Petronia Paley to teach Monologue & Scene Study at New Federal Theatre Workshop Feb 2-March 2, 2015 PLUS our Favorite Multihyphenate does Thomas Middleton's A CHASTE MAID IN CHEAPSIDE, 12-29

Season's Greetings!

I the Actor wishes you a beautiful Holiday Season and a New Year of creativity,  peace, and prosperity!

- Petronia Paley,   I the Actor

ITA News and Announcements

New Class Announcement: Monologue and Scene Study The 2015 Winter/Spring classes are already upon us, and this year brings something new! Petronia Paley will be a guest instructor at the New Federal Theatre Workshop for four classes only, which includes not only the ITA training you love but also exposure to other instructors and professional connections! Get hands-on training with Petronia Paley, Arthur French, Charles Turner, and Alice Spivak at the New Federal Theatre! Every student's project will be showcased and viewed by professional theatre producers, casting directors, and agents. Petronia Paley will be teaching 4 WORKSHOPS ONLY: February 2-March 2, 2015. Classes are held on Mondays 6:30-9:30 pm. Contact Ajene D. Washington, Workshop Coordinator, for more details! New Federal Theatre       Phone. 212.353.1176       Fax. 212.353.1088 Stay tuned to the website   for news about when classes return to their full schedule  . A Special Reading of: Thomas Middleton's A CHASTE MAID IN CHEAPSIDE Join us at Lucille Lortel Theatre on December 29, 2014 for a special reading of A CHASTE MAID IN CHEAPSIDE, featuring Petronia Paley. Red Bull Theater presents... A CHASTE MAID IN CHEAPSIDE directed by Ben Prusiner December 29, 2014 at 7:30 PM at Lucille Lortel Theatre 121 Christopher Street, NYC, 10014 Buy tickets here!

Harlem is Theatre: A Conversation with Woodie King, Jr and Voza Rivers (12-17)

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Please RSVP at
performances@communityworksnyc.org

Jaz Dorsey's HEADSHOTS kicks off Metro Parks and Rec's New Play Reading Series (Nashville)

My song cycle HEADSHOTS will serve as a curtain raiser for the kick off of the fourth year of the Metro Nashville Parks Theatre Department's New Play Reading Series, to be performed by the amazing HILARY MORRIS. HEADSHOTS is a set of five songs from my various musicals - kind of a mini cabaret.

Khalil Kain's LAMBS TO SLAUGHTER at Blackboard - Monday, December 8 (NYC)

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Lambs to Slaughter

Written and Directed by Khalil Kain

Lambs To Slaughter tells the story of a mourning single mother living alone now in the city after the murder of her son Emmett. Her name is Joan. Time seems to stand still for Joan as she is overwhelmed by her grief. With help from her neighbor and best friend Athena and the care of her good friend Paul, Joan is able to wrestle with the memories of her son Emmett.  Like Athena and Paul, Emmett wants to make sure that his mother safely navigates her mourning process. The loss of a child will always be devastating, but the loss of a child to gun violence could easily be too much to bear for any parent. There is no escape for Joan. Or is there? Love and a life away from this dark place is offered to Joan by Paul. Can Joan learn to love with her broken heart? With the help of her friends and encouragement from her son, Joan is able to make the choice that allows her to live again. 

Featuring...

W. Tre Davis as EMMETT

Tracie Franklin as JOAN

Pamela Monroe as ATHENA

____________________________

$10 Suggested Donation

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS.

Wine served.
Reading followed by a 20-minute talkback.

About Khalil Kain

New York City born and bred. 20 plus years in the entertainment industry as an actor. Best known for his role as Raheem in the hood classic JUICE, and as his turn as Darnell on the hit tv show GIRLFRIENDS.

Khalil worked as the director and as a producer at Aaron Davis Hall for their production of Sam Shepard's BURIED CHILD. Khalil sits on the board of directors at the City College Center of the Arts, and teaches at the Harlem School of the Arts. 

Khalil is now transitioning to work behind the camera. The Cop drama MADERO is presently in development with Khalil Kain Producing. 

