Who Is Claudia Rankine?

After closing during previews in March 2020 due to the pandemic, The Shed presents the world premiere of Help, a new play by acclaimed author and poet Claudia Rankine (Just Us, Citizen: An American Lyric), directed by Obie Award-winner Taibi Magar (Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, Signature Theatre; Is God Is, Soho Rep). Derived from Rankine’s deep inquiry and ongoing investigation into white dominance, Help stars April Matthis (Toni Stone, Roundabout Theatre; Fairview, Soho Rep) as the Narrator, a Black woman who recounts Rankine’s real-life conversations with white people that take place in transitional spaces like airports. As the stories unfold through monologues and staged scenarios, Help explores how these conversations can go right, wrong, or raise new questions about our fragile democracy. Rankine’s body of work, for which she has been awarded MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships, crosses lyric poetry and prose essay to navigate questions of race, healthcare, loneliness, and what it means for a life to matter in American society today.