Cast members Gemma Berg, Toddra Brunson, Nai Fairweather, and Denzel-McCausland.

By AARON KRAUSE

When you think of live theater during the summer, lighthearted, escapist fare may spring to mind. Understandably so — in the sweltering heat, who wouldn’t want to sit back, relax, and simply enjoy the show?

But while Wilton Manors-based New City Players (NCP) hopes theatergoers enjoy themselves at their next show, the company also hopes folks deeply engage with their upcoming professional production of Confederates. This piece is a bold, thought-provoking, and timely dramedy by award-winning playwright Dominique Morisseau.

NCP’s production opens at 8 p.m. Saturday, July 12. It runs through July 27 at Island City Stage’s intimate black box theater in Wilton Manors. The production kicks off with a “Pay What You Wish” preview at 8 p.m. on Friday, July 11. Ticket prices for the preview range from $5 to $25. In all, the production will run for 13 performances.

To deepen the audience experience, NCP will also host post-show events. They include “Sunday Talkbacks” and “Weekend Wine Downs.” The latter invites patrons to engage in conversation with the cast and creative team.

Confederates, praised for its incisive commentary and structural innovation, premiered off-Broadway in 2022. It quickly established itself as an important new work in the American theatrical canon.

“This production invites audiences to witness a story that blends outrageous humor with sobering truths, challenging our perception of progress,” reads an NCP press release.

Directed by Maha McCain, the production features a cast that includes Rita Cole, Nai Fairweather, Toddra Brunson, Gemma Berg, and ensemble member Denzel McCausland.

History, Parallel and Present

The play unfolds across two timelines. Sara is an enslaved woman risking everything to smuggle military secrets from her Confederate plantation to her brother. He is fighting for the Union. Meanwhile, Sandra is a modern-day Black professor. She watches her academic career begin to unravel after a racist image appears on her office door. As the two womens’ stories unfold in parallel, Confederates reveals how the fight for dignity, autonomy, and justice remains disturbingly consistent across American history.

“This production reminds us that progress is neither simple nor guaranteed,” says NCP Producing Artistic Director Tim Davis. “In a time when our country feels more divided than ever, Morisseau’s play offers us the rare opportunity to experience lives different from our own while recognizing patterns that persist through generations. The playwright’s brilliant use of humor to illuminate difficult truths makes this an unforgettable theatrical experience.”

Meet the Playwright: Dominique Morisseau

Dominique Morisseau is a MacArthur “Genius” Grant recipient and Tony-nominated playwright. Many widely regard her as one of the most vital voices in contemporary American theater. Scholars and audiences celebrate her work for its lyrical language, emotional depth, and unflinching focus on social justice — particularly through the lens of Black communities and working-class experiences.

Her acclaimed plays include Pipeline, Skeleton Crew, and Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations, all of which fuse realism with theatricality and humor with heartbreak. Morisseau frequently blends timelines, genres, and tones to explore how past and present collide. In Confederates, as in much of her work, she invites audiences to wrestle with uncomfortable truths while never losing sight of her characters’ humanity.

Like August Wilson, who rooted many of his plays in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, Morisseau often grounds her work in Detroit. Her Detroit Project trilogy — Paradise Blue, Skeleton Crew, and Detroit ’67 — examines race, labor, class, and identity in that city’s historically Black neighborhoods. For Morisseau, place is not just backdrop, but character — a living force that shapes the people within her plays.

Humor as Resistance, Laughter as Survival

McCain says that while it’s important to convey the drama of Confederates, it’s equally essential to lean into its humor.

“We have to keep moving forward — systemic racism is absurd. Sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying,” McCain says. “Ms. Morisseau says herself in the play’s notes, ‘May you have fun in the mounting of this play. If you are not having fun, you’re taking the play too seriously.’ Working on this play has been a cathartic process.”

During rehearsals, “we discussed how to lean into the absurdity of both worlds (Sandra’s and Sara’s), and how to make the play move as swiftly as it needs to without stopping the action,” McCain adds. “I like to play with both bold and subtle nods to themes within the play — sometimes you need to throw colorful paint on the wall to make your point, and sometimes you only need a soft heartbeat underscoring a scene to set a tone.”

McCain and NCP began preparing for this production about 18 months ago.

“At the time, I was attracted to the idea of working on a play that highlighted the struggle of Black women in academia,” she says. “After living with the play for a while and witnessing recent events in our country, my focus shifted more to examining the effect(s) White Supremacy has on us as a society — including the institution of academia.”

She adds: “Unfortunately, for all of the progress we have made as a society, we are still suffering harm from skewed ideas and perspectives rooted in systemic racism. I wanted to use the journey of these two women to show that not much has changed for Black women over time.”

Morisseau puts it more bluntly in her script notes: “It will be hard to tell the worlds apart because the shit is just being recycled over and over again.”

Two Women, Two Eras, One Struggle

Nai Fairweather, a young actor who graduated from New World School of the Arts in 2024, says Confederates resonates deeply with today’s social and political climate.

