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Two Black college students accept an unusual summer job watching a 93-year-old professor swim—but the arrangement soon spirals into something far more sinister in the world premiere of Nia Akilah Robinson’s ↓D←R←O←W←N←E←R [Renword].
The haunted comedy will preview at NextStop Theatre on January 29 and 30 before opening January 31 at 8 p.m. Its run continues through February 22 at 269 Sunset Park Drive in Herndon.
Set inside Professor Renword’s upstate New York home, the play follows the two students as they keep watch over their elderly employer. While the professor rushes to finish her memoir and wrestles with her past, troubling secrets emerge and tensions intensify around the young women.
Their peculiar employment situation descends into a nightmare, forcing them to confront the burdens they have inherited and decide whether escape is possible. The genre-bending play mixes unsettling subject matter with sharp humor.
Robinson’s work was most recently seen in the region when Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company staged The Great Privation (How to Flip Ten Cents into a Dollar) in fall 2025.
Producing Artistic Director Heather Lanza will make her NextStop directing debut with the production. Lanza joined the Herndon theater company in fall 2024 with an emphasis on developing and staging new work.
The cast includes Amber Patrice Coleman, Jasmine Proctor, Nicole Halmos, Mary Myers, Iris DeWitt and Vincent Stovall. Aja Goode, Courtney Simmons, Megan Barbie and Christopher Holbert serve as understudies.
The creative team features scenic designer Shartoya R. Jn. Baptiste, properties and puppet designer Leigh K. Rawls, lighting designer Hailey LaRoe, costume designer Imari Pyles, sound designer Lee Martinez Cruz, dramaturge Miriam Weiner and production technical director Franklin Ruiz.
A talkback with Robinson and Lanza will follow the 2 p.m. matinee on February 1. An Under 40 Happy Hour is scheduled for February 13 at 7 p.m., with another topical talkback to be announced.
The production runs approximately two hours. Audience advisories include gunshots, haze and themes involving racism, racialized violence, drugs and death by suicide.
Tickets are available through NextStop Theatre’s website or by calling 703-481-5930, extension 1. A 15% early-bird discount for select performances is available with promo code EBDR on purchases made through January 23.