement.
Playthell Benjamin, The New York Beacon, March 7-March 13, 2024