Blackboard Reading Series Monday Nights (NYC)

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Suggested donation at door: $10.00

--Light Refreshments-- 

RSVP: info@blackboardplays.com

http://www.blackboardplays.com/submit

James A Tyler's DOLPHINS AND SHARKS, Friday, February 19th (New Jersey)

SPECIAL BLACK HISTORY MONTH FEATURE 

*ONE NIGHT ONLY* 

NEXT Blackboard: FRIDAY, February 19, 2016 

7:30pm 

Art House Productions 

136 Magnolia Avenue

Jersey City, NJ 07306

To learn more, please click here.

Shaun Neblett's "Homage5: Life After Death" reading April 13th (NYC)

ABOUT THE PLAY

"Homage 5: Life After Death" is the latest play that writer Shaun Neblett is finishing in his "7 Homages for 7 MCs" play cycle. The play pays homage to the second and final studio album by American rapper The Notorious B.I.G. Shaun is very excited to return to The Blackboard Reading Series for the debut reading of this play.

Please click here to buy tickets.

W. Tré Davis' ONLY 4U this Monday, 2-9 at Blackboard Reading Series (NYC)

NEXT Blackboard: MONDAY, February 9, 2015 7:30pm 

 the cell - 338 W. 23rd Street - New York, NY 10011 

 ONLY 4 U 

Written by W. Tré Davis 

 Directed by David Mendizábal

ABOUT THE PLAY 

David is handling his break up like a champ; 
until he meets his ex for coffee. 

Only 4 You challenges our perception of real and unreal 

as David explores his capacity to grow, forgive, 

and love the person that matters most: himself. 

 Featuring:

Donnell E. Smith 

Rocky Vega 

José Joaquin Pérez 

DaWoyne A. Hill

$10.00 Suggested Donation

Purchase tickets in advance here.

~wine served~ 

Reading followed by a 20 mintue talk-back 

 RSVP: info@blackboardplays.com

Blackboard Reading Series: The 1's and 2's by Donaldo Prescod (NYC TONIGHT)

Please click image to enlarge.

Directed by Elizabeth Carlson The 1's and 2's is a coming of age tapestry play set in the Bronx. The year is 1980, Soundview. Break beats and rap battles fill the air. Neighborhood mayhem and summer love cling on every street. And our story is told as five friends spend one last summer together embracing the culture they know best. Serving as a love letter to hip-hop, this play is about the people who truly knew what it meant to shout, "Yes, yes, ya'll! You don't stop!" 

$10 Suggested Donation 

~wine served~ 

Reading followed by a 20 mintue talk-back 

 RSVP: info@blackboardplays.com

Blackboard Reading Series TONIGHT (NYC)

Tonight! 

Monday, February 11, 2013 7:00pm 

COMMUNITY NIGHT 

Playwrights bring your pages (up to 10) Actors bring yourselves! Community Night's are such a fun evening! If you're a PLAYWRIGHT interested in participating - RSVP with your submission, and we'll put you on the roster to present your 10 pages. ACTORS - bring yourselves (and RSVP as well)! We have a number of confirmed playwrights - so actors and playwrights begin arriving at 7:00pm please! 

$10 Suggested Donation ~wine served~ RSVP: info@blackboardplays.com

Blackboard Reading Series

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Louis Johnson's COWARD at Monday's Blackboard Reading Series (NYC)

NEXT Blackboard 

Monday, December 10, 2012 

7:30pm 

 COWARD 

By 

Louis Johnson 

Directed by 

Toccarra Cash 

Andover, Massachusetts. Fall, 2011. A boy commits suicide due to a bully's taunts. His surviving sibling becomes unraveled as she watches her parents go to war... With each other! Can mom and dad stop their bickering long enough to save what's left of their family? Or will everything they've worked for go spiraling down the loo? 

$10 Suggested Donation ~wine served~ 

 RSVP: info@blackboardplays.com

To learn more, please click here.

Blackboard Reading Series: AM I WHITE? by Adrienne Dawes 11/12 (NYC)

NEXT Blackboard - 

Monday, November 12, 2012

7:30pm

AM I WHITE? 

By Adrienne Dawes 

Directed by Kevin R. Free 

Playwright - Adrienne Dawes

When Neo-N* terrorist Wesley Connor returns to prison after a failed bomb plot, he is confronted with the two identities that threaten his position within the White Order of Thule most: fatherhood and his own mixed race heritage. Inspired by the true story of Leo Felton and Erica Chase, Am I White? travels between linear narrative, recurring dreams and minstrel show nightmare to discover if a singular self exists in post-modern, “post-racial” America. 