LAMBS TO SLAUGHTER is the first play written by Khalil Kain. 

Call for Gospel Plays

Hello, 

My name is Jason Fullen, and I work with the organization Grace InFused Theatre. We are a non-profit arts organization that seeks to support and showcase theatrical productions from across the country that promote the Gospel. We are excited to stage the 2015 Grace InFused Theatre Festival this July 10-11th, 2015 in downtown Columbus, Ohio at the historic Vern Riffe Center. We are currently accepting applications for the festival - we welcome all playwrights, theatre groups, drama ministries and anyone else with an original production to share to apply for this year’s festival by visiting www.graceinfusedtheatre.org/apply. The application deadline for the 2015 Grace InFused Theatre Festival is February 1st, 2015. For more information or questions, e-mail info@graceinfusedtheatre.org 

Connect with Grace InFused Theatre on social media! Grace InFused Theatre Facebook Grace InFused Theatre Twitter Grace InFused Theatre Instagram 

Apply now! 

Sincerely, 

Jason Fullen 

Program Manager, 

Grace InFused Theatre 

www.graceinfusedtheatre.org 

info@graceinfusedtheatre.org

Video Series on Theatre Financing by Gordon Firemark

Video series by Gordon Firemark on theatre financing is worth the watch if you're planning on raising funds yourself to stage your play or musical. Click here to view.

Rave Reviews for "AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' " Don't Miss It. Use your half-price discount code and get your tickets now! (Harlem)

Through November 23 only.

Don't wait to the last week, it will surely be sold out, only 125 seats in the theater.

We are looking forward to welcoming you at the 

Faison Firehouse

6 HANCOCK PLACE

(124th Street between Morningside & St. Nicholas Avenues)

Your half price discount code is: harlem

Get your tickets here.

Call for 10-minute plays (Deadline: 12/1)

InspiraTO 10th Play Festival Deadline: Dec. 1st

  1. This year's creative challenge: The urban jungle. Your play must speak to the urban landscape: The drama must address living, working or growing up in the in the city. It can show the consequences of living in the urban landscape or relationships that develop because of it. Please note: Mentioning a street or section of a city is not enough if it doesn't effect the drama or if it doesn't address the issue of what it means to live in an urban environment. If we feel that this play can just as well take place in the country or small town we won't accept it. Use your imagination: be bold, be witty, be creative, and challenge us. The story can be a comedy, a drama, a parody, absurd or anything in between. The big city environment offers a living and breathing entity that we love to hate or hate to love: harmonious, dynamic, complex, antagonistic, ever-changing, growing and dying, offering endless pleasures for some and never-ending suffering for others. A safe heaven? Or a battlefield? The story is yours. 

 2. The play must be a ten-minute play. The contest is open to anyone without geographic or age restrictions. You must submit online. Please fill out the submission form and submit your play by Dec.1, 2014 . There are no fees. Once you submit you will be taken to a page confirming that we have received your submission. You may only submit one play. The cover page should have the title of the play, the playwright's name and the list of characters. The pages should be numbered. The format should be easy to read. We accept previously produced plays (but not plays that have produced in InspiraTO before). The playwright must own the rights to the play up to June 8, 2015 (i.e. the script cannot be owned by a publisher). Any style is acceptable except musicals. We are particularly interested in scripts that aren't afraid to make bold choices: quality writing backed by imaginative staging. Only those playwrights whose plays have been selected will be notified by January 15, 2015. The plays will be selected by a committee from the Toronto theatre community. If selected, your play will be performed in Toronto, Canada from May 28 - June 6, 2015. Between ten to eighteen ten-minute plays will be selected and performed. 1st Prize: $500 CDN. Should your play be selected for inclusion in the festival, you are giving the non-exclusive right to Theatre InspiraTO to produce and perform the play in the 10th Annual InspiraTO Festival in Toronto (Canada's largest ten-minute play festival), in the May/June 2015. The InspiraTO Festival will find the cast, crew and market your play. Authors retain copyright and full ownership of their plays.

