What is The Hipp Unplugged?

The Hipp Unplugged aims to bring Gainesville great theater that is more challenging than what we would be able to display with our regular mainstage season. With this series, we hope to also give a voice to underserved and underrepresented playwrights.

There will be a talkback after the performance with the director and cast to discuss the work performed.

The fifth piece in this series will be Fireflies , written by Donja R. Love and directed by Ryan Hope Travis.

Monday & Tuesday, January 13-14 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are availble for just $10 and can be purchased through our Box Office at 352-375-4477 or online at thehipp.org
About Fireflies
Somewhere in the Jim Crow South, the sky is on fire. A pregnant Olivia’s fierce speechwriting is the true force behind her charismatic husband, Charles, and his successful movement, galvanizing people to march towards freedom. When four little girls are bombed in a church, Olivia and Charles’ marriage is threatened—as this tragedy and years of civil unrest leave Olivia believing that “this world ain’t no place to raise a colored child”.

“I was moved by Mr. Love’s willingness to imagine, amid the terror of the times…other kinds of lives than the ones that history books offer.”
—The New York Times
About The Author
Donja R. Love is an Afro-Queer playwright, poet, and filmmaker from Philadelphia. He writes specifically about Black and Queer folx, for Black and Queer folx. He's the recipient of the 2018 Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award, the 2017 Princess Grace Playwriting Award.

He's the cohost of OffBook, theater's only Black podcast; and he’s the co-founder of The Each-Other Project, an organization that helps build community and provide visibility, through art and advocacy, for LGBTQ People of Color. Select stage plays include: The Love* Plays, and soft.
About The Director
Ryan Hope Travis is an actor, director, and filmmaker. As an actor, he recently guest starred in HBO’s The Watchmen and has guest starred in Swamp Murders and Dead Silent on Investigation ID. For his onstage work, Ryan was nominated “Best Actor in a Play” by Broadway World CNY, 2018.

He has 10 short films to his credit as a multi-hyphenate filmmaker, with several having their world premieres at film festivals in New York City, NJ, Los Angeles, and most recently at the Academy Award-qualifying, Atlanta Film Festival. Ryan currently serves as Adjunct Assistant Professor in the School of Theatre and Dance at the University of Florida.
Press Contact:
Julia Campitelli
Marketing Coordinator | jcampitelli@thehipp.org | 352-373-5968 x 237
For more information, visit thehipp.org, follow us on social media, or call the Box Office at 352-375-4477.