{"id":96995,"date":"2020-10-19T09:52:03","date_gmt":"2020-10-19T13:52:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=96995"},"modified":"2024-01-04T14:46:53","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T19:46:53","slug":"ddn-tony-winning-wright-state-grad-a-double-nominee-in-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2020\/10\/19\/ddn-tony-winning-wright-state-grad-a-double-nominee-in-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Dayton Daily News: Tony-winning Wright State grad a double nominee in 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

Excerpt<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Wright State University alum Joey Monda (left) and Joe Deer, Chair of Wright State\u2019s Department of Theatre, Dance and Motion Pictures.<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s been a challenging year for Broadway, but the nominations for the 74th annual Tony Awards \u2014 announced Oct. 15 and recognizing the shortened 2019-2020 season \u2014 is cause for celebration.<\/p>\n

Tony Award-winning 2012 Wright State University musical theater graduate\u00a0Joey Monda\u00a0of Sing Out, Louise! Productions is a double nominee for producing Best Play contenders \u201cThe Inheritance\u201d (11 nominations) and \u201cSlave Play\u201d (12 nominations, the most ever for a play).<\/p>\n

Written by Matthew Lopez and inspired by E. M. Forster\u2019s novel \u201cHowards End,\u201d \u201cThe Inheritance\u201d addresses the desires, pitfalls, complications and tragedies within New York City\u2019s gay community circa 2015 to 2018. The play, a modern companion to Tony Kushner\u2019s equally resonate \u201cAngels in America\u201d in many respects, notably received the Olivier Award for its London premiere in 2018. Jeremy O. Harris’ controversial, thought-provoking \u201cSlave Play\u201d spotlights race and sex in America. Using a plantation as a backdrop but firmly planted in contemporary anxieties and polarization, Harris throws expectations out the window while exploring the complexities of interracial romance.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThese nominations speak to the power of the work and the conversations we\u2019re having as a culture and a country right now,\u201d said Monda, a Youngstown native who won the Tony last year for producing Ana\u00efs Mitchell\u2019s beautiful, dark jazz musical\u00a0\u201cHadestown\u201d<\/a> and was recently named WSU\u2019s 2020 Graduate of the Last Decade. \u201cThe fact that both plays were on Broadway before our country\u2019s moment of social uprising and social upheaval just goes to show that it was already in the DNA. Imagine if shows were still running on Broadway and \u2018Slave Play\u2019 in particular was still playing at the time of George Floyd\u2019s death. Imagine the play\u2019s (impact), which was already so culturally resonate by speaking to audiences in such a unique way. Matthew Lopez and Jeremy Harris weren\u2019t writing what they didn\u2019t know. They were writing what they felt was already present in the culture. And we are now able to have more articulate conversation about the issues both brought up.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

News of Monda\u2019s nominations came as no surprise to his alma mater.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cIt is incredibly exciting to see Joey Monda continuing to produce some of the most exciting theater in the world,\u201d said Joe Deer, Chair of Wright State\u2019s Department of Theatre, Dance and Motion Pictures. \u201cThe Best Play nominations for \u2018Slave Play\u2019 and \u2018The Inheritance\u2019 speak powerfully to his taste for cutting edge new drama and his willingness to risk so much to tell stories that matter today. Who could imagine that these two plays about the continuing experience and legacy of gay men in America and our legacy of racism would seem so prescient for the chaotic world of 2020? I know Joey has helped create his own legacy of theater that matters and speaks to the most intelligent audiences. I\u2019m proud to call him an alumnus of this department and a theatre-maker I admire deeply.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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Monda is encouraged by the nominations, especially the attention it brings to the Broadway community at such a critical time, but the feeling is bittersweet. When the nominations were revealed, he was facing the harsh realities of the business. He spent the day moving his company\u2019s office furniture into storage. <\/span><\/div>\n
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View the original story at daytondailynews.com<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
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Tony Award-winning 2012 Wright State University musical theater graduate\u00a0Joey Monda\u00a0of Sing Out, Louise! Productions is a double nominee for producing Best Play contenders \u201cThe Inheritance\u201d (11 nominations) and \u201cSlave Play\u201d (12 nominations, the most ever for a play). Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":97003,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[730],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wright-state-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96995"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145300,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96995\/revisions\/145300"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}