Watts Village Theater Company receives American Theatre Wing's National Theatre Comp Grant (LA)

In the same manner that a Quinceañera signifies stepping into adulthood, the 15th anniversary of Watts Village Theater Company (WVTC) signifies our coming of age. WVTC is taking a step onto the national stage; this year, we are honored to receive the American Theatre Wing’s National Theatre Company Grant, recognizing the top 10 most promising small theatre companies in the country. This May we celebrated WVTC Coming of Age at the California African American Museum, honoring Rosie Lee Hooks (Watts Towers Arts Center) and Clifton Johnson (Union Bank, Magic Johnson Foundation, Watts/Willowbrook Boys and Girls Club) as our Community Towers. WVTC has also received national attention from organizations such as the National Endowment for the Arts, James Irvine Foundation, Plum Foundation, Bank of America and now the American Theatre Wing. Thanks to your support, we are pleased to announce our most ambitious season ever in 2012, including a staged reading ofThe Riot/Rebellion based on interviews of eye-witnesses of the 1965 Watts Riots, a red-carpet world-premiere documentary of Meet Me @Metro, Josephina Lopez’s Simply Maria in collaboration with Animo Watts Charter High School, Meet Me @Metro: Uncovering Los Angeles’ Hidden Treasures in East LA, and our signature play development series Black Words on White Pages. Moving ahead, we are pleased to welcome David Guerra, our new Associate Artistic Director, and our newest board members, Farid Ben Amor, Stephen Wang, Karen Lascaris and Julie Siegel. We look forward to introducing all of our new family to you more fully in the newest edition of our newsletter, Watts Up, coming soon. As we enter our new season, we plan not only to continue providing job opportunities for members of the local community, but also to build on our commitment to provide quality arts education to Watts’ youth. With your support, we will achieve our goal of doubling our individual donor contributions this year. To contribute, click on this link: Or send a check to "Watts Village Theater Company" at: Watts Village Theater Company PO Box 72715 Los Angeles, CA 90002 Happy Holidays and see you soon in Watts, David Mack Managing Director, WVTC david@wattsvillagetheatercompany.com 661-802-1546 Please click post's title to visit website. Guillermo Avilés-Rodríguez, Artistic Director David Guerra, Associate Artistic Director Board of Directors: Farid Ben Amor, Warner Brothers David Catanzarite, Palm Springs High School Performing Arts Academy Raquel Cinat, California Emerging Technologies Fund Karen Lascaris, Lascaris Design Lynn Manning (Chair), Independent Theatre Artist Judith Moreland ( Vice-Chair, Secretary), UCLA Julie Siegel, Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District Leslie Tamaribuchi (Treasurer), CalArts Stephen Wang, Xenon Development Advisory Board: Chris Anthony, LA Shakespeare Center Ricardo Antonio Chavira, Actor, Desperate Housewives Victor de la Cruz, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP Rosie Lee Hooks, Watts Towers Arts Center Clifton Johnson, Union Bank Michael Manigault, Bank of America Robert McCobb, PhD, The Christian Food Center Debra Piver, Center Theatre Group Bill Rauch*, Oregon Shakespeare Festival * emeritus Legacy Council: Leo Briones, Centaur North Strategic Communications Gregory Burks, Youth Opportunity Movement LA Dolores Chavez, Inner-City Arts Ernest Dillihay, ACE, LLC Fred Fate, LA Theater Academy, LA City College Michael John Garcés, Cornerstone Theater Company

Watts Village Theater Company @ the Watts Towers Arts Center 1727 E 107th St | Los Angeles, CA 90002

Please click the post's title to visit website.
Originally found on LinkedIn's American Theatre Group.

Red Harlem Readers

Disney Musicals in Schools (Nashville)

Industry overview by Jaz Dorsey

Nashville has been chosen as the first city outside of New York to participate in Disney Theatrical Group's "Disney Musicals in Schools" program and here's how it happened.

As a presenter of Broadway tours, TPAC works with The Broadway League and this year, at the Broadway League's Spring Road Conference, Disney announced that they were looking to take this program, after 2 years in NYC, "on the road" to other cities across the country.

TPAC Executive Vice President for Education and Outreach, Roberta Ciuffo-West, threw TPAC's hat in to the ring. For those of you who do not know her, Roberta is a native of Long Island, an NYU grad twice and a former Director of Education and Outreach for Juilliard, among other amazing accomplishments.

It turned out that Nashville was the ideal proving ground for the program.

