LTA's FREE Performances This Friday and Saturday!

Little Theatre of Alexandria presents three one act plays this Friday and Saturday, May 18-19 at LTA. Performance times are Friday May 18th at 8pm and Saturday May 19th at 3pm and 8pm. These performances are free and open to the public. No tickets are required. "The Pheasant" by Isaiah Dufort and directed by Natalie Safley, is the First Place Winner of the the LTA 06-07 One Act playwriting competition and LTA's entry to the NVTA One Act Festival in June. "Party Time" by Michael E. Wolfson and directed by Cody Jones is the Second Place Winner of the LTA 06-07 One Act playwriting competition. "Send in the Clowns" by Nancy Ryan and directed by Liz Owens is the First Place Winner of the 04-05 One Act playwriting competition. Please feel free to pass this info on to your theatre friends! And remember it's...FREE !!

Last Chance: "THIS FAR BY FAITH" at Flint's New McCree Theatre

This Far by Faith, the musical by Marylene Whitehead and Rufus Hill, continues its run at Flint's New McCree Theatre, 322 E. Hamilton. According to audience reviews, the play is excellent and contains something for everyone. It is humorous, it is deep, it is thought-provoking, and the music is awesome.

"This group fills the stage with powerful vocal talent." (The Flint Journal, May 6, 2007)

If you didn't catch the show this past weekend, final performances are on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, May 17, 18, 19 at 8:00 p.m.with a matinee at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday as well. Admission is $12.00 for adults and $7.00 for students and seniors. Every Thursday is two for one night at the theatre where two will be admitted for the price of one. Group rates are available. Call (810) 232-9243 or email: mccreetheatre@ sbcglobal. net for further information

The Black Women Playwrights' Group's 18th Annual Staged Reading "TEXTURES"

The Black Women Playwrights' Group's 18th Annual Staged Reading "TEXTURES" will be held at The Studio Theatre, 1501 14th Street, NW, Wash, DC, June 18 & 19, 2007. Our celebrity host is Actor and Playwright, Sheryl Lee Ralph, who portrayed Moesha's mom on the TV sitcom and one of the Dreamgirls in the original Broadway production. She will also perform a scene from her one-woman show, And Still I Cry, about women with AIDS. Also featured will be scenes from Stanice Anderson's one-woman experience, Walkin' On Water When The Ground Ain't Enuf (newly evolved material not seen in the January 2007 DC premier) along with five other plays including e. christi cunningham's Waiting for Rainbows; Betty Miller Buttram's Ask Me No Questions, I'll Tell You No Lies; Louise V.Gray's Where Did Jennifer Lopez Get Her Butt?; Debbie Minter Jackson's Marbles; and Merrill D. Jones' Ms. Streeter.Tickets now available online through the BWPG website. Or call 202-315-1321 for group sales, ads, sponsorship opportunities and info.

SEEKING BLACK SCREENWRITING COLLABORATOR!

Noted producer and director is looking for black screenwriting collaborator to turn well known African American play about women into a movie. Well known celebrities already expressing interest in film. Has produced and directed such stars as Iyanla Vanzant, Mo'Nique, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Bebe Moore Campbell, Sommore, Taraji Henson, Pyllis Yvonne Stickney, Terri J. Vaughn, Vanessa Williams. If you are African American (men must be able to touch core of female emotions), can write drama and are looking for a wonderfully unique opportunity, please contact: YettaYoung Productions at yettayoung@aol.com for more information on play and possible collaboration. Source: TRU

PLAYWRIGHTS OF COLOR IN THE BRONX AND BEYOND!

A new Bronx-based multicultural theatre ensemble, and new play development lab, Actors Without Spaces, is seeking original submissions primarily from playwrights of color from all of the five boroughs. All contemporary, experimental, and provocative styles and subjects, one-acts and full-length stage plays only, small casts preferred. No musicals, no children's plays. AWS seeks to counteract the pervasive discrimination and isolation that minority playwrights continue to face in the theatre by providing developmental/dramaturgical support such as a bi-monthly play reading series, workshop productions of original works, theatre festivals, and panel discussions with professional theatre artists. Send bio, synopsis, ten-page sample of most current work to Actors Without Spaces c/o Desi Moreno-Penson, Artistic Director, 9 Metropolitan Oval, #7A, Bronx, New York 10462. Submissions will also be considered for Uptown Local/Singular Scenes Staged Readings events at Kingsbridge Library sponsored by the Bronx Writers Center, a program sponsored by the Bronx Council on the Arts. Source: TRU

STEP UP TO STEPPINGSTONE PLAYWRITING CONTEST

Let this be your Steppingstone to a production. Non-profit NYC theater company's first playwriting contest for new plays, especially those reflecting issues related to multiculturalism, African-American Diaspora, women, socio-political topics. Manuscripts read by a panel of established theater professionals. Deadline 8/1 (postmark). Must be original, full-length, never professionally produced. No musicals, no adaptations. Submit bound script with application form from website, one-page bio or resume. Must be from greater NY area. $10 fee payable to SteppingStone Theatre Company, Inc. Winner gets $500, staged reading, full professional production in Off-Broadway venue. Runner-up gets $200 and staged reading. Send to SteppingStone Theatre, 678 E. 24 St. Brooklyn, NY 11210 ATTN: Playwriting Contest. More info at http://www.steppingstonetheatrecompany.org/ or e-mail Dana (SteppingStoneOrg@aol.com). Source: TRU

NEW! IS YOUR SCRIPT A FUTURE HARLEM CLASSIC?

