Becomes a Woman
by Betty Smith (author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn)
World Premiere
Mint Theater Company / New York City Center Stage II
Cast: Duane Boutté, Christopher Reed Brown, Jeb Brown, Gina Daniels, Antoinette LaVecchia, Jillian Louis, Jack Mastrianni, Jason O’Connell, Emma Pfitzer Price, Scott Redmond, Pearl Rhein, Madeline Seidman, Phillip Taratula, Peterson Townsend, Tim Webb
Sets: Vicki R. Davis
Costumes: Emilee McVey-Lee
Lights: M.L. Geiger
Sound & Original Music: M. Florian Staab
Props: Chris Fields
Dialects & Dramaturgy: Amy Stoller
Intimacy & Fight Director: Cha Ramos
Casting: Stephanie Klapper, CSA
Production Stage Manager: Jeff Meyers
Stage Manager: Arthur Atkinson & Miriam Hyfler
Illustration: Stefano Imbert
Graphics: Hey Jude Design, Inc.
Press: David Gersten & Associates
Photos: Todd Cerveris
BECOMES A WOMAN, never published, or produced, is a play about a 19-year-old girl living with her family in Brooklyn who learns the hardest lesson a girl can face on her way to becoming a woman.
“It’s a rare play that can inspire applause from a line of dialogue and cheers as the lights go down on the final act, odder still for one getting its world première nearly a century after it was written. But that’s what’s happening at the Mint’s production of this remarkable 1931 drama by Betty Smith, the author of the novel “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” directed by Britt Berke.”
—Ken Marks, The New Yorker
“[Act II] demonstrates Berke's remarkable knack for balancing comedy and melodrama, a skill that is equally important in Act III when, Francie, now a young mother, decides to settle with her tormentors… Berke, who clearly has a strong eye for casting, fills Becomes a Woman with indelible performances.”
—David Barbour, Lighting and Sound America
“It is the Mint’s mission to resurrect long-lost plays, and this show, under Britt Berke’s loving, caring direction, is a sparkling gem that takes on feminist issues well ahead of its time, in intelligent, well-developed ways… Becomes a Woman is exquisitely rendered, its two hours (with two intermissions) beautifully paced by Berke in her outstanding off-Broadway debut.”