3. Tips on writing. The submission must be a play. A ten-minute play is distinct from a sketch, or a skit; it is a compact play, with a beginning, middle and an end. You need a character facing obstacles in pursuit of some specific goal. You need rising action, conflict, and a climactic moment and your play must tell a complete story.

DC Copeland's JITTERBUG! now has National CORE Arts Standards HS/College teaching aids

DC Copeland's Jitterbug! the dancical now has National CORE Arts Standards HS/College teaching aids. "Jitterbug! in the Classroom" is an extensive Educator's Manual and Student Questionnaire for DANCE, THEATRE, and LITERATURE. All the items are free and can be found here.  

AAPEX Favorites Petronia Paley and Nathan James nominated for 2014 AUDELCO Awards

Petronia Paley

Nathan James

AAPEX favorite proactive multihypenates Petronia Paley and Nathan James have been honored for their work on stage for the 2013-2014 theatre season with AUDELCO Awards. The 42nd annual event nominated Petronia Paley in the Lead Actress category for her role in William Shakespeare's Coriolanus: The African Warrior. Nathan James is nominated for Best Supporting Actor in Cheryl L Davis' Maid's Door. Ms. Davis is also nominated for Playwright. 

Call for Screenwriter to Adapt African American Story

We are looking for completed feature-length scripts that were adapted from novels to evaluate as writing samples in a potential writer-for-hire opportunity. This will be for a period (1940s) African American story; therefore, we need a writer who is good at researching so the dialogue and other period elements will be accurate. When pitching, please mention whether you're a produced or optioned writer in the personal message space. Budget has yet to be determined. WGA and Non-WGA writers may submit. Our credits include "A Talent for Trouble."

Buck 50 Productions.

TO SUBMIT:
1. Please go to www.InkTippro.com/leads
2. Enter your email address (you will be signing up for InkTip's newsletter - FREE!)
3. Copy/Paste this code: n7xjyh1my8
4. You will be submitting a logline and synopsis only.
 IMPORTANT: Please ONLY submit your work if it fits what the lead is looking for EXACTLY.

Call for Co-Writer for African American Football Screenplay

CO-WRITER FOR AFRICAN-AMERICAN FOOTBALL SCREENPLAY 

Seeking a co-writer to help work on voice and motivations of African-American characters and family in rural south. Writer should be familiar with the world of athletics - particularly football. I've completed a few drafts of the screenplay and at the suggestion of several close, established producers and directors (and my manager), it was suggested that taking on a co-writer would take this project up a notch to where it needs to be. Project will be pitched upon completion of notes and subsequent drafts. I look forward to hearing from you and seeing some of your work and personal history. Please submit a resume and writing samples. No full scripts.

Please note, if you wait five days, you can get submission info for free. Can't wait? Then you will have to sign up for a fee here a the International Screenwriters Association.

Richard E Waits MAMA ROSE at Dixon Place October 24th (NYC)

Richard E Waits photo by Russ Weatherford

DIXON PLACE

Ellie Covan, Founder/Artistic Director 

Katy Einerson, Director of Programming 

Presents The World-Premiere Presentation 

Special Equity Showcase Production of

MAMA ROSE

(we are a product of our people) 

A Solo Performance Art/Experimental Play
With Music about ROSE WAITS
A Woman From Buffalo Who Could Have Ruled The World
If They Had Let Her

 Book, Music and Lyrics by Richard E. Waits
 Directed by Paul Stancato
 Designed by Clint Ramos
 Creative Consultation by Sheryl Lee Ralph
Penny Arcade

 World Premiere of
"MAMA ROSE" 
(we are a product of our people)

October 24 @ Dixon Place NYC

Please note that the Dixon Place Lounge is open before and after the show and drinks may be brought into the theater. Proceeds directly support Dixon Place artists and mission.

You can help raise funds for this project and learn more by
clicking here.

$12.00 Advanced Tickets can be purchased here.

Owa is gone...

