Directed by Emily Mann, the production runs through Feb. 12.

The cast features Pascale Armand, Cheryl Lynn Bruce, Zainab Jah, Kevin Mambo, LeRoy McClain, Warner Joseph Miller and Harold Surratt.

"Set in 1895 in the region that would become Zimbabwe," The Convert, according to the McCarter, "tells the story of a girl forced to choose between her family’s traditions and the Christian faith and Western values she has embraced."

The creative team includes Daniel Ostling (set design), Paul Tazewell (costume design), Lap Chi Chu (lighting designer), Darron L West (sound design), J. Steven White (fight director) and Beth McGuire (dialect/vocal coach). Alison Cote is the production stage manager.

“Danai’s voice is unique among American playwrights due to the experience she brings as an individual who has spent much of her childhood in Zimbabwe,” said artistic director Mann in a statement. “Her dual perspectives allow her to integrate an important part of Africa’s history into American culture in a way that is both extraordinarily accessible to us and completely authentic. I firmly believe that this play will become part of the new American repertoire.” Danai Gurira, an award-winning Zimbabwe-American actor and playwright, co-created and performed in the award-winning two-woman play In the Continuum, which premiered Off-Broadway and toured the U.S. and Southern Africa. For her work on that production, Gurira won a 2006 Obie Award, the 2006 Outer Critics John Gassner Award, and the 2004 Global Tolerance Award (Friends of the United Nations), in addition to being honored by the Theatre Hall of Fame.  Gurira was most recently seen in the Shakespeare in the Park production of Measure for Measure, the acclaimed film "The Visitor" (with Oscar-nominated actor Richard Jenkins), and on Broadway in Lincoln Center Theater's production of Joe Turner's Come and Gone.

Tickets are available by visiting www.mccarter.org or by calling (609) 258-2787. McCarter Theatre is located at 91 University Place, Princeton, NJ.