'Zeph and Violet: A Race Romance' Comes to LTV

The Playwrights’ Theatre of East Hampton at LTV Studios will present “Zeph and Violet: A Race Romance” on Sunday, October 27, at 7:30 p.m. Told in three parts, the play by Krystle N. Adams explores racial and religious differences, a traumatic past, betrayal and the love that covers all of it. The show is directed by Lori Kee.

During a blizzard, Zephaniah Rabinowitz has broken into Violet Robinson’s bedroom where he one time found shelter (and love) as a teenager during the Crown Heights Riots. Over 15 years later, Zeph believes he can rekindle that connection. However, Violet must choose between her up and down engagement to a baseball player or a rekindled connection.

Krystle N. Adams is an actress, writer, singer and director born and raised in Brooklyn. She performed in a Zoom reading of “Zeph and Violet: A Race Romance” starring Jesse Eisenberg. She is a playwright at the playwright/directing unit in The Actors Studio and is an active participant in Suzan Lori Parks’s “Watch Me Work.” She resides in New Jersey with her husband and two children.

“I absolutely love Krystle Adams’s work ... ‘Zeph and Violet’ is her most playful, probing piece. It’s a serious exploration of topical cultural themes while also being intimate and personal,” Jesse Eisenberg said. “Krystle is a brilliant woman and an incredibly diligent artist. Her skills as a writer are matched by her skills as an actress and it is that rare intersection that makes her play both personally dramatic, and surprisingly and realistically humorous.”

Lori Kee is an award-winning director and actor and experienced collaborator on new work. In November, she will direct “5 One Acts by” John Patrick Shanley at The Actors Studio in New York City. She also directed the premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright John Patrick Shanley’s play “Candlelight.” She has been resident director/member of Nylon Fusion Theatre Co. for over a decade. She is an associate professor of theater at CUNY BMCC.

The Playwrights’ Theatre of East Hampton’s next production will be Mark Singer’s new play “All Mankind Has Lost Its Reason,” which will be presented as a concert staging with music on Saturday, November 2, at 7:30 p.m. with musical direction by Julia Mendelsohn. “All Mankind Has Lost Its Reason” tells the story of Weimar Germany from the end of World War I through the rise of Hitler, following the lives of three friends as they experience the key political and cultural events of the era. The show includes over 20 songs from the period, performed by a cast of eight, and is illustrated by a series of projected images that show the events, art and personalities of an era that bears a startling resemblance to our own.

Tickets for The Playwrights’ Theatre of East Hampton productions are $20 in advance at ltveh.org ($25 at the door). LTV Studios is at 75 Industrial Road in Wainscott. Call 631-537-2777 for details.