Owa Jackson

A force to be reckoned with has left the theatre. Absurdist* playwright and critic Owa Jackson passed on without fanfare or a standing-O without our knowledge. He deserved better. And he's going to get it on Saturday, October 18th as we celebrate Owa's life starting at 2pm at La MaMa, 74A East 4th Street. 

I met Owa, winner of the 2011 NAACP Theatrical Playwrights Award, at the 2nd reading of my dancical Jitterbug! at the Tada! Theater in Manhattan. He was sitting behind me and laughing out loud in all the right spots which I took as a good sign. But I didn't discover it was him until after the reading when he introduced himself to me. But I knew of him through his avant garde playwriting and criticism we were happy to publish on this website. He was very supportive of my writing and I will never forget his effort to show up that cold, cold night for my play. I stayed in touch since then on a more personal basis. Following his last procedure in order to win his fight against cancer, I emailed to see how he was doing and he said he was getting better. Follow up emails were not answered and I and Jaz Dorsey, his friend and founder of AAPEX, began to worry. Jaz made inquiries and that's how we discovered the bad news. 

I will miss him but I will never forget him because he's one of those kinda guys who leave a lasting, smile inducing impression. If any reader of this blog feels the same way and would like to post something about Owa on our comments section, please do. 

For those who would like to "read Owa," please click his name in the "Labels" section below. It will bring up years of his persona, his mind, and his writing on AAPEX. 

DC Copeland

*Owa's choice of words instead of African American which he felt were interchangeable... given the circumstances of living in a white world. Be sure to click "Owafest" in the Labels section to read his thoughts on the subject.

###

Owa was one of the first writers to join The African American Playwrights Exchange in 2007 and one of the first playwrights in the mix to offer up one of his plays, FUNNYLINGUS, for a reading (at the LGBT Center in NYC) The play was a startling look at the conflict between the theatre and the church. It's a play that I love dearly.

Another of Owa's plays, the title of which I forget, was running at one point when I was in NYC. It was about the Holy family - God, Mary, Joseph and Jesus - and again was highly irreverent. 

I read a few more of his wonderfully absurdist plays over the past seven years and talked with him endlessly about the strange world of the American theatre as it was viewed through his perspective and counted him one of my great friends.

Owa made a tremendous contribution to the American dramaturgy - the question is, what happens with his plays and other writings now?

Jaz Dorsey

###

So sorry to learn of Owa's passing; he was one of the several playwrights who collaborated with students in a popular course I developed at Ohio State's Lawrence and Lee Institute many years ago, and I always enjoyed our conversations. 

Alan Woods

Diversity and Inclusion in the Arts Are Not Enough

Shawn C. Harris

Posted Sep 3 2014 by Shawn C. Harris in Crossroads and Intersections, The Marbury Project 

If you’re reading this, I’m going to assume three things about you. 

 *You care about women and people of color being involved in theatre. It bothers you when a show, season or organization is too male and too white. It doesn’t reflect the world you live in. It doesn’t reflect a world you want to live in. 

 *You need to hear from the people most impacted by how race and gender work in theatre. 

 *You want the truth, not what they think you want to hear because they don’t want to piss you off and lose an opportunity, a working relationship, or a friend or loved one. You are motivated to do something with the insight you gain. When we talk about race and gender in theatre, the words “diversity” and “inclusion” are not far from people’s lips and keyboards. In other words, the not-really-hidden question of where all the women and people of color are and how to bring more into the fold.

I know people are sincere and mean well, but there’s one big problem with “diversity” and “inclusion.” 

Put simply: it’s not enough.

To read more, please click here.

