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Appropriate

January 25 - February 23

Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage
Old Globe Theatre
Conrad Prebys Theatre Center

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Photo Credits

(foreground) Maggie Lacey as Toni and the cast of Appropriate, 2025. Photo by Jim Cox.

Appropriate
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Summary

January 25 – February 23, 2025

Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage
Old Globe Theatre
Conrad Prebys Theatre Center

San Diego premiere
By Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Directed by Steve H. Broadnax III

The comic drama from Pulitzer Prize finalist Branden Jacobs-Jenkins that The New York Times called “subversively original… remarkable and devious.” The estranged siblings of the Lafayette family gather to settle their late father’s Arkansas estate. Amid the clutter they uncover a shocking relic, forcing them to confront long-buried secrets and decades of resentment. As tensions boil over and the cicadas roar, the family faces unsettling truths about their past and how it has shaped them. Directed by Steve H. Broadnax III (Broadway’s Thoughts of a Colored Man), this Tony Award–winning play is a searing and bitingly funny portrait of family, history, and legacy.

Vicki and Carl Zeiger Insights Seminar: Tuesday, January 28 at 6:00 p.m.

Community Night: Friday, January 31 at 7:00 p.m.

Post Show Forums: Tuesday, February 4; Wednesday, February 5, Tuesday, February 11; Wednesday, February 19 (evening performance)

Open-Caption Performance: Saturday, February 15 at 2:00 p.m.

Total running time: Two hours and 25 minutes (two acts with one intermission).

Content warning: This show includes strong language, provocative content including racism, violence, and sexual behavior. Effects warning: This show includes loud sound effects.

Appropriate is supported by Lead Production Sponsors Elaine Bennett Darwin and The Jo Bobbie MacConnell Trust.

Digital Program

Download the program PDF

 

“A production that demonstrates writing, acting, and staging at the very highest level.” Stage and Cinema

“A ferocious dysfunctional family saga that will stagger audiences with its intensity!” Stage and Cinema

“The all-star cast delivers a compelling performance; every single one of them deserves recognition!” San Diego Jewish World

Best bet! Los Angeles Times

“Packs a wallop! Razor-sharp nuggets of humor … a dark comedy offering more gasps than laughs.” The San Diego Union-Tribune

“An acerbic romp.” San Diego Magazine

“This is a comedy. You will laugh. You might not want to, but the Lafayette family’s antics of estrangement will force at least a chuckle and maybe even a face-covering gasp.” San Diego Magazine

Calendar

Cast and Creatives

Cast

Creatives

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

Playwright

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Playwright) is a Brooklyn-based playwright, producer, Tony winner, and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist. Recent theatre credits include Appropriate (Tony Award; Broadway, Second Stage), The Comeuppance (Signature Theatre), Girls (Yale Rep), Everybody (Signature Theatre), War (Yale Rep; Lincoln Center/LCT3), Gloria (Vineyard Theatre), Appropriate (Obie Award; Signature Theatre), An Octoroon (Obie Award; Soho Rep, Theatre for a New Audience), and Neighbors (The Public Theater). He currently teaches at Yale University and serves as Vice President of the Dramatists Guild council and on the boards of Soho Rep, Park Avenue Armory, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and the Dramatists Guild Foundation. Honors include a USA Artists fellowship, a Guggenheim fellowship, the MacArthur fellowship, the Windham-Campbell Prize for Drama, and the inaugural Tennessee Williams Award.

Steve H. Broadnax III

Director

Steve H. Broadnax III (Director) Thoughts of a Colored Man (Broadway) Suzan-Lori Parks’ Sally & Tom at the Guthrie Theatre and The Public in New York (world premiere); Katori Hall’s 2021 Pulitzer Prize premiere The Hot Wing King at The Signature Theatre; Lee Edward Colston’s The First Deep Breath at Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles and Chicago’s Victory Garden Theatre (premiere and winner of Jeff Awards Best New Work); Dominique Morisseau’s Sunset Baby at The Signature Theatre (NYC); Blood at the Root at the National Black Theatre (winner of Kennedy Center's Hip Hop Theater Creator Award); and William Jackson Harper’s premiere Travisville at NYC Ensemble Studio. Associate Artistic Director at People’s Light Theatre and a Professor of Theatre at Penn State University; Co-head of MFA Directing.

Arnel Sancianco

Scenic Design

Arnel Sancianco (Scenic Design) Arnel is an award-winning scenic designer with a nationally recognized portfolio. Originally a San Diego native, he now lives in the Bay Area and is the Head of Scenic Design at the University of California, Berkeley. His credits include productions at La Jolla Playhouse, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Muny, American Conservatory Theater, The Huntington, Goodman Theatre, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, The Kennedy Center, Woolly Mammoth, Writers Theatre, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Arizona Theatre Company, Court Theatre, American Players Theatre, Milwaukee Rep. For an in-depth look at his work visit ArnelDesigns.com.

