Stage Voices

(via Jonathan Slaff.)

Woodie King Jr.’s New Federal Theatre to present a return engagement of “The Wash” by Kelundra Smith, a play inspired by the Atlanta Washerwomen’s Strike of 1881.

Incredible, if little-known interracial labor uprising takes center stage.

WHERE AND WHEN:

November 20 to December 14, 2025

Preview November 20, opens November 21.

WP Theater – 2162 Broadway @ 76th St

Presented by Woodie King, Jr.’s New Federal Theatre, Elizabeth Van Dyke, Producing Artistic Director

Evening Shows: Tue, Thur, Fri & Sat at 7:00 PM. Matinees: Wed at 3:00, Sat at 2:00, Sun at 3:00. Added: Monday, November 24 at 7:00 PM.

Tickets $30-$45

Producing company’s website: https://www.newfederaltheatre.com/

Running time: 2:15 (including intermission)

NEW YORK, September 29 — To share an outstanding production of last season with a wider audience, Woodie King Jr.’s New Federal Theatre will present a return engagement of “The Wash” by Kelundra Smith, directed by Awoye Timpo, at WP Theatre, 2162 Broadway (at 76^th Street), NYC, from November 20 to December 14, 2025. The play is an intimate and often funny portrait of ordinary women who initiated and led The Atlanta Washerwomen’s Strike of 1881, the first successful interracial, organized labor strike of the post-Civil War era.

The play’s New York premiere May 30 to June 29 delighted audiences and critics alike. As the houses swelled in the show’s final weeks, the theater was unable to accommodate the rush of theatergoers.

Front Row Center (Sarah Downs) called it “an inspiration, a cautionary tale and an historical marvel.” Theaterscene.net (Christopher “Caz” Caswell) added, “The Wash is an historically significant, artistic success and should be seen and staged to maximum exposure.” New York Stage Review (Michael Sommers) remarked, “It’s surprising this genuine American saga has not yet been filmed in a major way.” Woman Around Town (Alix Cohen) deemed it “well written, illuminating, and entertaining.” New York Theatre Wire (Beate Hein Bennett) praised it as “a spirited production of a well crafted play with six superb actresses in a space that has been ingeniously devised” adding, “Kelundra Smith has crafted a zesty rich text for actors to fully exploit.”

In 1881, Black laundresses in Atlanta led a strike weeks before the International Cotton Exposition came to town, demanding compensation of $1 per dozen pounds of laundry. This play introduces us to fictional charaacters Anna, Jeanie, Tommie, Jewel, Charity and Mozelle who represent the probable leadership of the strike. They work in an Atlanta laundry co-op in 1881, barely making 40 cents a week and unable to make ends meet. Although each of them has something to lose, they organize into a Washing Society, aiming to control their own labor and achieve higher wages. Historically, it is known that the strikers’ number grew from a couple dozen women to more than 3,000 in a few weeks. Their ranks included white women, who were less than two percent of laundresses in the city. This was an extraordinary sign of interracial solidarity for the time. In the end, the strike not only raised wages, but also forced the white establishment to acknowledge that Black women workers, many of whom were former slaves, were not dispensable or invisible.

This play has the potential to become an important part of our American cultural archive, helping to ensure that the truth of this strike is remembered even if today’s authoritarian forces attempt to rewrite or suppress its history. New Federal Theatre’s Producing Artistic Director, Elizabeth Van Dyke, explains her pride in the show, saying that “it enables us to defy erasure and stand strong in our history.”

Kelundra Smith was inspired to write “The Wash” after a visit to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Separate from this New Federal Theatre production, the play has been in the National New Play Network’s Rolling World Premiere program (https://tinyurl.com/y9t276cp), which led to productions in Atlanta, St. Louis and Chicago. The Atlanta production won Outstanding World Premiere at the Suzi Bass Awards, the city’s professional theater honors.

Kelundra Smith is a critic, arts journalist, and playwright whose mission is to connect people to cultural experiences and each other. She is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, serving on its equity, diversity & inclusion committee. She has been a fellow at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center’s National Critics Institute and guest critic at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. “The Wash” is part of the her “Reconstruction Trilogy,” set in post-Civil War Georgia, which also includes “The Vote,” a drama of the “Original 33” Black men who were elected to Georgia’s first state legislature, and “The Knot,” a romantic comedy in which a couple’s commitment to their upcoming wedding is tested by their new-found freedom. Smith’s other plays include “Monarchs,” about a Black couple’s reconciliation after being separated by the Great Migration in 1935, and “Other Paths to God,” in which ICU nurses are scapegoated when federal grant money goes missing in an Ohio medical center.

Director Awoye Timpo is a Brooklyn-based director and producer. She recently staged Ngozi Anyanwu’s “Leroy & Lucy”at Steppenwolf. Her Off-Broadway credits include “In Old Age” by Mfoniso Udofia (New York Theatre Workshop), “Good Grief” by Ngozi Anyanwu (Vineyard Theatre), “The Revolving Cycles Truly and Steadily Roll’d” by Jonathan Payne (Playwrights Realm), “The Homecoming Queen” by Ngozi Anyanwu (Atlantic Theater Company), “Carnaval” by Nikkole Salter (National Black Theatre), “Ndebele Funeral” by Zoey Martinson (59E59, South African tour, Edinburgh Festival), and “Sister Son/Ji” by Sonia Sanchez (Billie Holiday Theater). She also directs prolifically in regional theaters.

The cast includes Rebecca Haden, Bianca LaVerne Jones, Alicia Pilgrim, Margaret Odette, Kerry Warren and Eunice Woods.

Set design is by Jason Ardizzone-West. Lighting design is by Victor En Yu Tan. Costume design is by Gail Cooper-Hecht. Prop design design is by Belynda M’baye. Choreography is by Adesola Osakalumi and Jill Vallery. Projection design is by  Abhita Austin.

“The Wash” was New Federal Theatre’s second production at its new home, WP Theater, located at 2162 Broadway @ 76th Street. Its first production of the season, “The World According to Micki Grant,” was nominated for a 2025 Drama Desk Award for Best Musical Revue. NFT had previously been in residence in the former home of All Stars Project, 543 West 42nd Street.

ABOUT NEW FEDERAL THEATRE

New Federal Theatre (NFT) was founded by Woodie King, Jr. in 1970 as an outgrowth of a theater program called Mobilization for Youth.  This neighborhood-based professional theater was originally funded by the Henry Street Settlement along with a small grant from the New York State Council on the Arts.  The theater’s first season was launched in the basement of St. Augustine’s Church on Henry Street.

Several early successes brought NFT to national prominence: “Black Girl” by J.e. Franklin won a Drama Desk Award. “The Taking of Miss Janie” by Ed Bullins moved from NFT to Lincoln Center and won the Drama Critics Circle Award. “For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf” by Ntozake Shange performed on Broadway for 10 months and was nominated for the Tony Award before embarking on a three-year national tour. It has subsequently been performed regionally and around the world, and was revived off-Broadway in 2019. Both plays were co-produced with the late Joseph Papp.

Many performers have benefited from early successes on NFT’s stage, including the late Chadwick Boseman, Debbie Allen, Morgan Freeman, Phylicia Rashad, Denzel Washington, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Samuel L. Jackson, Issa Rae, and many more. The company is now led by Elizabeth Van Dyke, Producing Artistic Director.