Benja Kay Thomas stars in BOOTYCANDY at Playwrights Horizons (NYC)

Phillip James Brannon, Jessica Francis Dukes, Benja Kay Thomas, and Lance Coadie Williams

From Broadway World:

BOOTYCANDY, a new play written and directed by Robert O'Hara, is being presented in its New York premiere at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street) as the opening production of the company's 2014/2015 Season. Opening Night is Wednesday, September 10, 2014. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below! The cast features Phillip James Brannon, three-time Helen Hayes Award nominee Jessica Frances Dukes, Jesse Pennington, Audelco Award winner Benja Kay Thomas and Lance Coadie Williams. Sutter (Mr. Brannon) is on an outrageous odyssey through his childhood home, his church, dive bars, motel rooms and even nursing homes. A kaleidoscope of sketches that interconnect to portray growing up gay and black, Robert O'Hara's subversive, uproarious satire crashes headlong into the murky terrain of pain and pleasure and... Bootycandy. The production features scenic and costume design by Clint Ramos, lighting design by two-time Tony Award nominee Japhy Weideman, sound design by Lindsay Jones, projection design by Aaron Rhyne and hair and make-up design by Dave Bova. Production Stage Manager is Marisa Levy.

DANCING AT DUNBAR September 6th (LA)

The Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre will perform a site specific dance celebrating Los Angeles' legendary Dunbar Hotel at the hotel. Based on "Life's Tragedy and Sympathy," two poems by Paul Laurence Dunbar. During the segregated era when African-Americans were not allowed to stay at major hotels, it became the hangout for such legends as Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, and Lena Horne. It hosted the first NAACP national convention in the western US. 

Tickets can be bought here.

A "Tip of the Backward-wearing Kangol" to David Mack for bringing this to our attention.

Jackie Wilson returns to DC

Please click image to enlarge.

The Eve of Jackie returns to Washington, DC for two performances at Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club, September 20 & 21, 2014. Starring the award winning, Broadway performer - Chester Gregory asJackie Wilson.

The Eve of Jackie, a raw and jaw-dropping tour de force musical tribute to Jackie Wilson.  Set in September 1975 the show is an incredible look at Jackie Wilson and his last complete performance, the night before he collapses on stage. Draped with this show is a flashback to that concert in which the great artist felt compelled to share details of his troubled life.  Chester Gregory masterfully performs many of the singer’s signature hits and expertly executes his awe-inspiring trademark moves. 

After stepping foot on the music scene in the late 1950s as a solo artist, Jackie Wilson forever changed the face of Pop Culture.  Known for his dynamic stage presence and cross-over hits like “Higher and Higher,” “Lonely Teardrops,” “My Empty Arms,” “Alone at Last” and “Baby Workout,” Jackie Wilson has inspired legions of entertainers from Elvis Presley to the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, Wilson had more than 20 Top-40 pop-chart hits. No wonder they called him “Mr. Excitement,” a charismatic showman who commanded a stage like few before or since, and Chester captures every nuance, from Jackie’s natural tenor to his signature moves.

About Chester Gregory;

Chester Gregory is a Gary native and Broadway veteran best known from his roles in Sister Act, Dreamgirls, Hairspray, Tarzan, Cry Baby, and Shrek the Musical. Chester studied at Emerson Visual and Performing Arts School, and Columbia College, graduating with his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Through dedication and hard work he built his passion for the arts into a career, making a name for himself when he burst onto the theater scene as Jackie Wilson in original production of "The Jackie Wilson Story" for which he received major acclaim such as, The Jeff, AUDELCO, BTAA and Black Excellence Awards.

Directed by Da’Vine Joy Randolph, with Musical Direction by Rob Lewis. The show is co-written by Crystal Lucas and Chester himself.

Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club

The Bethesda Theater, built in 1938 and opened as one of the era's Art Deco cinema palaces, has come back to life! With an $8 million renovation, this National Historic Register Property is the region's #1 Live Music Supper Club! Located 1 1/2 blocks from the Bethesda Metro station. The Cheltenham Parking Garage is located behind the Club.

Tickets are $17.50-$37.50 and are available at The Bethesda Blues and Jazz supper Club’s box office or by visiting Home

Acting and Playwriting Workshop (NYC)

Please click image to enlarge.

African American Short Films and Gospel Music too are playing on a TV near you

Click here for more information.

4th Annual "48 Hours in Harlem" opens August 17th (Harlem)

6 Playwrights

6 Directors

18 Actors

giving raw impressions of 6 black plays.

