The AAPEX Catalog

Just to let everyone know, after 4 years of research which has included over 40 new play readings in cities around the country - which has involved pulling lots of rabbits out of lots of hats -  I can define the AAPEX mission.

AAPEX is a Literary organization, not a theatrical one.

I would like to think that we will all have the joy of seeing our plays produced in our lifetimes. Posthumous fame isn't all it's cracked up to be.

However, I feel it is more important for me at this point to make sure that your scripts are read and studied.

The internet offers us amazing new options and opportunities for making out work available, so the next phase of our progress will be to research and develop an AAPEX catalogue.

Also, while we are on the subject, Alan Woods, Director of the Jerome Lawrence & Robert E. Lee theatre archives at Ohio State has established an AAPEX archive and everyone should consider getting your scripts into the archive. You can find a link to the site on the right.

This idea was first planted in my head by AAPEX founding member and our blog editor, Dave Copeland. If you have not visited the blog lately, check out the interviews with many of our members.

If any one would like to assist with this, please let me know. I could especially use input from any librarians among you.

Also, if you are not a member of the Dramatists Guild, please join.

Jaz

Exciting News from Columbus!

Maurice Hines has been named as artistic director of the Lincoln Theatre in Columbus, Ohio, which is the vital center of Columbus' African-American community. Hines visited the Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute earlier this year, as the Institute became the Lincoln Theatre Archive. He was particularly impressed by the presence of the African-American Playwrights Exchange Archive at the Institute, and by the rich holdings documenting the work of African-American theatre artists in the Institute. There will be extensive collaborations between the Lincoln Theatre, the Lawrence and Lee Institute, and Ohio State's Department of Theatre.

The Lincoln was opened in November 1928 as the Ogden Theatre and Ballroom. It was built through a collaboration between local African-American real estate owner and entrepreneur Al Jackson, African-American fraternal organization the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, and African-American construction company owner Carl Anderson. Jackson was determined to provide the community with a theatre which catered specifically to African-American patrons and performers, and engaged the fraternal organization to manage it and Carl Anderson to build it.

The name was changed to the Lincoln Theatre in 1938, and over the years, hosted jazz greats including Madame Rose Brown, Harry Edison, Tiny Bradshaw, Stomp Gordon, Hank Marr, and Rusty Bryant, along with legends such as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Etta James, James Brown, and Columbus native Nancy Wilson. One of the most notable pieces of history was the debut of a three-year-old Sammy Davis Jr., who ran on stage to dance at the Lincoln in his first recorded performance.

The Lincoln was abandoned in the early 1970s and sat empty for three decades. Now owned by the City of Columbus, the theatre is undergoing an $11,000,000 restoration, and is a major factor in the revitalizing of the King-Lincoln District, the center of the historically African-American neighborhood in Columbus. The theatre is home to the Jazz Arts Group, and houses concerts, classes, and many community events, including productions from the Columbus Childrens' Theatre. Hines will helm three productions at the Lincoln Theatre each year in the genres of musical theatre, dance and concert performance, all in collaboration with local African-American performance artists and groups in residence at the Lincoln. Also while in Columbus, Hines will hold a jazz/hip hop dance workshop for young people.

The Lincoln Theatre is managed by the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts (CAPA); for more information on the Lincoln and its history, visit http://www.capa.com/columbus/venues/lincoln_about.php

New permanent AAPEX Archives link to Ohio State University's Jerome Lawrence & Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute

AAPEX is making archiving your plays easier

with a permanent click-through on the right side thanks to

Alan Woods

at

Ohio State University's

African American Playwrights' Exchange Archives.

Your plays will be housed for reference

and possibly used in readings and productions at

The Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee

Theatre Research Institute

1400 Lincoln Tower

1800 Cannon Drive

Columbus, OH 43210-1230

614/292-6614 vox 614/688-8417 FAX

http://library.osu.edu/sites/tri/

woods.1@osu.edu

AAPEX Archive Established!

Greg Fusco and Beverly Brewton read from a script written during a playwrights' retreat at the Lawrence and Lee Institute, August, 2006.

An archive for AAPEX members is now available at the Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute of The Ohio State University. Members can deposit scripts, programs, correspondence, photos of productions, and so forth in the AAPEX Archive.

Ohio State students Cornelius Hubbard and Doreen Salkiewicz in a staged reading of Shirley Barrie's Audience at Gallery 202 in Westerville, Ohio

The AAPEX Archive exists, most importantly, to make sure the work survives and is protected. The Lawrence and Lee Institute also actively works, through classes, staged readings, and other means, to publicize the material in its collections. In so doing, it honors the lifework of its founders, the playwriting team of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, who not only wrote such classic American plays as Inherit the Wind, The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, and Auntie Mame, but who also encouraged young writers through their teaching, workshops, creation of the American Playwrights Theatre, and establishing the Margo Jones Award to honor others who encouraged the art and craft of playwriting.

There’s more about the Institute at http://library.osu.edu/sites/tri/

The Lawrence and Lee Institute houses many collections and archives of playwrights and other theatre artists; a representative listing is at http://library.osu.edu/sites/tri/collections/

Mevelyn Estes
at a reading for seniors by Howling at the Moon, a women's ensemble based at the Ohio State University

See also http://www.osureadings.blogspot.com/ for examples of staged readings

And http://theatreh101.blogspot.com/ for classroom uses of texts

For further information, contact the Institute's director, Alan Woods, at the following address/email:

Alan Woods

The African-American Playwrights' Exchange Archives

The Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute

The Ohio State University

1400 Lincoln Tower
1800 Cannon Drive

Columbus, OH 43210-1230

614/292-6614 vox
614/688-8817 FAX
614/329-5689 cell
woods.1@osu.edu