Jamaican actor Miranda Melhado has joined the cast of the staged reading of Karl O'Brian Williams' award-winning drama Not About Eve, which will be featured as part of the Atlantic Theater Company's Caribbean MixFest.
The festival, celebrating Caribbean stories and talent, runs from September 14 to 20 at the Atlantic Stage 2 Theater in New York City.
The one-night-only presentation of Not About Eve will take place on Wednesday, September 18, at 7 p.m. Melhado will star alongside fellow Jamaican actors Heather Alicia Simms, known for her role in Broadway's Purlie Victorious, and Mitzie Pratt, who appeared in Amazon Prime's Nanny. The production will be directed by award-winning Jamaican filmmaker and actress Patrice Johnson Chevannes, whose extensive credits include Broadway's The Crucible and Shakespeare Theater of DC's Othello opposite Sir Patrick Stewart.
Set in modern-day Jamaica, Not About Eve explores the complex relationships between three generations of women in the Shields family -- 'Mama' Agatha Rochester (Pratt), her daughter Katherine (Simms), and her granddaughter Kimberly (Melhado). Living under the same roof but emotionally distant, the anniversary of Katherine's husband's death forces the women to confront painful truths and test the bonds between them. The play, which premiered in Kingston, Jamaica in 2006, won the 2007 International Theatre Institute Actor Boy Award for Best New Jamaican Play. It later made its New York City debut in 2012 and was an official selection of the 2013 National Black Theatre Festival.
For Melhado, the role of Kimberly Shields is another breakthrough. She was last seen on the New York stage in the acclaimed American premiere of Alwin Bully's McBee, and she stars in the horror feature Amityville Vampire, now streaming on Amazon Prime. "I'm very excited to be part of such an amazing cast of fellow Jamaican actors and to be working under the direction of the multi-talented Patrice Johnson Chevannes," Melhado shared. "In Not About Eve, Karl has created a family of three incredibly strong, complex female characters who are financially secure but emotionally challenged. Relationships between mothers and daughters can be difficult, and this is certainly the case in this intriguing play. So I'm looking forward to bringing Kimberly to life and offering audiences a memorable experience on September 18."
Melhado, who grew up in Jamaica with Syrian and Portuguese roots, expressed how rare it is for her to play a Jamaican character: "Nobody I meet ever guesses that I'm Jamaican. They think Brazilian, Italian, Latin American or even Greek. So I never get cast as Jamaican. My role as Kimberly offers me a new opportunity to play someone from my homeland in another engaging Jamaican story, which is great since we have so many exciting Jamaican and Caribbean stories to share. Caribbean MixFest is a real chance to do that."
Since its founding in 1985, the Off-Broadway Atlantic Theater Company has produced over 200 plays, including Tony Award-winning Broadway productions such as Spring Awakening, The Band's Visit, and Kimberly Akimbo. Caribbean MixFest is the company's annual free reading series that celebrates culturally diverse stories in theater. In addition to Not About Eve, this year's festival will feature readings of full-length plays by Nelson Diaz-Marcano, Fedna Jacquet, Iraisa Ann Reilly, and La Daniella.
Not About Eve will be performed at the Atlantic Stage 2 Theater, located at 330 West 16th Street, New York, NY. Admission to all MixFest readings is free, but reservations are required. To reserve tickets, visit AtlanticTheater.org.