Tony Award winner Anika Noni Rose will star in “Quasara,” a new one-woman sci-fi play about a fallen superhero carrying the power of a black hole inside her.
Written by Rachel Bland, the one-act play will receive a benefit reading at Royal Family Productions in Manhattan, with Lorna Ventura directing.
Rose, best known as the voice of Princess Tiana in Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog,” brings a long stage and screen career to the title role. She won a Tony Award for “Caroline, or Change” and has appeared on Broadway in “A Raisin in the Sun,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” and “Uncle Vanya.” Her film and television credits include “Power,” “Dreamgirls,” “For Colored Girls,” “Roots,” “Maid,” and “Everything, Everything.”
“Quasara” was developed through the inaugural William and Enid Hairston Artist Fellowship, created by Royal Family Productions in partnership with Ann Hairston. The program supports Black female playwrights and stories centered on Black joy, imagination, and possibility.
Bland, the fellowship’s first playwriting recipient, is a New York-based playwright, screenwriter, and sketch writer whose work often explores science fiction, fantasy, and perseverance. Her recent projects include “HYDRA” and “Press X to Start.”
The fellowship honors William R. Hairston Jr., a pioneering Black actor, playwright, and cultural leader. Hairston starred in “The Harlem Detective” in 1953 and later directed and co-wrote Langston Hughes’ “Jericho Jim Crow” in 1964.
The reading will take place at Royal Family Productions, 145 W. 46th St., third floor.
Tickets are $100 for general admission, $250 for reserved seating, and $500 for a VIP meet-and-greet. Royal Family Productions says all tickets are tax-deductible and must be purchased in advance at royalfamilyproductions.org.