$10 Suggested Donation 

Reserve your seats by clicking here. 

~wine served~ 

 RSVP: info@blackboardplays.com

Watch the Blackboard Reading of Nathan Yungerberg's POUSADA AZUL

Please click to enlarge.
"Pousada Azul" Ensemble with Co-Creators Galia Cornelia Jones-Ly
and Almeria Campbell

If you happened to miss the reading on September 10th at 

Live@ the Cell, Blackboard arranged for live streaming. Pretty cool.

Up next Monday, October 8th at 7:30 PM:

GENERATION T 

by PIA WILSON 

 Directed by Heidi Grumelot 

 GENERATION T follows two Marines – one on psych leave and the other AWOL – and their drug-addled friends as they try to cope with life in post-9/11 America – the only America they've known. 

 $10 Suggested Donation ~wine served~ 

 RSVP: info@blackboardplays.com

Blackboard Reading Series: Nathan Yungerberg's POUSADA AZUL (9/10-- NYC)

NEXT Blackboard:

Monday, September 10, 2012, 7:30pm

Pousada Azul

by Nathan Yungerberg

Pousada Azul is a quaint, modest guest house overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, amidst the saturated colors of Salvador da Bahia, Brazil. One rainy season in 2002, African American Expats Karen Wallace, self-appointed gatekeeper of Bahian culture and Tobias Walker, her fabulous gay husband, intertwine with their sole guest-Benjamin Douglas, a handsome but evasive New Yorker. They are visited by Karen’s best friend Eliciana Santos, a vivacious Baiana who’s carrying her first child, whose birth as foretold could possibly heal Karen

with

ALMERIA CAMPBELL - Karen Wallace

KEVIN ALAN - Ben Douglas-

DEAN ACREE - Tobias Walker

JOCELYN BIOH - Eliciana Santo

$10 Suggested Donation

Give your donation through Brown Paper Tickets!

~wine served~

Blackboard @ the cell

every 2nd Monday of the month @ the cell

338 W. 23rd Street between 8th and 9th Ave.

New York, NY 10031

RSVP: info@blackboardplays.com

Meet the playwright.

Nathan Yungerberg is a Brooklyn based playwright, originally from Minneapolis. Nathan is currently making a transition into theater after twenty years of working as a professional photographer. His play, The Son of Dawn, had a members reading at the Playwrights’ Center. Nathan has also participated in the Classical Theater of Harlem’s Playwright’s Playground reading series.

Andre Richardson Hogan II's YOU HAPPY NOW? YOU SATISFIED? next Monday, July 9th (NYC)

NEXT Blackboard: NEXT WEEK

Monday, July 9, 2012 7:30pm

You Happy Now? You Satisfied? (1978!)

a documentary poetic drama

by André Richardson Hogan II

You Happy Now? You Satisfied? (1978!),

is a dramatization of the development of

late recording artist Marvin Gaye’s album,

Here My Dear, inspired by a divorce.

$10 Suggested Donation

~wine served~

RSVP

To learn more, please click the post's title

to visit the Blackboard Reading Series website.

Blackboard Reading Series: Final Night for 2012 (NYC)

The Final Community Night of 2012 is Monday, June 12, 2012 7:30pm

Community Nights have become a staple of Blackboard and set us apart from all the rest. Think of it as an open mic for playwrights.

PLAYWRIGHTS bring your pages / monologues / whatever you’ve been working on!

ACTORS bring yourselves!

ARRIVE EARLY to cast and be cast!

2012 is packed full of plays, so don’t miss the last time you’ll be able to bring your work this year!

$10 suggested Donation

~wine served~

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

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

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.

AAPEX Interview: Garlia Jones

Garlia Jones, 

founder of NYC's Blackboard Reading Series

Garlia Jones, founder of NYC's Blackboard Reading Series, is also the author of STRANGER IN MY BODY, a provocative new play about sexual identity which opens on Wednesday, March 2 at the cell in NYC. 

I asked Garlia to tell us about herself, her work with playwrights and her play:

What role did theatre and the arts play in your childhood and upbringing?

My father has been an actor and Shakespeare scholar my entire life. Theatre and music were not uncommon in my family at all.  My father had a madrigal choir for nearly 20 years in Canada (we lived in Detroit) and he produced and starred in Othello more times than I can remember during my childhood.  So - theatre and the arts were natural and an essential part of my childhood.

