Playwrights from the Writing Residency Program, Years 5, 6 and 7--Calley Anderson, Rudy Bamenga and Abigail C. Onwunali, respectively--turned out to participate in and listen to a new play that Rudy has written, The Last Hours of King Oedipus: an Epilogue. 

A tragic hero in Greek mythology, the story of Oedipus is the subject of Sophocles' tragedy Oedipus Rex, which is followed in the narrative sequence by Oedipus at Colonusand then Antigone. Together, these plays make up Sophocles' three Theban plays. 

Rudy's brilliantly imaginative and original play, still in development, explores the lives of Oedipus' children, sisters Antigone and Ismene, and their brothers Eteocles and Polynices, who share the throne in Thebes under perilously divisive conditions. This play dares to become a contemporary "classic" and we look forward to seeing what lies ahead. Congratulations, Rudy.

The play reading took place at a new playwrights group run by our good friend Reynaldo Piniella, who is trying to fill the gap amidst the loss of other writing resources, some of which have been enumerated in this space.

Jerrica White, a member of last year's Writing Residency Program, is one of four writers presenting short plays  (Saturday, Sept 14) in The Archive: New Works by Black Women at The Flea Theater. 

Go here for tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/.../the-archive-news-works-by...

Congratulations, Jerrica!

Playwright Cris Blak, a member of this year's Writing Residency Program, will have a performance of his play Swan Song for a Starboy as part of Emerging Artists Theatre's Spark Theatre Festival Fall 2024, at the Chain Theatre on West 36th Street in New York. 

This one-man-show tells the story of a successful young hip-hop artist tracing the threads of how he went from abuse survivor to rich and famous, and uses traditional storytelling, spoken word, and rap lyricism. It stars Nic Brown and will have one performance only, on Saturday, September 21 at 7:00 pm. 

For tickets: 

https://www.tickettailor.com/.../sparktheatrefest.../1329083

Congratulations, Cris!

Congratulations to Anthony Goss, a playwright last year in our Writing Residency Program, Year 6. 

Our good friends at The National Black Theatre have accepted him into their I AM SOUL Playwrights Residency Program. For the next 18 months he will work on his projects while provided with a financial stipend, dramaturgical and developmental resources, a full production team, and three 29-hour workshops.

He now becomes the fourth writer from our program to get into the I AM SOUL residency. For more information: https://www.nationalblacktheatre.org/playwrights-residency

The ever-busy Marcus Scott from Year 2 of the Writing Residency Program, has another play ready for you to hear and it's happening this weekend.

Congratulations!

In town this weekend? The southern gothic coming of age teen drama “Vinyl Vanguard” by Marcus Scott (that’s me!) will be presented as part of Step1 Theatre’s 2024 R&D series this Saturday, August 3rd at 4pm! It will be held at the ART/NY space on 520 8th ave, 3rd floor.

I put this play down so many times. Changed the characters, motivations, dialogue, plot structure and even the title of the play, but at the end of the day, the play was penned as a love letter to rock ‘n roll and to the days where I used to sing in the mirror and dance in my bedroom like an out-of-this-world rock star. It’s a work-in-progress, but it’s a helluva ride.

To secure seating please click the link in the bio and sign up, we can’t wait to see yall there!

TICKETS

.Hi!! I’m opening a beautiful production of Little Shop of Horrors tomorrow at the  Virginia Theatre Festival and playing the role of Audrey!!!

Every single person in this company is INSANELY talented and I’m so excited to share this story from July 11-21st!

If you happen to be in the Charlottesville area, please stop by!

Concord Theatricals has announced the Top 30 Finalists for the 49th Annual Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival and we are happy to recognize TyLie Shider from Year 2 of the Writing Residency Program as one of those finalists. His play Shoptalk will be presented when the festival takes place August 13-17 at The Vineyard's Dimson Theatre in New York.

Congratulations also to two good friends of Liberation Theatre Company, playwrights Phillip Burke and Charles White, who are also among the Top 30 Finalists, all selected from 850 submissions. The week will conclude with the announcement of the Final 6 playwrights and shows, which will be published in the 49th edition of the series.

For tickets and more information: https://oobfestival.com/...

Congratulations to Brysen Boyd, from the Writing Residency Program, Year 5, who will have a reading of his play a naked man in his early 80s stands in the center of the stage, on Friday, June 21 at 7:00pm as part of Ensemble Studio Theatre's Bloodworks '24 Youngblood's Annual Reading Series of Brand New Plays. 

Admission is free. For ticket information, https://ensemblestudiotheatre.my.salesforce-sites.com/...

Directing a reading of Rudy Bamenga’s play LAST CALL AT LIBBY’S with Liberation Theatre Company was a gift, especially with the amazing cast that brought Rudy’s play to life. Thank you to everyone who came out to experience our work and please continue to support Liberation in their mission to elevate Black playwrights! Reynaldo Piniella

Past and present members of the Writing Residency Program will see their plays produced at this year's Downtown Urban Arts Festival in June. 

