NEW YORK – Jamaican actor Miranda Melhado has joined the cast of Karl O’Brian Williams’ award winning drama Not About Eve, which will be presented as a staged reading production by the Atlantic Theater Company as part of their Caribbean MixFest play festival. The festival runs from September 14 through 20 at The Atlantic Stage 2 Theater.
The presentation of Not About Eve will be a one night only event and takes place on Wednesday September 18 at 7pm.
Melhado joins an all female cast of three that also includes fellow Jamaican actors Heather Alicia Simms (Broadway’s Purlie Victorious) and Mitzie Pratt (Amazon Prime’s Nanny).
Award winning Jamaican born filmmaker, actress, writer and director Patrice Johnson Chevannes -whose acting credits include Broadway’s The Crucible with Liam Neeson and Laura Linney, as well as the Shakespeare Theater of DC’s Othello opposite Star Trek actor Sir Patrick Stewart- will direct.
Set in modern day Jamaica, Not About Eve tells the story of three generations of women in the Shields family- ‘Mama’ Agatha Rochester (Pratt), her daughter Katherine (Simms) and her granddaughter Kimberly (Melhado), who all reside under one roof and yet are living strangely disconnected lives. Suddenly and unexpectedly, the anniversary of the death of Katherine’s husband serves as a catalyst for a series of dramatic events in the household that will force all three women to face harsh truths about their relationships – and ultimately test the bonds that bind them together.
Not About Eve had its world premiere in Kingston Jamaica in 2006 and went on to win the 2007 International Theatre Institute (Jamaica) Actor Boy Award for Best New Jamaican Play for playwright Williams. It had its New York City premiere at the Arias Studio Theatre in 2012 and subsequently became an Official Mainstage selection of the 2013 National Black Theatre Festival in Winston Salem North Carolina – the largest black theatre festival in the world.
Kimberly Shields’ Role
The role of Kimberly Shields is another breakthrough for Melhado, who was last seen on the New York stage earlier this summer in the highly acclaimed American premiere production of Alwin Bully’s McBee, and who also appears in the horror feature Amityville Vampire, currently streaming on Amazon Prime. Her additional credits include the pilot of the new TV series From Yard– which will make its Canadian premiere this month at the Nollywood Film Festival in Toronto- as well as the staged reading production of David Heron’s courtroom drama Against His Will at The Apollo and at Manhattan Theatre Club’s City Center Stage II.
“I’m very excited to be part of such an amazing cast of fellow Jamaican actors and to be working under the direction of the multi talented Patrice Johnson Chevannes,” she says. “In Not About Eve, Karl has created a family of three incredibly strong, complex female characters who are financially secure but emotionally challenged. Relationships between mothers and daughters can be difficult, and this is certainly the case in this intriguing play. So I’m looking forward to bringing Kimberly to life and offering audiences a memorable experience on September 18.”
Melhado was born to parents of Syrian and Portugese descent and grew up in Jamaica. She attended The University of Southern California (USC) where she earned her BA degree in acting. Ironically, her role as Kimberley in Not About Eve is only the second time in her career that she has actually played a Jamaican character- the first being in Against His Will in which she portrays a femme fatale business owner accused of sexually assaulting her male employee.
“Nobody I meet ever guesses that I’m Jamaican,” she says. “They think Brazilian, Italian, Latin American or even Greek. So I never get cast as Jamaican. My role as Kimberly offers me a new opportunity to play someone from my homeland in another engaging Jamaican story, which is great since we have so many exciting Jamaican and Caribbean stories to share. Caribbean MixFest is a real chance to do that.”
Since being founded in 1985, the Off Broadway Atlantic Theatre Company has produced over 200 plays, including the Tony Award winning Broadway productions of Spring Awakening, The Band’s Visit and Kimberly Akimbo. MixFest is the company’s annual free reading series, exploring and celebrating the abundance of culturally diverse stories in the theater. In addition to Williams’ Not About Eve, this year’s Caribbean MixFest will also present readings of full-length plays by Nelson Diaz-Marcano, Fedna Jacquet, Iraisa Ann Reilly and La Daniella.
The Atlantic Stage 2 Theater is located at 330 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011.
Admission to all reading productions is free, however reservations are required.
For reservations to see Not About Eve, go to AtlanticTheater.org.
