Lupita Nyong’o to Make New York Stage Debut in Danai Gurira’s ‘Eclipsed’

“Eclipsed” will be making its New York debut this fall. It is described as a “feminist reading” of the civil war that is “both heartbreaking and profoundly life-affirming”, says Oskar Eustis, the Public Theater’s artistic director.

Although better known for playing Michonne on The Walking Dead since 2012, Danai has been an active playwright for more than a decade.

Academy Award victor Lupita Nyong’o will star at Off Broadway’s Public Theater in “Eclipsed“, the 2009 play by writer-actor Danai Gurira.

The show is to begin previews at the Public Theater on September 29, and continue through November 8, with opening night scheduled for October 14 (just in time for the premiere of the next season of “The Walking Dead”, and prior to the theatrical opening of the next “Star Wars” movie).

The Mexican-born Kenyan will next appear in the anticipated “Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens” and will voice a character in Jon Favreau’s take on Disney’s “The Jungle Book“. A few of her plays are “The Continuum”, “The Convert“, and “Familiar”, all of which are produced in the stage, Daily Mail noted. The Public now offers the New York Shakespeare Festival’s Free Shakespeare in the Park production of “Cymbeline”.

The off-Broadway production, which marks the play’s New York premiere, casts Nyong’o as “The Girl”, whose arrival jars a community formed by the captive wives of a rebel officer. An Oscar victor for her feature debut in 12 Years a Slave, she will next be seen in J.J.