By Steve Carter
Directed by Brandon J. Dirden
1927, San Juan Hill, a six-block stretch of Manhattan where tensions run deep between its populations of Black Americans and Caribbean immigrants. Eustace, recently transplanted from the South, falls in love with the girl next door, Annetta. But her ironfisted father, Joseph, an ardent Garveyite, has arranged for her to marry another man from the West Indies to protect his bloodline. In Steve Carter’s blistering saga, Eden, clashing ideologies and youthful passions threaten dangerous consequences for two families and their community.
Special performances
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Wednesday Matinee
January 29, 2:00 pm
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Talk Back
February 1, 2:00 pm
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Audio Description
February 1, 2:00 pm
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Touch Tour
February 1, 2:00 pm
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ASL
February 1, 8:00 pm
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Open Caption in Spanish
February 7, 8:00 pm
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Open Caption
February 8, 2:00 pm
Meet the Artists
Creative Team
Steve Carter
Playwright
Steve Carter
Steve Carter – Horace E. “Steve” Carter, Jr. was an American playwright, best known for his plays involving Caribbean immigrants living in the United States. Mr. Carter received the Living Legend award at the 2001 National Black Theatre Festival. He was Victory Gardens Theater’s first playwright-in-residence beginning in 1981, and he also served as playwright-in-residence at George Mason University. Carter’s Pecong (winner of the Joseph Jefferson award for New Work) premiered at Victory Gardens in the 1989–1990 season and received subsequent productions at London’s Tricycle Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, and Newark Symphony Hall. His plays Eden (winner of an Outer Critics Circle Award, an AUDELCO Award, and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award) and Nevis Mountain Dew received Midwest premieres; and Dame Lorraine, House of Shadows, Shoot Me While I’m Happy, Spiele ’36, or the Fourth Medal, and Root Causes all premiered at Victory Gardens. Mr. Carter died at the age of 90 in 2020.
Brandon J. Dirden
Director
Brandon J. Dirden
Brandon J. Dirden recently appeared on Broadway starring in the Tony Award-winning production of Take Me Out and Skeleton Crew for which he received a Drama Desk nomination. He also appeared on Broadway as Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Tony Award-winning production of All the Way, with Bryan Cranston; as well as in the Tony Award winning revival of August Wilson’s Jitney; Clybourne Park; Enron; and Prelude to a Kiss. Off-Broadway, he has appeared in The Piano Lesson, for which he won OBIE, Theatre World, and AUDELCO awards; The First Breeze of Summer, Day of Absence (Signature Theatre); Detroit ’67 (The Public Theater, Classical Theatre of Harlem); Peter and the Starcatcher (New York Theatre Workshop); and as Brutus in Julius Caesar (Theatre for a New Audience). On screen he has appeared in The Good Wife, For Life, Evil, The Big C, Public Morals, Manifest, The Get Down, The Accidental Wolf, Blue Bloods, The Quad, the FX miniseries Mrs. America, and four seasons of FX’s The Americans as Agent Dennis Aderholt. He has directed numerous plays by Dominique Morriseau and August Wilson and recently Wine in the Wilderness by Alice Childress for Two River Theater. Brandon is an Associate Arts Professor on the faculty of Tisch Grad Acting at NYU; a frequent volunteer at the 52nd Street Project; and a proud member of both Actors’ Equity Association and Fair Wage On Stage.
