DANA H.

Crow’s Theatre Presents

the Goodman Theatre, Center Theatre Group, Vineyard Theatre Production of DANA H.

Written by Lucas Hnath
Adapted from interviews with Dana Higginbotham conducted by Steve Cosson
Directed by Les Waters
Starring Jordan Baker as Dana H.

CANADIAN PREMIERE

The critically acclaimed and celebrated play DANA H. arrives in Toronto following a triumphant Broadway run and subsequent U.S. tour. This riveting, cutting-edge drama follows the harrowing true story of Dana Higginbotham, a chaplain in a psychiatric ward, who was abducted by one of the patients and held captive in a series of Florida motel rooms for five months.

Her son, acclaimed playwright Lucas Hnath (A Doll’s House, Part 2), has created a powerful drama for the stage with his mother’s own voice and courageous words. The show’s dialogue is audio culled from days of recorded interviews. Performed with precision by Jordan Baker, she lip-syncs every word, both channelling and paying tribute to Dana Higginbotham.

Winner of the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show, two Tony Awards (Best Performance, Best Sound Design), and The New York Times Critic’s Pick, DANA H. shatters conventions and delivers a chilling and unforgettable exploration of survival and storytelling.

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THE COMPANY

Jordan Baker – Dana Higginbotham
Jordan Baker is best known for creating the role “C” in the NY production of Edward Albee’s Pulitzer Prize winning play Three Tall Women. She is the recipient of a Theatre World Award for her Broadway debut in Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly, Last Summer opposite Elizabeth Ashley.  Film: The Post opposite Meryl Streep and in The Land Of Steady Habits opposite Ben Mendelsohn.  She created the role of Cindy in Rebecca Gilman’s play Luna Gale directed by Robert Falls at The Goodman Theatre and CTGs Kirk Douglas Theatre (2014 Jeff Award, 4 LA Drama Critics Circle Award Nom./ Ovation Award Nom.)  She also created the role of Fran in the American production of Things I Know To Be True by Andrew Bovell directed by Mark Clements (co-production Milwaukee Rep & Arizona Theatre Company).

Lucas Hnath – Playwright
Lucas Hnath received a 2017 Tony Award nomination for Best Play with A Doll’s House, Part 2. Hnath’s other plays include Hillary and Clinton, The Thing Place, Red Speedo, The Christians, A Public Reading Of An Unproduced Screenplay About The Death of Walt Disney, Issac’s Eye, and Death Tax. He has been produced on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre, Off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep, and Ensemble Studio Theatre. His plays have also been premiered at the Humana Festival of New Plays, Victory Gardens, and South Coast Repertory. He is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect, a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, and an alumnus of New Dramatists. Awards: Whiting Award, Guggenheim Fellowship, Kesselring Prize, Outer Critics Circle Award for Best New Play, Obie Award for Playwriting, Steinberg Playwright Award, and the Windham-Campbell Literary Prize.

Les Waters – Director
Les Waters is an Obie Award winner, was Artistic Director of Actors Theatre of Louisville from 2012-2018, where he directed The Thin Place, Evocation To Visible Appearance, Little Bunny Foo Foo, Recent Alien Abductions, MacBeth, For Peter Pan On Her 70th Birthday, The Glory Of The World, Luna Gale, At The Vanishing Point, The Christians, Our Town, Gnit, Girlfriends, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, and Big Love. From 2003-2011, he served as Associate Artistic Director at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. His productions have been seen in New York at Playwrights Horizons, Signature Theatre Company, The Public Theater, Second Stage Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Connelly Theater, Clubbed Thumb, Soho Rep, and Brooklyn Academy of Music, and regionally at theatres such as Arena Stage, Huntington Theatre Company, Mark Taper Forum, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Goodman Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, and American Repertory Theater. In 2009, he made his Broadway debut with In The Next Room, or The Vibrator Play. He led the MFA directing program at University of California, San Diego from 1995-2003.

 

Dana Higginbotham     Interviewee
Steve Cosson                Interviewer
Andrew Boyce               Scenic Designer
Paul Toben                     Lighting and Supertitle Designer
Janice Pytel                   Costume Designer
Mikhail Fiksel                Sound Designer
Tanya Palmer                Dramaturg
Steve Cuiffo                   Illusion Designer and Lip Sync Consultant
Emily Schmit                  Associate Lighting and Supertitle Designer
Megumi Katayama       Associate Sound Designer
Carly Beamish               Head of Wardrobe
Lisa Nighswander         Head of Props
Anna Kaltenbach          Stage Manager
Stephanie Dilnot           Apprentice Stage Manager
Shelley Miles                 Stage Management Consultant

 

Audience Advisory: DANA H. contains flashing lights and loud sound effects and includes dark themes and vivid descriptions of violence.

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