For one thing, two of Disney's key players on the project now call Nashville home: Bryan Louiselle, who has adapted, arranged and orchestrated the music for the 30 minute KIDS versions of the Disney musicals used in the program, and Lori Casteel, who is the vocal coach for the accompaniment and guide vocal CDs which are included among the support materials for each title.

In addition to that, the TPAC ArtSmart program, which is around 30 years old, was developed from a program started at Lincoln Center and, again, Nashville was the first city to take that concept beyond NYC.

So this spring, 5 Nashville elementary schools will participate in "Disney Musicals in Schools. The schools are:

Glengary Elementary School
Hattie Cotton STEM Magnet Elementary
Hull-Jackson Montressori Magnet School
Kirkpatrick Elementary Enhanced Option
Percy Priest Elementary School

This will involve 5 teams of 2 teaching artists from TPAC working with teams of teachers at each school. They will train the teachers in the elements of production, the teachers will then produce the shows with input from the teaching artists teams with casts of 3rd & 4th graders, and, on May 17, 2012, the city of Nashville will have the awesome experience of a freeperformance by this first crop of young Nashville actors in TAPC's Jackson Hall. www.tpac.org

Come to Nashville and Go to the Theatre!

Jaz Dorsey
The Nashville Dramaturgy Project

Jazmn47
jazmn47@aol.com

TUSKEGEE AIRMEN PLAY will have its Broadway Backer's Audition on MONDAY DEC 12th 7PM

"BLACK ANGELS OVER TUSKEGEE" The story of the Tuskegee Airmen set to have Broadway Backers Audition on Monday Dec 12th!!! Original Tuskegee Airmen have confirmed to be present!

Vibrantly energetic and emotionally captivating, Black Angels Over Tuskegee continues to enlighten and educate Off-Broadway audiences after an extended opening of 2 years. The award-winning, historical docudrama is a narrative of six men embarking upon a journey to become the first aviators in the United States Army Air Forces during a tumultuous era of racial segregation and Jim Crow idealism in twentieth century American history. Black Angels Over Tuskegee, which is inspired by true events, is currently showcased at the Actors’ Temple Theatre at 339 W. 47th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues in New York City.

Producers, Investors you are cordially invited to The Black Gents of Hollywood’s Broadway Backer’s Audition of their Off-Broadway hit play Layon Gray's BLACK ANGELS OVER TUSKEGEE. The Black Gents will reserve complimentary tickets under your name for this event. Please R.S.V.P. by Monday afternoon, December 12th, 2011 to thom@theblackgents.com or call 877-814-0553 ext.701 if you are able to attend.

Please click the post's title to visit the play's website.

Blackboard Reading Series

NEXT Blackboard:
Monday, December 12, 2011 7:00pm

COMMUNITY NIGHT
Playwrights bring 10 - 15 pages of work
Actors cold read
Playwrights receive feedback

w/ Playwrights:
Joan Baker
Toccarra Cash
Garlia Cornelia Jones
Franz Reynold
Nathan Yungerberg
... AND YOU....

PLAYWRIGHTS - Interested in being part of Blackboard's 2012 season - submit your play!

ACTORS - RSVP to cold read on this fun night!

*Plays from December's Community Night will help schedule the 2012 season!*

$10 Suggested Donation
~wine served~

RSVP: info@blackboardplays.com

Red Harlem Readers

Blackboard Reading Series

NEXT Blackboard: Monday, December 12, 2011 7:00pm COMMUNITY NIGHT Playwrights bring 10 - 15 pages of work Actors cold read Playwrights receive feedback w/ Playwrights: Joan Baker Garlia Cornelia Jones Franz Reynold Nathan Yungerberg *Plays from December's Community Night will help schedule the 2012 season!* PLAYWRIGHTS - Interested in being part of Blackboard's 2012 season - submit your play! ACTORS - RSVP to cold read on this fun night! $10 Suggested Donation ~wine served~ RSVP: info@blackboardplays.com

Occupy Wall Street needs playwrights!

Hey you guys.
http://occupywriters.com is the literary arm of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and there's some great stuff on there by the likes of Jonathan Lethem, Lemony Snicket, Ursula K. LeGuin, Douglas Rushkoff, Francine Prose, and many more. They are underrepresented by playwrights and have asked me to reach out to some. Most of the pieces are short, 500-600 words or so, although we've had some in the neighborhood of 1-2k and others that are full articles/essays. Lemony Snicket's is one of the best - funny and pointed without being
lecturing. http://occupywriters.com/works/by-lemony-snicket. Daphne Carr's is an example of personal experience http://occupywriters.com/works/by-daphne-carr. Kiera Feldman occupied "Birthright." http://occupywriters.com/works/by-kiera-feldman. Jules Bukiet did some history. http://occupywriters.com/works/by-melvin-jules-bukiet I went with a syllogism for my piece. Basically, just about anything works. Doesn't have to be long (probably shouldn't be long). We've got a guy closing his bank account. There's poetry and songwriting. No plays so far. Anything you write, please send to me and to occupy.submissions@gmail.com - that way the official email has it archived and I can speed it along as well.
Thanks!!!
Jason Grote
New Dramatists
jasongrote@gmail.com

Red Harlem Readers

Mama don't let your babies grow up to be playwrights

Please click image to enlarge.