Sunday, August 17th at 7pm

National Black Theatre

2031 5th Avenue (@125th Street)

Please click image to enlarge.

Please click image to enlarge.

Please click image to enlarge.

Pre-Sale Tickets: $25.00

$30.00 at door (limited number)

Buy tickets here.

To learn more, please click here.

Stephanie Lynn Wilson's SILK STOCKINGS AND A BIBLE 8/27 (NYC)

Stephanie Lynn Wilson

AFTER A SUCCESSFUL SOLD OUT PERFORMANCE OF PLAY #1 TITLED "THE GRINDER" WE'RE BACK WITH PLAY #2! 

SILK STOCKINGS AND A BIBLE, THE SECOND PLAY IN THE TRILOGY "WOMEN YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW," ABOUT WOMEN PERCEIVED AS SOCIETY'S "BAD GIRLS", IS SET IN HARLEM AND ATLANTIC CITY DURING THE SWING ERA. IT TELLS THE TALE OF FANNIE MAE BROWN, A CHORUS GIRL WHO BECOMES A CHURCH LADY WITH A PAST...

ARE HER REGRETS OF HER SPICY PAST OR OF HER AUSTERE PRESENT?

WRITTEN, DIRECTED, PRODUCED BY STEPHANIE LYNN WILSON 

STARRING KRYSTAL HILL AS GIRL FANNIE MAE BROWN 

STACEY GRIFFIN AS THE SAILOR JOSEPH CHARLES 

MICHELLE ROBINSON AS DORIS 

LASALLE CHUK OBASI AS BUDDY 

EREN T. GIBSON AS SASSY AND 

 SANTI RODRIGUEZ AS SAMMY G. 

