presents
 
Intimate Apparel by
Two-Time Pulitzer Prize-winner
Lynn Nottage
Opens Friday, April 1
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

West Palm Beach, Fla.- (Monday, March 21, 2022) -Lynn Nottage’s heartfelt and heartbreaking Intimate Apparel, which she wrote “to honor the legacy of her great-grandmother,” opens at Palm Beach Dramaworks on Friday, April 1 (8pm). Set at the turn of the 20th century, the play tells the story of Esther, a 35-year-old African-American seamstress of exquisite intimate apparel who aches to love and be loved. An unlikely opportunity arises when she enters into a correspondence with a man she’s never met. The play, which Variety called “note-perfect,” runs through April 17, with specially priced previews on March 30 and 31.
 
The production is directed by Be Boyd, making her PBD debut, and features (in alphabetical order) Rita Cole, Jovon Jacobs, Gabrielle Lee, Krystal Mosley, Jordan Sobel, and Gracie Winchester. All but Jacobs are making their PBD mainstage debuts. Scenic design is by Michael Amico, costume design is by Brian O’Keefe, lighting design is by Kirk Bookman, and sound design is by Roger Arnold.
 
The journey to writing Intimate Apparel began when Nottage discovered a photo of her great-grandmother while cleaning out the house of her grandmother, who was struggling with dementia and moving in with Lynn’s brother. She told an interviewer, “I’d never seen this woman before. I didn’t even know her name.” She later discovered that her great-grandmother’s name was Ethel Boyce Armstrong. Nottage’s mother had already passed away, so there was no one left who could provide her with family history. All Nottage knew initially was that her great-grandmother had been a seamstress at the turn of the 20th century. So, she spent hours at the New York Public Library, learning about the world in which Ethel lived.
 
“I wrote Intimate Apparel in part because of my desire to get closer to my ancestors,” Nottage told PBD Producing Artistic Director William Hayes in a 2020 interview (available on YouTube). “I wanted to understand what it might have been like for a single, Black woman at the turn of the century to try and forge a life in New York City despite all the obstacles she probably had to face. I also wanted to write a play for my mother, something that she would have loved to have seen, something that was in her gentle, loving spirit.”
Lynn Nottage is the only woman to have twice received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. She won in 2009 for Ruined and 2017 for Sweat. Other full-length plays include Crumbs from the Table of Joy; Por’Knockers; Mud, River, Stone; Las Meninas; Intimate Apparel; Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine; By the Way, Meet Vera Stark; Mlima’s Tale; and Clyde’s. She wrote the book for the musical The Secret Life of Bees (music by Duncan Sheik, lyrics by Susan Birkenhead), and MJ: The Musical, featuring the songs of Michael Jackson. She is also the librettist for the opera Intimate Apparel (score by Ricky Ian Gordon), which premiered at Lincoln Center in January for a limited run and was recorded for future broadcast by Great Performances on PBS. Nottage was also a writer and producer on the Netflix series She's Gotta Have It, directed by Spike Lee. Her work has been widely produced in the United States and throughout the world, and she is the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship as well as many other distinguished awards. A native of Brooklyn, Nottage is a graduate of Brown University and the Yale School of Drama, and is an associate professor in the Theatre Department at Columbia School of the Arts.
"...thoughtful, affecting...The play offers poignant commentary on an era when the cut and color of one's dress-and of course, skin-determined whom one could and could not marry, sleep with, even talk to in public."
-Variety

"...deeply moving..."
-NY Daily News
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Palm Beach Dramaworks is a professional, nonprofit theatre company founded in 2000 and located in the heart of downtown West Palm Beach. Each season, the award-winning company produces five mainstage shows and offers a wide variety of programs for students at the theatre, in schools, and online. Committed to fostering the future of theatre, PBD has become a hub for playwrights in Florida and around the country to nurture their work through initiatives including Drama(in the)works and the annual New Year/New Plays Festival. PBD is a member of Theatre Communications Group, Florida Professional Theatres Association, and the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County. www.palmbeachdramaworks.org
Evening performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30pm, Friday and Saturday at 8pm, and select Sundays at 7pm. Matinee performances are on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday at 2pm. Post-performance discussions follow Wednesday matinee and Sunday evening performances. Individual tickets are $79, with specially priced preview tickets at $59 and opening night tickets at $94. Student tickets are available for $15, and Pay Your Age tickets are available for those 18-40. Tickets for educators are half price with proper ID (other restrictions apply). Group rates for 20 or more and subscription packages for four or five plays are also available. Tickets can be purchased through the box office, in person or by phone (561.514.4042 ext 2), and online 24 hours a day at palmbeachdramaworks.org.     

The Don & Ann Brown Theatre is located in the heart of downtown West Palm Beach, at 201 Clematis Street. For ticket information contact the box office at (561) 514-4042, or visit www.palmbeachdramaworks.org.
For press photos of Intimate Apparel
Click here to view photos by Jason Nuttle

MEDIA CONTACT:
Jennifer Sardone-Shiner
Marketing Consultant
(561) 891-7278
jshiner@palmbeachdramaworks.org 
www.palmbeachdramaworks.org