AAPEX now lists over 250 (216 with direct links to some sort of web presence) African American playwrights and playwrights of the African American experience but how many of them are getting read? How many are getting produced? What theatre groups are willing to take a chance on new works? How do we convince them to bet on us when we're riding the bull in the rodeo?

Playwright royalties

Informative post on playwright royalties can be found on the LinkedIn Theatre Producers group: http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&srchtype=discussedNews&gid=1781490&item=75996770&type=member&trk=eml-anet_dig-b_pd-ttl-cn&ut=0zMxCa6X4ril01
Unfortunately, you will have to be a member to read it. Since it's free, take the time to sign up or, if you are already a LinkedIn member, sign up for the group: Theatre Producers.

In the exchange of ideas and experiences on that post, you'll learn that a playwright who is a member of the Society of Authors (http://www.societyofauthors.net/) will get free legal advice regarding contracts beginning immediately upon joining the group. Associate Membership is available for those who are not published, self-published, or POD. If you're under the age of 35, yearly dues are around $100.00 which is a heck of a deal when it comes to getting legal advice that could keep you from being deprived of the money you deserve for the effort you put in to creating your play. BTW, the SOA has been around for over 125 years, having been founded by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

Screw Occupy Wall Street-- Let's Occupy Broadway

I Can Do Broadway
I can do Broadway
And you can do Broadway
And we can do Broadway right here
I've got the know how and
You're gonna show how
We can do Broadway right here.
So if you're looking for Broadway
You don't have to wait til you
Take that vacation next year
Just grab a cab or bus
Come take a look at us
Soon it will be clear that
I'm doing Broadway
And you're doing Broadway
And we're doing Broadway right here!

Copyright Jaz Dorsey, 1981

The Fire This Time Fest

Who We Are
The Fire This Time Festival is a platform for early-career playwrights of African descent to explore new voices, styles and challenging new directions for contemporary theater.

Exploring themes from euthanasia, hero-worship, inter-generational conflict, homophobia, and more,The Fire This Time Festival creates dynamic theatrical experiences. The festival has quickly become a destination for diverse audiences, producers, and artists seeking exciting possibilities and opportunities in contemporary drama.

Our New Season
Our third season begins in January 2012. Our core program will be a full production of short plays, running over two weeks. We will introduce new work from:

France-Luce Benson
Jocelyn Bioh
Kevin R. Free
Patricia Ione Lloyd
Zoey Martinson
Antoinette Nwandu
Jerome A. Parker

In addition to our core program, several playwrights from prior seasons will return with staged readings of full-length works. Panel discussions and music events are also a part of our annual events.

The Campaign - $2,000 in Two Months
In this challenging economy, we remain committed to keeping ticket prices low, and making sure audiences from all income levels can attend our shows. As we seek donations, the Festival has attracted support from a few core individuals and we’ve even gotten a few grants. But it is not enough to cover all expenses.

$2,000 will close our gap for the season. This $2,000 will go directly to the artistic expenses for the program, giving us the means to actually compensate our roster of talented actors, directors and other collaborators.

We’re engaging nearly 40 artists this year, and we’re not promising them millions, but we would like to provide modest stipends and cover travel costs. You can help us do that.

The Festival has reached a very exciting moment. Many of our playwrights, directors and actors are enjoying new and exciting professional opportunities. There has never been more demand for what we do. And we want to do more!

Help us keep the fire burning by making a donation today!

More on What We Do
The first season of the festival brought together over thirty performers, directors, and other collaborators to create an amazing evening of short one-act plays. Presented by Horse Trade Theater Group over a sold-out run in February 2010. The Festival has evolved into an annual event, expanding upon its core short play presentations to offer panel discussions, staged readings, and other programs.

To date, The Fire This Time Festival has produced new work by the following playwrights: Jesse Cameron Alick, Deborah Asiimwe, Radha Blank, Christine Jean Chambers, Camille Darby, Marcus Gardley, Kelley Nicole Girod, Katori Hall, Yusef Miller, Derek Lee McPhatter, Dominique Morisseau, Germono Toussaint, and Pia Wilson.

