UNDERGROUND 
RAILROAD GAME

Good morning,
America!

Welcome to Hanover Middle School, where a pair of teachers are getting down and dirty with today’s lesson. The nimble duo goes round after round on the mat of our nation’s history, tackling race, sex and power in this R-rated, kaleidoscopic and fearless comedy.

The 2017 Obie Award Winner for Best New American Theatre Work

New York Times
25 Best Plays Since Angels in America

Fringe First Award

Lucille Lortel Nominations including Outstanding Play,
Outstanding Lead Actress, and Outstanding Costume Design

Created by Jennifer Kidwell & Scott R. Sheppard with Lighting Rod Special
Directed by Taibi Magar

Featuring Jennifer Kidwell & Scott R. Sheppard
Tilly Grimes, Production Design
Steven Dufala, Scenic Design
Oona Curley, Lighting Design
Mikala Sulaiman, Sound Design
Ryan Bourque, Fight Choreography
David Neumann, Movement Consultant
Lisa McGinn, Production Stage Manager
You-Shin Chen, Associate Scenic Design
City Mulkearns, Associate Costume Design
Sarah Stolnack, Associate Lighting Design
Lee Kinney, Assistant Sound Designer
Emilie Grossman, Props Master
Natalie Hratko, Assistant Stage Manager

Close-up of a man with short brown hair and green eyes wearing a blue shirt, looking at the camera with a slight smile, gray out-of-focus background.

Scott Sheppard

Scott Sheppard (Creator/Performer) Scott is a performer, creator, director, and teacher living in Philadelphia. As Co-Director of the Philadelphia-based theater company Lightning Rod Special, he has been a creator/performer for all of their productions. Scott is a member of the inaugural class at Pig Iron’s School for Advanced Performance Training (2011-2013) and was a creator/performer for Pig Iron Theatre Company’s 99 Breakups and a performer in PITC’s Gentlemen Volunteers (2015-16 remount). In 2014, he was a guest faculty member at Colgate University where he directed and co-created the student production, Seeing the Beast. Recent credits: co-creator/performer in Holden (Ice Factory, NYC and FringeArts, Philadelphia) and Sans Everything (AS220, Providence and Charlestown Working Theater, Boston) and performer in The Stinky Cheeseman and Other Fairly Stupid Tales (Arden Theatre Co., Philadelphia). Scott is also a 2016 recipient of the Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Performing Arts. He would like to thank Ars Nova for their mentorship and insistence on dreaming big.

A smiling woman with short natural hair, wearing a blue halter top and gold hoop earrings, standing against a white background.

Jennifer Kidwell

Jennifer Kidwell (Creator/Performer) is a performing artist. Recent projects: Demolishing Everything with Amazing Speed (Dan Hurlin), I Understand Everything Better (David Neumann/advanced beginner group), Sans Everything (AS 220), Antigone (The Wilma Theater), I Promised Myself to Live Faster and 99 Break-Ups (Pig Iron Theatre Company), Dick’s Last Stand (Whitney Biennial 2014, as Donelle Woolford), Zinnias: the Life of Clementine Hunter (Robert Wilson/Toshi Reagon/Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon). She’s currently working with Geoff Sobelle and Nichole Canuso and is a PITC company member, a Wilma Theater Associated Artist, a co-director of the theater company Lightning Rod Special and a co-founder of JACK. Her writing has been published in movement research Performance Journal #45 and hyperallergic.com. In 2013 she was awarded the TCG/Fox Resident Actor Fellowship (with PITC), naming Underground Railroad Game as her primary project. She is a 2016 Pew Fellow.

A woman with long, wavy dark hair, wearing earrings and a dark blue plaid shirt, standing with arms crossed near a window, smiling at the camera.

Taibi
Magar

Taibi Magar (Director) is an Egyptian-American director based in New York, and a graduate of the Brown/Trinity MFA program. In New York, Taibi has directed and developed work with TFANA, the Women’s Project Theatre, Rising Phoenix Rep and INTAR Theatre. Regionally, she has directed and developed work with Trinity Repertory Company, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare & Company and Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She is the recipient of a Stephen Sondheim Fellowship, an Oregon Shakespeare Festival Fellowship, a Public Theater Shakespeare Fellowship, the TFANA Actors and Directors Project Fellowship and is an alumna of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab. Taibi is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers union and is represented by Ross Weiner at ICM Partners. Upcoming 16/17 Season: Juilliard, Alley Theatre and Guthrie Theater.

  • “25 BEST AMERICAN PLAYS SINCE 'ANGELS IN AMERICA' ”

    The New York Times

  • The New York Times Critics’ Pick & Best of 2016

  • “In-all-ways sensational.”

    Ben Brantley, The New York Times

  • “Outrageously funny! Strikingly Rendered by bold, smart performances.”

    Adam Feldman, Time Out New York

  • “Explosive! Fearlessly, ferociously uninhibited… the show’s most subversive quality is also quintessentially American: it’s wildly entertaining.”

    Elisabeth Vincentelli, The New Yorker

  • “FEARLESS, FEROCIOUS, EXPOSING AND EXPLOSIVE…THRILLING”

    STAGE

  • "THEATRE YOU ARE NEVER LIKELY TO FORGET.”

    WhatsOnStage

A person dressed in a blue jacket and black hat standing on the left facing a person in a dramatic costume with a large, full skirt and head wrap, standing in a dimly lit space with an orange background.
Silhouette of a woman in a long dress with a high ponytail, standing in profile against an orange-yellow background, gesturing with one hand raised.
Two people on stage, one woman holding a large American flag and a man holding a stick, in front of a wooden backdrop.
A man and a woman pose in a theatrical setting, with the man holding a hat and the woman balancing on his back with one arm raised. There is a wooden wall background and a box labeled 'SAFEHOUSE' behind them.
Black and white logo with fishing lures and the text 'Lightning Rod Special'

Lightning Rod Special is a Philadelphia-based devised theatre company, co-directed by Katie Gould, Mason Rosenthal, Scott Sheppard, and Alice Yorke. Exploding complex questions with precision and play, Lightning Rod Special makes live performance from the ground up. lightningrodspecial.com

Logo with the text 'ARS NOVA' inside a stylized diamond shape on a black background.

Ars Nova (Originating Producer) exists to discover, develop and launch singular theater, music and comedy artists in the early stages of their professional careers. Our dynamic slate of programs supports outside-the-box thinking and encourages innovative, genre-bending work. Dubbed by The New York Times as a “fertile incubator of offbeat theater,” Ars Nova blurs genres and subverts the status quo. With our feverish bounty of programming, we are the stomping ground and launching pad for visionary, adventurous artists of all stripes. By providing a protective environment where risk-taking and collaboration are paramount, Ars Nova gives voice to a new generation of diverse artists and audiences, pushing the boundaries of live entertainment by nurturing creative ideas into smart, surprising new work. 

Ars Nova, Original Off Broadway Premiere, 2016 | Theater Der Welt (Hamburg, Germany), 2017 | University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI), 2018 | ‘62 Center Williams College (Williamstown, MA), 2018 | Woolly Mammoth Theater Company (Washington, DC), 2018 | Curious Theatre Company (Denver, CO), 2018 | Traverse Theatre (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2018 | Soho Theatre (London, UK), 2018 | Malthouse Theatre (Melbourne, AU), 2019 | Ars Nova (Return Off-Broadway Engagement), 2019 | Fisher Center at Bard (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY), 2019

Performance
History

Available
for Limited Engagement Touring

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