Area Stage on the Mead Heart for American Theater has introduced the solid and artistic workforce for The Movement. A fiercely clever and emotionally charged exploration of humanity by Obie Award winner Christopher Chen, The Movement journeys via reminiscence, identification, and the delicate boundaries of perception. Directed by Area Stage Inventive Director Hana S. Sharif, this thought-provoking dissertation will run Could 6 – June 14, 2026, in Area’s in-the-round Fichandler Stage. For data and tickets, go to arenastage.org/movement.
“I couldn’t be extra thrilled to be working with the good Hana Sharif and this excellent solid and artistic workforce to convey this play to life,” shared Chen. “The play is a wild journey that wrestles with large questions, and I’m so grateful to be working with collaborators who share its adventurous, provocative spirit.”
What begins as razor-sharp debate between 4 students swiftly spirals right into a real-life experiment: the place the scientists change into the topics. Stripped of the world they know, they wrestle with profound and unsettling questions on function, morality, and what it really means to be alive. The place certainty shatters, vulnerability reigns, and no conviction emerges unscathed, they discover sudden solace, love, and companionship. The Movement is a searing thinkpiece into the core of the human situation. Who deserves to like? Who deserves to reside? And, most significantly, who will get to resolve what it means to be human?
Final month, Chen was named a 2025 recipient of the Steinberg Playwright Awards (the “Mimi” Awards). Introduced yearly by the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Belief to 2 early-to-mid-career playwrights, the $100,000 award celebrates writers whose work constantly demonstrates distinctive expertise and inventive excellence.
From the primary time I learn it, I knew The Movement was one thing particular — riveting, emotionally compelling, and in contrast to the rest in American theater,” stated Sharif. “Chris Chen is a once-in-a-generation playwright whose work pulls down the partitions between viewers and stage, drawing us right into a profound exploration of who we’re and the way we reside collectively, combining actual intelligence with real coronary heart and humor.”
The solid bringing this reside debate to the Fichandler Stageincludes Barzin Akhavan (Broadway’s The Kite Runner), Peregrine Teng Heard (Area’s POTUS), Nehal Joshi (Broadway’s The Cottage), Nancy Robinette (Broadway’s Prayer for the French Republic), and Nikkole Salter (Broadway’s The Nice Society), together with Eli El (Area’s Fremont Ave.)and Yesenia Iglesias (The Public Theater’s Public Cost) as understudies.
The artistic workforce becoming a member of Sharif consists of set designer Tim Mackabee (Broadway’s The Elephant Man), costume designer Mika Eubanks (Manhattan Theatre Membership’s The Monsters), lighting designer Jason Lynch (Washington Nationwide Opera’s The Crucible), with sound design and unique music by Charles Coes and Nathan A. Roberts (Area’s The Age of Innocence). The affiliate director is Alexis Kulani Woodard. Casting is by The Tesley Workplace/Future Lilly, CSA and Raiyon Hunter, CSA. The stage supervisor for this manufacturing is Christi B. Spann and the assistant stage supervisor is Margaret V. Warner.
CAST BIOGRAPHIES
Barzin Akhavan (Dr. Alan James) Area: Mary Zimmerman’s The Arabian Nights. Different DC credit: Pericles (Folger); Inana and Lidless (CATF). Broadway: Community, The Kite Runner. Choose NYC productions: Fuente Ovejuna (TFNA), Macbeth (CSC), Richard II (Public/WNYC), Hamlet (Waterwell), 2nd Stage (Meet the Cartozian’s), Coriolanus (TFNA). Worldwide: Aftermath (Melbourne, Paris, Amsterdam), A Thousand Splendid Suns (Theater Calgary). Choose regional theater firms: Seattle Rep, Guthrie, Berkeley Rep, ACT SF, Baltimore Centerstage, Huntington, Cincinnati Playhouse, Virginia Stage, Colorado Shakespeare Pageant, 4 seasons with the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Pageant, 6 seasons with The Oregon Shakespeare Pageant. Movie: F.A.S.T. (Upcoming), Zugzwang (upcoming), Ezra, Humorous Face. Choose TV: The Blacklist, Chicago Med, Girls5Eva, SMASH, Legislation and Order: CI. MFA College of Washington.
