Starring Tony Award winner Tonya Pinkins, Melanie Nicholls-King (“The Wire”), and Broadway’s Condola Rashad, CELL reveals the untold story of three women working at an immigrant detention center in America. This “powerful” short play by Cassandra Medley “deftly explores the dirty antidemocratic secret of institutionalized racism” (New York Times). When a jaded guard arranges jobs for her sister and her niece, Gwen, at an immigrant detention center, the family erupts into a battle over home and homeland security. As time ticks down for Gwen to save a detained child, CELL paints a searing picture of the secrets we keep in order to survive.
After the play, Medley joins Pulitzer Prize winning immigration journalist Julia Preston, (currently of The Marshall Project), Broadway producer Cheryl Wiesenfeld, and PoA host Claudia Catania to move beyond headlines and explore the real lives that inspired CELL.
Directed by Victor Lirio, CELL’s cast includes Tonya Pinkins (Tony Award winner for Jelly’s Last Jam, “Gotham,” title character in Broadway’s Caroline, or Change), Melanie Nicholls-King ("The Wire,” “Rookie Blue") and Condola Rashad (Tony nominee for A Doll’s House: Part 2, Broadway’s Romeo & Juliet, “Billions”).