Tell us about your own evolution as an artist.

Following my father, I knew that I wanted to be an artist.  I also knew that I wanted to be a teacher, as he has been for over 60 years (but that is another story).  I wanted to be an actor - but I had / have a stutter ... so I eventually gave that up.  I wanted to be an Opera Singer, but I guess I was a little too shy, so I stuck to playing my flute, and learning to dance.  I studied the Checetti method of Ballet and passed three exams with flying colors, but I knew I would never be a dancer.  Finally, in highschool, I immersed myself in theatre (in addition to flute, band and choir) and by the time I was in college, I knew I wanted to be a director.   I started a Black Theatre Group because of the lack of roles for Black Theatre students on the mainstage.  Black Curtain was a success and so enjoyable!  We accomplished so much as an organization and in the meantime, I was a writer, director and producer!  Everyone wanted me to be a director...  I wanted to be a director - but writing was something that I was really drawn to do.  So when I decided to pursue the MA in African American and African Diapsora Studies at Indiana University (Where I had also done my B.A.), I knew I wanted that degree before pursuing an MFA in Playwrighting.  That would get me back into the classroom - back to where I also really wanted to be - teaching - (and all without the Education degree)... at least that's what I thought...

When I was accepted to The New School - the final part of my "plan" was in place.  After my first year, I didn't have Black Curtain and had now grown a bit, so I knew I wanted to focus the energy towards Playwrights.  I wanted them to have a home - I wanted them to have a place they could hear their work - like poets (bc I had been deeply involved with Poets/Poetry during college)  Blackboard Reading Series is what was born out of my thoughts for this series.  I stumbled upon two women with a space (Nancy Manocherian and Kira Simring of the cell) and proposed the series to them - they were thrilled and gave it a name - Blackboard - for the Blackboard paint on the walls.

What is the mission of The Blackboard Reading Series?

Blackboard Reading Series is devoted to the work of Black Playwrights throughout the African Diaspora.

What inspired you to write STRANGER IN MY BODY?

During my last year of my MA at Indiana, I met a woman who was thinking of  beginning her transition.  During my 1st year at The New School for Drama, I met a woman that, at the time, resembled the woman I knew at Indiana and I literally said I wanted to write a play for this actor (Chaelon Costello - who plays ABIA).  The story came from there, but was not about the woman at Indiana.  She was the inspiration, but this is not a biography. The story has now evolved into it's own story, encompassing my hometown and these characters, that I have gotten to know over these past 4 years.

Interview by Jaz Dorsey, Dramaturg, The African American Playwrights Exchange.

* This reading of Stranger In My Body is produced by the cell, a Twenty First Century Salon (TM) in Chelsea and Not Blackboard Reading Series / Blackboard @ the cell*

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

Shawn Harris' ANNE & ME tonight at the cell (NYC)

TONIGHT'S Reading:

May 12th, 7:30pm

Feature Evening

ANNE & ME

by Shawn Harris

When Anne Hathaway comes out of the T.V., who knows what's next....

with

Toccara Castleman as ME

Sarah Koestner as ANNE

Verna Hampton as GAB 1

Ayo Cummings as GAB 2

Reading followed by a 20 minute talkback

Donations Greatly Appreciated

Please click here to RSVP.
Please click the post's title to visit the Blackboard Reading Series website.

Garlia C. Jones' STRANGER IN MY BODY 4/12 (NYC)

The Blackboard Reading Series at the cell
presents Garlia C. Jones'
Stranger in my Body
Monday, April 12th at 7:30 PM
338 W. 23rd Street
b/t 8th & 9th Ave
NYC

Followed by a 20-minute talk back.
Donations greatly appreciated.

Please click the post's title to make reservations.

Blackboard Reading Series at the cell 4/12 (NYC)

STRANGER IN MY BODY
by Garlia Cornelia Jones
directed by Mason Beggs
Struggling with her own religion and sexuality, Jacqueline must negotiate her relationship with Abia, a male-identified female, as he decides whether or not to begin the process of physically becoming a man.
Chaelon Costello as ABIA
LaChrisha Brown as JACQUELINE
Ché Lyons as EDEN
Kiel Perry as KEON
Ema Lakovic as DR. TERRY

Reading followed by a 20 minute talkback Donations Greatly Appreciated.

RSVP : blackboardreadingseries@gmail.com

Please click post's title to go to the Blackboard website.