Other Ways You Can Help
Even if you can’t make contribution there are many ways to help. Tell your friends about our campaign. Join our mailing list, or inquire about volunteer opportunities. We want to hear from you!

To learn more and/or to make a contribution, please click the post's title.

Red Harlem Readers

No reading scheduled for November 27th.

Krapp's Last Tape (St. Louis)

Please click image to enlarge.
Please click post's title to visit The Black Mirror Theatre Company

Red Harlem Readers

November 20, Sunday at 4:00 - Free admission! Complimentary spiced tea!!

LYNN McCANN
Dancer, Actor and Singer
reads from her own work
“For Vera”
In the shadow of the Great Depression,
a young woman defines herself
“Hair Beer – or How I Learned to Tango”
Social triumph for a typical U.S. teenager
living in post-WWII occupied Germany

Red Harlem Readers, Food for the Mind, Body and Soul
Indian Cafe, Broadway, between 107th and 108th Streets

Associates: Richard Gaffield, Anne Gefell, Jerry Hassett, Cordis Heard and Lori Payne
To participate as writer, director, actor, reader and/or arts administrator, please email us:rhreaders@gmail.com

Brooklyn-based playwright Kymberle Joseph makes Off Broadway debut with a new one woman show "Monette"

With divorce papers in front of her, and her only child off to college, Kennedy "Monette," is completely alone. How will this soon-to-be-divorced empty nester reclaim her life? Jasmine Eileen Coles plays more than ten characters including Monette's smooth-as-silk African-American father, her folklore tale telling Caribbean mother, and one very uptight best friend in this laugh-out-loud story where joy replaces despair. Best known for his award-winning and critically-acclaime d productions of MAAFA Suite and Black Nativity, another Brooklyn-based artist Jesse Wooden, Jr. directs the solo play that features the formidable talents of Jasmine Eileen Coles in the title role.

"Monette (pronounced Mo-Nay) is a story of truth, joy and learning to love who you are and where you are in that moment." playwright Kymberle Joseph said. Brooklyn native Kymberle Joseph makes her official Off Broadway debut with MONETTE I Love My Life, A new one woman show that will play a strictly limited engagement at Walkerspace, 46 Walker Street, October 21 through November 27, 2011 Receive a special $5 discount on your tickets by using the 1209 Members code "1209" (reg. price: $30) For tickets visit www.smarttix. com and also visit www.kmjproductions. com "I love this play because it is not a kiddie ride," director Jesse Wooden said. "It's a story about a real woman." Kym Joseph Managing Director/Producer P.O. Box 617 New York, NY 10113 917.416.4454 / 718.614.2797

To buy tickets, please click the post's title.

Call for Plays (Deadline: 11/16)

Open Submissions being accepted for the 12th Annual New Works Festival at College of the Canyons

College of the Canyons Theatre Department wants your play, and currently has an open call for original plays for its New Works Festival. 10 minutes plays, One Acts, Full Length and Monologues are accepted

The festival, now in its 11th year, continues to evolve. Originally only for COC students, the festival continues to broaden its reach, working with playwrights across the country, sometimes conducting readings and workshops via videolink.

Directed by long time Adjunct Faculty David Stears. Mr Stears is no stranger to developing new works, having developed over 65 original works for the stage including over 20 original plays educational programming.

The New Works Festival at COC unique. Focusing on the process of the playwright, it is one of the few new plays festivals that allow for development during the process. Also unique to most festivals is the submission process is open to all and there is no submission fee (however, those playwrights selected to participate will have to enroll in a class).

Plays should be original works submitted by the original playwright. Selected playwrights must be willing to participate in the development process during the spring semester

The New Works Festival is now publishing the selected works presented during the festival. “It is a great piece for the writers and the actors to have their piece published as part of an annual anthology.” Says David Stears. The first of the Anthologies is the New Works Festival Anthology 2008, is available through Createspace (www.createspace.com/3507198) or through Amazon.

The deadline for submissions is November 16th at 5pm

For more information about the festival or submitting your work,
please contact Kim Gurnee (661) 362-3073
or follow the festival at www.facebook.com/NewWorksFestival

Please click the post's title to visit the NWF website.

Franz Reynold's I BLACK WOMAN I tonight at the cell (NYC)

NEXT Blackboard:

Monday, November 14, 2011 7:30pm

I BLACK WOMAN I

By Franz Reynold

Directed by Yvonne Almeria Campbell

$10 Suggested Donation

reading followed by a 20 minute talkback

~wine served~

RSVP: info@blackboardplays.com

For More Information, please click the post's title.