Jennifer Nelson is a quintuple-threat: a playwright, actress, director, teacher and the founder of the African Continuum Theatre. At present, she’s spending considerable time at Theater J, directing “The Whipping Man,” by Matthew Lopez.

The play takes place in Richmond on April 14, 1865, the day that Lincoln was shot. The Civil War has just ended. “In the course of the play, you learn that Simon, the older of two of the DeLeon family’s slaves, has been working in a Confederate hospital in Richmond and has just gotten back to the family home,” explained Nelson.