East Coast Premiere of GLITTER IN THE GLASS Comes to Theatre Exile

South Philadelphia-based theatre company Theatre Exile wilconclude its 2024–25 season with the East Coast premiere of Glitter in the Glass, a wildly funny and thought-provoking new play by award-winning writer R. Eric Thomas, directed by Ontaria Kim Wilson. Previews begin May 29 and Glitter in the Glass opens on June 5. Due to popular demand, the production has already been extended through June 22. 

When the city of Baltimore removes a Confederate monument from the park across the street from her childhood home, Chelle (Jennifer Nikki Kidwell), a mid-career Black artist, sees an opportunity. She secures a major grant to design a replacement, but as the weight of expectation builds, so does the surreal scope of her ambition. Caught between the past, the present, and an uncertain future, Chelle is launched into a journey that begins before the Middle Passage and spirals beyond the bounds of Earth. Glitter in the Glass is an unflinching and imaginative look at legacy, pressure, and the spaces in between.

Kidwell returns to the Theatre Exile stage as Chelle, delivering a powerhouse performance that anchors this genre-bending story. She is joined by returning Exile actor Kishia Nixon and newcomer Danny Wilfred, rounding out a formidable cast that brings depth, wit, and electricity to Thomas’ visionary world.

Glitter in the Glass is the latest chapter in R. Eric Thomas’ long and meaningful relationship with Theatre Exile. An award-winning playwright, television writer, and bestselling author, Thomas workshopped Glitter in the Glass, originally titled Nightbird, through Exile’s Studio X-hibition series, which supports new work through public readings. In 2021, Theatre Exile commissioned his play The Ever Present, marking the beginning of a creative partnership that continues to grow.

His memoir Here for It, or How to Save Your Soul in America, was a national bestseller, and his young adult novel Kings of B’more was featured on Today and named a 2023 Stonewall Honor Book. His biography of Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Reclaiming Her Time, co-written with Helena Andrews-Dyer, was praised by the Washington Post for its energy and flair. His most recent essay collection, Congratulations, The Best is Over, is a USA Today bestseller lauded as “unfailingly entertaining” by Publishers Weekly. A writer for television (AppleTV+’s Dickinson, FX’s Better Things) and long-time host of The Moth in Philadelphia, Thomas is also the author of multiple plays and a recipient of the Lambda Literary Award, the Barrymore Award for Best New Play, and the Dramatists Guild Lanford Wilson Award.

“This play is a cosmic mirror,” said Deborah Block, Producing Artistic Director of Theatre Exile. “Through Chelle’s journey, R. Eric Thomas invites us to reflect on what it means to create art under pressure, to confront the ghosts of history, and to imagine new futures. It’s hilarious, searing, and deeply theatrical—a perfect conclusion to a season that’s asked us all to reconsider how we see the world, and most importantly, how art helps us see it.”

A central force behind Glitter in the Glass is Theatre Exile’s collaboration with Monument Lab, the Philadelphia-based nonprofit public art, history, and design studio dedicated to advancing justice by reimagining monuments as spaces for belonging, learning, and healing. Known nationally for their work transforming how monuments are created, interpreted, and experienced, Monument Lab brings deep expertise in truth-telling and public memory, making them a vital partner for this production.

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