2025 NHP alum Nehemiah Luckett is writing new songs and arrangements for the Yale Rep production of Zora Neale Hurston’s Spunk, which is an unproduced adaptation of Hurston’s short story of the same name.

Written amidst the Harlem Renaissance while she was studying anthropology at Barnard, Hurston set Spunk in a small Florida town resembling her own hometown of Eatonville, one of America’s first incorporated Black townships. In Spunk, a tall, handsome stranger strolls into town looking for work. With undeniable charisma and divine musicianship, Spunk sets tongues to wagging with admiration and envy. The laws of man, the power of hoodoo, and the divinity of love all collide when he locks eyes with Evalina, already married to the local conjurer’s son.

Spunk runs Oct. 3-25.