Wednesday, June 12, Year 5 playwright Calley Anderson presents her play Collective Empathy Formation From 1968 and 2018. Five research study participants gather in a conference room. Their task appears simple and straight-forward: select 10 events from the year 1968 that they feel impacted the nation’s conscious and view of empathy. What transpires is a reflection of what is seen, heard, and missed when history, memory, and living bodies must merge in unflinching ways.

Then on Saturday, June 29, Cris Eli Blak, a member of our current Year 7 cohort, presents One Week From Paradise. Imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, a young man learns he will be released in seven days. He must keep his head down and stay out of trouble, which becomes increasingly difficult as his personal relationships begin changing and he becomes hyper-aware of the effects of the prison system.

Congratulations to you both!

For ticket information: www.duafnyc.com

The cast of “Castling” by Anthony Goss rehearses for tonight’s reading, as part of the Writing Residency Program Reading series for 2024. If you’re done with your Memorial Day cookout, stop through.

Jeremy O'Brian, a member of WRP in Year 3, is teaching a course this summer at Tectonic Theater Project. Writing the Black Play is a playwriting workshop dedicated to the exploration of what it means to write Black plays and characters. Congratulations!

For registration information: https://www.momentwork.org/register

Congratulations to Olga El, a member of our outgoing class of the Writing Residency Program, Year 6. Her play, 1001 Nights: Love Stories on Death Row (A Rock Opera) was presented over three nights at this year's Fresh Fruit Festival, their 22nd year.

Using a combination of music, dance, and dialogue, the play is about legendary storyteller Scheherazade, reborn as Shezadi, a queer, immigrant mother and abuse survivor who shares stories about her life and folklore from her culture in order to remain sane during her imprisonment and impending execution.

The house was packed on closing night, May 3rd and the audience gave the show an enthusiastic response.

Shawn Christopher Lovell Nabors, a member of the first year of the Writing Residency Program back in 2017-2018, and also now a resident of Southern California, is developing a new play and recently had a public reading. The People with The Trees in Their Chest, follows an African American family from Brooklyn, NY as they struggle to break the curse of poor health that has marked their family for generations. He's been able to obtain some California state and local funding for the project.  It is always great to hear about our past playwrights and what they are up to. We wish you nothing but success.

Congratulations to Gethsemane Herron. a playwright in Year 4 of the Writing Residency Program, who is one of three local Washington DC playwrights participating in the H Street Oral History Project Festival, a project of the Mosaic Theater Company of DC, March 16-17, 2024. The H Street Oral History Project is an ambitious, multi-year venture in partnership with DC Public Libraries and with support from the National Endowment of the Arts to chronicle the H Street Corridor. Three DC playwrights—with support from one dramaturg—interviewed past and current residents of the H Street neighborhood and created three brand new full-length plays and three monologues surrounding the history and enduring legacy of the neighborhood. On March 17, from 2:00-5:00 pm, Gethsemane will have a reading of her play, George on Hfollowed by talk-back.

On Friday, November 17, Johnny G. Lloyd had a reading of his play THE PROBLEM WITH MAGIC, IS:, at Ars Nova. He developed this play, that he describes as "a fantastical exploration on family, gentrification, time, and what it means to be home," while with us in Year Three. 

Deneen Reynolds-Knott, from Year Two,  is one the four playwrights who will be developing projects in The Fire This Time's New Works Lab program which is co-faciliated and directed by Cynthia Grace Robinson and A.J. Muhammad. 

Opera Theatre of Saint Louis’ new version of Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha tells the story of a love that surpasses death. On June 14, 1904, Joplin, the future “King of Ragtime,” married Freddie Alexander, an educated and refined 20-year-old, at her family home in Little Rock. Ten weeks later, she was dead of pneumonia. “She has died but is not gone,” says Treemonisha director Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj. “It’s the eternal love that when someone passes on, they don’t leave you—they stay on and become part of you.” Freddie became her widower’s muse. Joplin could hear her voice in his mind, telling him he would become famous. He transmuted his grief into Treemonisha when he composed and wrote the libretto in 1907. Treemonisha opens OTSL’s 2023 festival season on May 20 and runs through June 24. Composer Damien Sneed and librettist Karen Chilton have enriched the original opera with a prologue and epilogue, making the love story between Scott and Freddie an opera within the opera. 

My play Antiquated Fuckery will be performed at 59E59 - Theater C - October 2-29th 2023 

Yay! I start tomorrow! MFA in Writing for the Screen and Stage at Northwestern University! A very big thank you to Heather Helinsky, Bernard Tarver, and Steve Wallace!

Nathaniel Johnson, a playwright in Year One of the Writing Residency Program, will have excerpts from his play, Quarters, Halves, and the Whole, presented as part of “A Night of Comedy Honoring HBCU’s” at The Black Academy of Arts and Letters (TBAAL) in Dallas, TX.  The play, which he was working on while in residency, follows the lives of four freshmen attending HBCU’s and the joy and anxiety that comes in the freedom of that first year of independence.