Peregrine Teng Heard (Professor Lily Chan) is a DC-born, Brooklyn-based actor and playwright. She final appearedat Area Stage in POTUS (u/s Stephanie and Jean). Different regional credit embrace Tom Jones and Remix 38 at Actors Theatre of Louisville. New York credit embrace the world premiere of Chuck Mee’s soot and spit (The New Ohio), Name Out Tradition: or, the insufferable whiteness of being (Ars Nova ANT Fest), Ski Finish (Piehole), and Sehnsucht (JACK). Peregrine is the inventive director of The Associates Theater Ensemble, with whom she has devised and carried out The Cousinhood (The Heart at West Park), Sheila (A.R.T./New York Theatres), Black Protagonist (124 Financial institution Avenue Theater), and Freesome (The Brick). Peregrine’s performs Redemption Story and On the Prowl with Ada Tsiao had been O’Neill Nationwide Playwrights Convention Semifinalists in 2023 and 2024.
Nehal Joshi (Professor Neel Bharara) is astonished to mark his ninth present & tenth look right here. He has appeared as Benny Van Buren in Rattling Yankees, Ali Hakim in Oklahoma!, Amir in Disgraced, Catch Me If You Can (Helen Hayes nom), Mom Braveness with Kathleen Turner, Unknown Soldier, The Music Man, & Señor Discretion Himself. DC credit embrace: Babbitt (Shakespeare Theatre), Woolly Mammoth, Olney Theater Heart, Kennedy Heart, Theater J. Broadway: The Cottage, All My Sons, The Phantom of the Opera (closing solid), Flying Over Sundown, Faculty of Rock, Gettin’ the Band Again Collectively, Les Misérables (1st revival), The Threepenny Opera. Off-Broadway: Cyrano, Working (2008 revision), Grand Resort (Encores!). Regional embrace: Dallas Theater Heart, The Previous Globe, La Jolla Playhouse, Goodman, Huntington. Video video games: World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Tv/Movie “The Wire,” “Search Celebration” (HBO), “Legislation & Order: SVU” (NBC), “Blackout,” “Beneath One Roof.” Honors: Particular Drama Desk Award. He want to thanks for being right here at present and supporting the American theater.
Nancy Robinette (Moderator) was most not too long ago seen at Area in Dying on the Nile, The Heiress, Effectively, and Ah, Wilderness!. Different latest roles in DC embrace Nan in Jennifer Who Is Leaving (Spherical Home), Carrie in The Journey to Bountiful (Ford’s), Bubbe in The Chameleon (Theater J), and Aunt Barb in Issues Between Sisters (Studio). She was not too long ago on Broadway in Prayer for the French Republic (Manhattan Theatre Membership), and earlier in The Curious Incident of the Canine within the Night time-Time. For Prayer, she acquired an Outer Critics Circle nomination; for her 40-plus years in DC theater, she acquired a Helen Hayes Tribute.
Nikkole Salter (Dr. Sarah Matthis) has not too long ago appeared in Washington DC productions together with As You Like It and Julius X at Folger Theatre, We Are Gathered at Area Stage, The Confederates at Mosaic Theatre Firm, Leaping Off Level at Spherical Home Theatre, and as Girl Macbeth in Macbeth at Shakespeare Theatre Firm. On Broadway she portrayed Coretta Scott King in The Nice Society at Lincoln Heart Theater, and Off-Broadway appeared in Gloria (DR2) and her co-authored play Within the Continuum at Major Phases amongst others. A playwright and director, she has additionally appeared on tv in New Amsterdam and Godfather of Harlem. Her honors embrace recognition from Helen Hayes Awards, Outer Critics Circle, OBIE, Audelco, IRNE and Acclaim. Nikkole is professor of performing and playwriting and inaugural chair of the Division of Theatre Arts in Howard College’s Chadwick A. Boseman Faculty of High quality Arts.