$25 in advance/$30 at door 

For more information and to buy tickets, please click here.

~~~~~~~~~~ 

A scene from this play was chosen to be performed at the 2014 Harlem Arts Festival

Look for the full production of all three plays 

in the same run of the entire trilogy in early 2015! 

The staged reading of the third play in the trilogy "Wild Child" TBA 

Follow @trilogyofwomen on Twitter 

WILSON EXCLUSIVE TALENT PRODUCTIONS IS FISCALLY SPONSORED BY MEGA NATIONAL ARTS ORGANIZATION FRACTURED ATLAS

Khalil Kain to star in Nathan James' "Contrary to Popular Belief" reading TONIGHT (NYC)

Tonight!  July 14, 2014    7:30pm  

The Cell Theater

(338 W. 23rd Street b/t 8th and 9th Avenues)

The cast list is in for Nathan James' full length play, Contrary to Popular Belief, at The Black Board Reading series: Khalil Kain (well known for GIRLFRIENDS and JUICE), Toccarra Cash, James Edward Becton III, Carter Woodson, Norman Small, Mckenzie Frye, Evander Duck, and Ryan Guess. 

Synopsis:

On the South side of Pittsburgh, there is a business district that’s stretches along East Carson Street, which is home to shop owner, Kevin Evans, who struggles to keep his life together amidst his estranged brother missing in New Orleans and a failing marriage.  Contrary to Popular Belief is a play about love, betrayal, regret, and forgiveness surrounding the controversial events of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.  The play is set in Kevin’s shop, Debonair’s, in the fall of 2005 in the critical hours of the warning to evacuate New Orleans.  In the midst of this national disaster the characters in this play must find a way to cope as they also deal with going through the storms in their personal lives.  With the revealing of dark family secrets, infidelity, and the threat a Debonair’s license to operate being revoked, Kevin and the shop employees take us on a journey through their personal storms as they struggle to keep their head above water to survive. Contrary to Popular belief explores the causes of the unaddressed stress levels causing hyper tension for many African Americans, questions the government, and addresses the domino effect racism has played on the state of many black communities today.

Written by Nathan James

Directed by Cezar Williams

Stage directions are being read by Stori Ayers .

Come out to the Cell Theater on July 14th at 7:30 pm. More information at: www.blackboardplays.com

8-More African-Born Writers You Should Be Reading

A. Igoni Barrett

By Jason Diamond on Jul 3, 2014 12:45pm for Flavorwire

Fiction can be a revealing window into cultures that are unfamiliar to us — and reading the work of an author who lives in another country or was born across the world from us can elucidate a different point of view. Whether it be a country’s political situation, the lexicon, the history, or the people, immersing oneself in the fiction of a specific nation, region, or even an entire content can provide an opportunity to better understand other places and experiences. And, as a recent New York Times article noted, this is an especially great time for literature from Africa and by authors who were born there:

The flowering of new African writers is “an amazing phenomenon,” said Manthia Diawara, a professor of comparative literature and film at New York University. “It is a literature more about being a citizen of the world — going to Europe, going back to Lagos,” he said. “Now we are talking about how the West relates to Africa and it frees writers to create their own worlds. They have several identities and they speak several languages.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Helen Oyeyemi, Ishmael Beah, NoViolet Bulawayo, and other African-born writers who have experienced success in America are all cited, including Lagos-born Teju Cole, who took to Twitter to point out something the article touches on a bit, but that deserves extra emphasis: “too many literary publishers would rather put out work by writers from Africa than work by African-Americans because in the current climate the Africans are considered more appealing for what is seen as a ‘black slot.’”

As that very necessary conversation — about a sad reality that the publishing world needs to address immediately — continues, the fact remains that an abundance of fantastic literature is coming out of Africa right now. That’s something to celebrate, so to help you do that, we offer a few other suggestions of African-born writers whose work you should seek out.

To continue reading, please click here.

Heather Bagnall's singlemarriedgirl gets its NYC debut at The Spiral Theatre Studio 7/18-21

As The Spiral Theatre Studio comes to the end of its first year, it is excited to present a New York City debut, when Heather Bagnall and her company, Tasty Monster Productions, bring Heather's one woman show singlemarriedgirl to the Big Apple. Check out the performance details on the website here. 

Theatre & Bigotry

It's like something out of Kafka.

While I am sure that most artists and creators of theatre are extremely compassionate when it comes to the world at large, I encounter more bigotry on a daily basis in the arena of the theatre than in any other place in my life.

First of all there is the "Protestant Ascendancy" of New York. While there are certainly plenty of NYC theatre folks who have plenty of respect for theatre in the rest of the country, there are still far too many decision makers who believe that NYC is THE validator of theatre. It's bigotry to think that theatre in Cleveland or Atlanta can't be the equal of theatre in NYC.

And outside of New York, how often do you hear the lament that the theatre is very "cliquish" in this or that city. And it's true. And the problem with cliques - just by their very nature - is that they spew bigotry and they spew it into the greater community, which undermines the theatre as a whole.Cliquishness is not good for the mental health of the community and It does NOT build a population of Americans who are going to get excited about the theatre.

There's also economic bigotry as well - those who get the grants are the "chosen." They are the ones that get ALL of the local press in so many cities, making it almost impossible for the independent and unfunded artists and projects in a community to get the attention they deserve.  

Unfortunately there is more talent than there is money. Please don't hold that against the artists who are not allowed to get in line for the money.

Bigotry towards community theatre is ridiculous. Most of us got our start in community theatre. Every community theatre out there is just as much a blessing to Broadway as Broadway is to community theatre.

Personally I find the attitude towards university theatre to be very bigoted. This is the most vital theatre that there is and all of us in the theatre should be encouraging our friends and fans to enjoy what happens on university and college theat

re stages. That's where you are going to see Chekov and Brecht and not just Shakespeare.

I won't even go there with the situation as far as African American playwrights goes. Or ageism.

And nowadays, more and more, there is a level of producers who is neither commercial nor community and who are not eligible for the 501(c)3 nonprofit status who are struggling to fulfill their artistic destinies. These folks should be our heroes - not shunted off in to dark corners.

Talent is NOT a geographical phenomenon - an act of theatre is only as valuable as the effect it has on an audience at any given performance.

Jaz Dorsey

Dramaturg/e

The Actors Reading Room

Nashville, Tennessee