Charlayne Woodard’s ‘The Night Watcher’ lands off-Broadway

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Actress-playwright Charlayne Woodard’s latest solo stage piece, ‘The Night Watcher,’ has secured a slot in Primary Stages’ upcoming season at 59E59 Theatre.

Directed by Tony winner Daniel Sullivan, the play focuses on Woodard’s decision not to have children and her role as ‘auntie’ to the many young people in her life.

The off-Broadway production will run at the New York theater from Oct. 6 through 31.

‘The Night Watcher’ had a staged workshop run at the La Jolla Playhouse last summer as part of its Page to Stage program before its world premiere at Seattle Repertory Theatre in October. (A version of the play was also workshopped at the 2007 Ojai Playwrights Festival.)

A critic for the Seattle Times wrote that ‘Woodard is pure, kinetic incandescence’ but added that the play’s final two vignettes ‘merit tightening, with less said and more inferred.’

Sullivan has directed three other solo shows by Woodard -- ‘Pretty Fire,’ ‘Neat’ and ‘In Real Life.’ The latter two had runs at the Mark Taper Forum in L.A.

In 2005, her play ‘Flight’ ran at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. Set in the 19th century, the multi-character drama revolved around a group of slaves who gather together to tell stories.

-- David Ng