Three hot young actors tapped for "Buzzer"

Namir Smallwood. Photo provided by Pillsbury House Theatre.

Three hot young actors have been cast in playwright Tracey Scott Wilson's "Buzzer," which runs Feb. 17-March 18 at Pillsbury House Theatre in Minneapolis.

Namir Smallwood, Sara Richardson and Hugh Kennedy star in this play about love, ambition and what the present owes to the past. Smallwood plays a young, black lawyer who returns to his old, gentrifying neighborhood with his white girlfriend (Richardson). His best friend is a recovering addict (Kennedy).

Hugh Kennedy

Smallwood has acted at Children's Theatre, the Guthrie and Pillsbury House, including in Cori Thomas' "Pa's Hat." Richardson played Sally Bowles in a Frank Theatre production of "Chicago" while Kennedy recently played Hamlet at the Jungle Theatre.

Tony Award-nominee Marion McClinton directs "Buzzer," the theater's season-opener. Like Mixed Blood Theatre, which is in a three-year free-ticket deal, all tickets to this Pillsbury House show will be pay-what-you-can. The theater also is trying to entice parents by offering free, reservation-required childcare on Feb. 26 and March 2.