Culver City Observer -

Casting is complete and rehearsals have begun for Ngozi Anyanwu’s new play “Good Grief” at Center Theatre Group’s Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City.

Directed by Patricia McGregor, Anyanwu will also perform in “Good Grief” for its world premiere at the Douglas, which begins previews February 26, opens March 5 and closes March 26, 2017. This is the first of Anyanwu’s plays to receive a full professional production.

The cast features, in alphabetical order, Dayo Ade, Wade Allain-Marcus, Ngozi Anyanwu, Marcus Henderson, Omozé Idehenre, Carla Renata and Mark Jude Sullivan. Scenic design is by Stephanie Kerley Schwartz, costume design is by Karen Perry, lighting design is by Pablo Santiago, sound design is by Adam Phalen, and Kathryn Bostic is composer. Casting is by Meg Fister and Anne L. Hitt is the production stage manager.

“Good Grief” follows Nkechi (played by Anyanwu), a good Nigerian-American girl frozen in her own coming-of-age story. When tragedy strikes on an unplanned break from college she retreats into her childhood home and reexamines the many steps she’s taken on the way to adulthood, from first crush, to missed connections, to the struggles of being a first-generation girl blending in to her suburban Pennsylvania reality.