Eli El (u/s Dr. Alan James, Professor Neel Bharara) is returning to Area Stage after performing in Fremont Ave. (2025), The Nice Society (2018). Different theater performances embrace The Piano Lesson (1st Stage), Testosterone and Migraaaaants (ExPats Theatre), AJAX (Scena Theatre), Radio Golf (Roundhouse Theatre), FAT HAM (Studio Theatre), A Thirst for Freedom (Stay Garra) and lots of extra. He has accomplished and is at the moment concerned with a number of unbiased movie tasks (As soon as Upon a Time in The District, Unarmed Man, Harriet, The Meek, Final Night time, THICK, and so forth. Eli has directed (The Therapeutic Ground) award winner DCBTF. He additionally directed a characteristic movie and two shorts (The Cracked Masks and Lay Me Down). His motto is “you possibly can study from anybody, if solely you permit your self to.”
Yesenia Iglesias (u/s Dr. Sarah Matthis, Professor Lily Chan, Moderator) is a Washington, D.C.-based artist and educator from Bayamón, Puerto Rico. She is thrilled to be returning to Area Stage after beforehand showing in POTUS. Choose native theater credit embrace: The Garbologists (Theater Alliance), Metamorphoses (Folger Shakespeare), On the Wedding ceremony (Studio Theater), Major Belief (Signature Theater), Daphne’s Dive (Signature Theater), and Child Prince and Pablo (The Kennedy Heart), amongst others. She has carried out on phases throughout the DMV together with Ford’s Theater, Shakespeare Theater Firm, Olney Theater Heart, Creativeness Stage, Spherical Home Theater, and Constellation Theater Firm. Regional credit embrace Don’t Eat the Mangos (Huntington Theatre Firm), and Off-Broadway in Public Cost (The Public Theater). Her work can also be featured in varied commercials, and audio books. Perpetually grateful to her household! MFA: College of Washington – PATP.
The Movement runs Could 6 – June 14, 2026, within the Fichandler Stage at Area Stage on the Mead Heart for American Theater, 1101 Sixth St SW, Washington, DC. Tickets begin at $49 and can be found at arenastage.org. Tickets may be bought via the Gross sales Workplace by telephone at 202-488-3300, Tuesday via Sunday, 12-6PM, or in individual at 1101 Sixth Avenue, SW, Washington, DC, Tuesday via Sunday, 2 hours earlier than the present begins on efficiency days.
Teams of 10 or extra might guide tickets at arenastage.org/teams or through e-mail at teams@arenastage.org.
Area Stage’s many financial savings packages embrace “pay your age” tickets for these aged 35 and beneath; army, first responder, and educator reductions; scholar reductions; and “Southwest Nights” for these residing and dealing within the District’s Southwest neighborhood. To study extra, go to arenastage.org/savings-programs.
PERFORMANCE DATES
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday at 7:30PM
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8PM
Saturday and Sunday at 2PM
Weekday matinees at 12PM on Could 28, June 3, and June 10
Instances are topic to alter. Please verify on the web site upon reserving.
Southwest Night time Performances: Wednesday, Could 6 via Wednesday, Could 13
Early Curtain Efficiency: Sunday, June 7 at 6PM
Audio-Described Efficiency: Saturday, Could 30 at 2PM
Closed Captioning: Globetitles can be out there at choose performances.
Faculty Night time: Saturday, Could 9 at 8PM
Delight Night time: Wednesday, Could 13 at 7:30PM
HBCU Night time: Tuesday, Could 26 at 7:30PM
Younger Professionals Night time: Saturday, Could 30 at 8PM
Put up-Present Conversations
Join with the present past the efficiency at a post-show dialog on June 3 following the 12PM matinee, and on June 9 following the 7:30PM efficiency.
ABOUT ARENA STAGE
The primary racially built-in theater in our nation’s capital and a pioneer of the regional theater motion, Area Stage was based in 1950 in Washington, DC. Right now, beneath the management of Inventive Director Hana S. Sharif and Government Producer Edgar Dobie, Area Stage on the Mead Heart for American Theater is a nationwide middle devoted to American voices and artists. Area produces performs of all that’s passionate, profound, deep, and harmful within the American spirit, and presents numerous and groundbreaking work from a few of the finest artists across the nation. Constantly contributing to the American theatrical lexicon by commissioning and creating new performs, Area Stage impacts the lives of over 10,000 college students yearly via its work in group engagement and serves a various annual viewers of greater than 300,000.
