Roundabout Underground hosts the premiere of 2016 Yale School of Drama graduate Jiréh Breon Holder’s award-winning work. Tennessee-born Holder takes us back to Nashville in the summer of 1961. The Freedom Riders are embarking on a courageous journey into the Deep South. When 20-year-old Bowzie Brandon gives up a life-changing college scholarship to join the movement, he’ll have to convince his loved ones—and himself—that shaping his country’s future might be worth jeopardizing his own. 

Don’t miss this brave new play about the personal costs of public crusades.

Jiréh Breon Holder’s Too Heavy for Your Pocket is the first new play of Roundabout Underground’s two-play 2017–2018 season.

Too Heavy for Your Pocket was also produced at the Alliance Theatre, Atlanta, GA (Susan V. Booth, Jennings Hertz Artistic Director/Mike Schleifer, Managing Director) in mutual arrangement with Roundabout Theatre Company.

Major support for Too Heavy for Your Pocket and Roundabout Underground is provided by Jodi Glucksman.

Too Heavy for Your Pocket is a recipient of the 2017 Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award.

Roundabout’s work with new and emerging playwrights and directors, as well as development of new work, is made possible by Katheryn Patterson and Tom Kempner.

ABOUT ROUNDABOUT UNDERGROUND

Roundabout Underground productions are produced in Roundabout's Black Box Theatre located within the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre. It is an initiative designed to foster new works by emerging theatre artists. Roundabout Underground allows Roundabout to take artistic risks that are not viable on its larger stages, whether giving a debut production to an emerging writer or allowing an experienced director to go back to his or her creative roots. In addition to receiving an opportunity to debut their works as full-scale productions, up-and-coming playwrights receive the significant artistic and financial support of the country's largest not-for-profit theatre and a nurturing environment in which to debut their work. Note: Roundabout Underground productions cannot be purchased as part of a season package.

NEW PLAY INITIATIVE

Click here to learn more about Roundabout's commitment to new works through our New Play Initiative.

PRODUCTION HISTORY

On The Exhale, by Martín Zimmerman, 2016
Kingdom Come, by Jenny Rachel Weiner, 2016
Ugly Lies the Bone, by Lindsey Ferrentino, 2015
Little Children Dream of God, by Jeff Augustin, 2015
Too Much, Too Much, Too Many, by Meghan Kennedy, 2013 
Bad Jews, by Joshua Harmon, 2012
Suicide, Incorporated, by Andrew Hinderaker, 2011
The Dream of the Burning Boy, by David West Read, 2011
Tigers Be Still, by Kim Rosenstock, 2010
Ordinary Days, by Adam Gwon, 2009
The Language of Trees, by Steven Levenson, 2008
Speech & Debate, by Stephen Karam, 2007