“With the main conversation of the play being about two Black women 160 years apart both dealing with the struggles of institutionalized racism, it’s still a huge issue we go through in America to this day,” she says. “And unfortunately, with a political climate that seems to be pulling us more back into the past, plays like this are a reminder of what we want to move away from.”

She praises Morisseau’s authentic voice: “I think what makes Morisseau’s words so powerful is how real and natural they are to our own language — even mine, as I play a character from the 1860s. The language is so connected to the message that it almost brings itself to life the minute I speak the lines.”

Fairweather says audiences can expect “a lot of laughs, not-so-comfortable fights and conversations, and relationships you’d never expect — in both worlds.”

Her castmate Cole, an award-winning performer who has been acting for 25 years, calls Confederates a true dramedy — a blend of drama and comedy.

“Although Confederates touches on very serious themes, there are beautiful moments of humor threaded throughout the play, and that excites me the most about performing this live for this community,” she says. “We often think of historical characters as super serious, but Dominique shows us their humanity — and some of it is quite hilarious.”

Both actors draw heavily from lived experience to access their characters’ emotional truths.

“As a Black woman in America who deals with institutional racism every single day, there’s not much I need to do to emotionally prepare for a role like this. I live it,” Cole says. “But technically speaking, I had to draw from my own experiences in and outside the workplace to help me color in Sandra’s complexities — without going too deep into personal trauma. I would just recall the feelings and aftermath of certain events in my life to help me relate.”

Sandra is a Black woman professor navigating daily micro- and macroaggressions, while managing a personal life in turmoil. “I resonate with that journey,” says Cole, who is herself an educator and performer. “These are not easy worlds to navigate.”

She also conducted independent research into slavery: “A lot of the history and backstory in this play about our enslaved ancestors encouraged me to dig a little deeper. Unfortunately, our education systems don’t teach much of this, so you have to seek it out yourself. I think Dominique’s writing encourages that.”

Fairweather started preparing to portray Sara shortly before rehearsals began, digging into the script to build backstory and understand the character’s relationships. She also journals and sketches as a way to stay grounded in the role.

“I currently keep a journal specifically meant for the process,” she says. “But I’ve also filled pages with drawings and quotes that connect with Sara the most. Just something to look back on after the show’s done.”

She describes Sara as tenacious, driven, and independent — yet vulnerable. “She is still just a growing Black woman who is naïve to the world around her and is constantly trying to be protected or taken care of by others who care for her.”

Fairweather relates on a personal level: “I, like her, have had many challenges that I feel have held me back. But with that same resilience and similar attitude, I’m never one to turn my back on something I’m striving for.”

Echoes of the Past, Urgencies of the Present

McCain hopes Confederates sparks introspection — and action. She encourages audiences to reflect on:

• how the delusion of white supremacy is life-threatening to all aspects of society

• how the structure of many American institutions maintain a stark divide between certain groups

• how susceptible we are to acting on implicit bias daily

• the worth of empathy in our modern society, especially as it relates to the struggles of Black women

Cole echoes that hope: “I want audiences to truly hear this play, digest it, talk about it in the car on the way home, and then find ways to be proactive about these issues in real life. As humans, we can become complacent about these topics — and that’s part of why racism and unconscious bias still exist today. I hope audiences will leave choosing not to be silent, but to speak out and take action.”

IF YOU GO

WHAT: New City Players’ production of Confederates by Dominique Morisseau.

WHEN: July 11-27, with 13 performances spread over three weekends.

WHERE: Island City Stage, 2304 N. Dixie Highway in Wilton Manors.

TICKETS: Tickets are $40-45 with the exception of our “pay what you wish” preview on July 11th. Tickets can be purchased online at https://newcityplayers.org/confederates. For student and group discounts email the box office at boxoffice@newcityplayers.org or call (954)-376-6114. 

MORE INFO: In addition to 13 performances spread over 3 weekends, New City Players has planned some engaging post-show events that take audiences Beyond the Stage:

Pay What You Wish Preview! In an effort to make theatre more accessible this special “pay what you wish” performance features prices from $5-25. Friday, July 11th, 8pm. 

Opening Night Reception! Enjoy libations and small bites with the cast and creative team immediately following the performance. July 12th after the 8pm show. 

Weekend Wine Downs! Enjoy a casual and structured time of reflection, conversation, and libations after the Friday and Saturday night performances where patrons can discuss the questions, themes, and ideas of the play with each other and members of the creative team (July 18th, 19th, 25th, and 26th). 

Sunday Talkbacks! For those looking to go a little deeper on the process of bringing a contemporary play to life and step into New City Players’ theatre-making process, you can join the cast and creative team after every Sunday performance for an interactive and engaging talkback. July 13th, 20th, and 27th. 

Cast members Gemma Berg, Toddra Brunson, Rita Cole, and Denzel McCausland.