Celeste Jennings

Costume Design

Celeste Jennings (Costume Design) is a costume designer and playwright. Recent/upcoming costume design includes: Oh Happy Day and Pride and Prejudice (Baltimore Center Stage), Memnon (The Classical Theatre of Harlem at the Getty Center and Marcus Garvey Park), Rough Crossing (Resident Ensemble Players), Furlough’s Paradise (The Geffen), Minor.ity (Women’s Project Theatre). Recent produced plays: Citrus and ‘Bov Water (Northern Stage). Recent play readings: Potliqka (Public Theatre) and Contentious Woman (PlayCo). Education: MFA in costume design from NYU Tish School of the Arts. Current member of the Emerging Writer’s Group of the Public Theatre. IG: celestejenn, website: celestejenndesigns.com.

Alan C. Edwards

Lighting Design

Alan C. Edwards (Lighting Design) West End: Harry Clarke. Off-Broadway: Sally & Tom (The Public); The Hot Wing King, Fires in The Mirror [Lortel nom.], Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (Signature NYC); Harry Clarke [Lortel Award] (Vineyard); Kill Move Paradise [Drama Desk nom] (National Black Theatre); Bluebird Memories featuring Common (Audible Theatre). Regional: Beautiful (Asolo Rep); Gatsby: An American Myth, Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (A.R.T.); Lights Out: Nat King Cole, Paradise Blue (Geffen Playhouse). Dance: In The Same Tongue (Dianne McIntyre); Artists at the Center for NYCC & Chasing Magic (Ayodele Casel); Rhythm Is Life (Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards); and Lifted, by Christopher Rudd for American Ballet Theatre. Teaching: Lighting Design faculty at Yale School of Drama. Training: M.F.A from the Yale School of Drama. alancedwards.com.

Curtis Craig

Sound Design

Curtis Craig (Sound Design) NYC: Signature Theatre, Classical Theatre of Harlem, Apollo Theater, New York Fringe Regional: Geffen, People’s Light, Cleveland Playhouse, Lantern Theater, Syracuse Stage, Denver Center Theatre Company, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Baltimore Center Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Seattle Rep, Detroit Public Theatre, American Stage, Clarence Brown Theatre, Chautauqua Theater Company, Dallas Theater Center. World premieres: Suzan-Lori Park’s Sally &Tom at the Guthrie, Dominique Morriseau’s Confederates at Signature, Mud Row at PLTC, and Lauren Yee’s The Great Leap, Denver Center. Winner of Barrymore Award for the World Premier of Bonez in 2023 and the Audelco Award for Confederates. In 2022 his composition and sound design for the American premiere of Frankenstein won the Gold Medal for Sound Design at the World Stage Design expo in Calgary. Associate Professor of Sound Design, Penn State. curtiscraig.com.

Caparelliotis Casting

Casting

Caparelliotis Casting (Casting) The Old Globe: Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson - Apt 2B, Fat Ham, Stir, King James, English, The Age of Innocence, Exotic Deadly, Under a Baseball Sky, What We Talk About…, Dial M for Murder, Mala, Shutter Sisters, Hurricane Diane, Noura, They Promised Her the Moon, Tiny Beautiful Things, Barefoot in the Park, The Wanderers, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Skeleton Crew. Select Broadway: Good Night and Good Luck, Eureka Day, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, Grey House, Ohio State Murders, Macbeth, The Minutes, King Lear, Hillary and Clinton, Ink, The Waverly Gallery, Meteor Shower, A Doll’s House, Part 2, Jitney, Blackbird, Disgraced  Additional theatre: MTC, Signature, Atlantic. Television: “New Amsterdam” (NBC), “American Odyssey” (NBC).

Norman Anthony Small

Production Stage Manager

Norman Anthony Small (Production Stage Manager) Broadway: The Shark Is Broken, Leopoldstadt, American Buffalo. Off-Broadway: Good Bones, Sally & Tom (The Public); Where We Stand (WP Theater); Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven (Atlantic Theater Company). Regional: Crossroads Theatre Company, Long Wharf Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage. Tour: Twisted Melodies (Baltimore Center Stage/Apollo Theater); Water +/- (NPR). Education: Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Media Management, Metropolitan College of New York; Bachelor of Music (BM) in Music Engineering Technology, University of Miami. Adjunct professor of stage management at Fordham University. Award: Charlie Blackwell Symposium Scholarship for Stage Managers of Color.

Marie Jahelka

Assistant Stage Manager

Marie Jahelka (Assistant Stage Manager) The Old Globe: Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson – Apt. 2B, Crime and Punishment, A Comedy, The XIXth, The Taming of the Shrew, Shutter Sisters, The Underpants, Native Gardens, The Wanderers, Red Velvet. Regional: The Ballad of Johnny and June, SUMO, Put Your House in Order, Hollywood, Ether Dome (La Jolla Playhouse), The Inheritance (Geffen Playhouse), Once on This Island (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), A Chorus Line (Moonlight Stage Productions), The Humans, Aubergine, Evita, Violet (San Diego Repertory Theatre), The Last Five Years, HIR, Shakespeare’s R&J, Mistakes Were Made (Cygnet Theatre Company). Education: B.A. in Theatre Arts from University of San Diego.