8 scripts wanted for workshops and readings. The Classical Theatre of Harlem, in collaboration with the Fredrick Douglass Creative Arts Center and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture accepting scripts for consideration in 2007/2008 Future Classic Program. E-mail to futureclassics@classicaltheatreofharlem.org. Deadline: 8/3. Source: TRU

NEW! SEEKING MUSICAL ABOUT THE BLACK EXPERIENCE!

Curtain Call, Inc., Fairfield County, Connecticut’s premiere community-based theatre, announces the establishment of what the organization hopes will become an annual award to celebrate diversity in the musical theater: The American Harmony Prize. The goal of the American Harmony Prize is to showcase new works of musical theater that explore our country’s many ethnic, religious and gender identifications. To do so, the prize will be awarded each year to the writers of a new musical that delves into a different specific segment of American society. The inaugural American Harmony Prize will showcase a new musical that dramatizes an aspect of the experience of Black Americans. In addition to a cash award of $250.00, a condensed version of the winning musical (approximately one hour in length) will be performed as a part of Curtain Call’s series of new musicals in concert at the Ethel and Sidney Kweskin Theater in Stamford, Connecticut, in February of 2008. Musical theater writers interested in having their work considered for the American Harmony Prize should submit a plot synopsis of no more than 800 words (or roughly two pages), the first 10 pages of the libretto (with all dialogue, lyrics and stage directions included), a cd that demonstrates as much of the musical’s score as has been recorded to date (it needn’t be of studio quality) and one sample of the sheet music for a song from the show’s piano / vocal score. A “short list” of applicants will be contacted after the first round of judging and asked to submit a full libretto and additional samples of the piano / vocal score for the final consideration. There is no submission / reading fee. Applicants that wish to have their materials returned should include a self-addressed, stamped envelope. In order to qualify for consideration, a musical cannot have been professionally produced (Equity Dinner, LORT, Production, Special Production, SPT, Stock, etc…) or published, but it may have been performed in readings, concerts, workshops and non-professional productions. Submissions will be accepted via mail from Monday, August 6, 2007 until Saturday, September 22, 2007. Submissions should be mailed to: Curtain Call, Inc., 1349 Newfield Avenue, Stamford, CT 06905, Att. American Harmony Prize. Source: TRU

ACT celebrates D.C. Black Pride with original dramas and world-premiere films

Sunday, May 27th at 6:30 p.m., African-American Collective Theater (ACT) presents "Stage & Screen," an evening of short plays-in-progress and underground digital video dramas chronicling contemporary Black gay life in the nation's capital. This performance marks ACT's 9th annual observance of "D.C. Black Pride" which, for 17 consecutive years, has drawn thousands of visitors to Washington over the busy Memorial Day Weekend. "Stage & Screen" showcases home-grown talent, featuring a cast of 24 gifted local actors performing a collection of tales written and directed by ACT artistic director, Alan Sharpe.

The evening opens with a reading of "Storm Signals," a one-act play detailing romantic entanglements among three young lesbians facing their senior year at a Black college. The ten-minute comedy that follows, "Best Man for the Job," illustrates how secrets can still exist between even the best of friends. After intermission, the program continues with the world-premieres of four short, digital video dramas: "All in the Timing," "Moment of Truth," "Check-Out Time," and "Kickin'It," plus the trailer from "Chump ChangeS," ACT's on-line serial drama about a group of Southeast D.C. teens in crisis.

"Stage & Screen" is scheduled to follow the annual D.C. Black Pride Fest earlier that afternoon. The performance begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Warehouse Theater - Main Stage, 1021 Seventh Street, N.W., directly across the street from the D.C. Convention Center festival site. General admission is $15 and seating is limited, with tickets on sale beginning at 4:30 p.m. on the afternoon of the performance in the lobby of the theater, which is conveniently located near METRO's Mt. Vernon Square/Convention Center and Gallery Place/Chinatown stations on the red, green and yellow lines. Ticket and additional info are also available at 202-745-3662, or by e-mail to http://us.f343.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=asharpebgm%40msn.com. This production is suggested for mature audiences only.

Karamu House Examines Sex Trafficking in the United States with Ohio Premiere of "Body and Sold"

Karamu House Examines Child Sexual Exploitation Within The United States With Cleveland, Ohio Premiere of Body and Sold debuting at 4PM Saturday, May 12, 2007 in the Arena Theater. Written by Deborah Lake Fortson, Body and Sold brings awareness to the teen sex traffic trade in the United States with a production based on true accounts of victims who survived to tell their tale. Heidi Bedrossian directs.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported the average age of a prostitute is 14 years with some being as young as nine. In addition, the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported more than 400,000 prostitutes in America although other agencies list the total at more than 800,000.

Deborah Lake Fortson created and staged Body and Sold in Boston. The play is based on interviews with former victims in Boston, Hartford and Minneapolis. Young Americans--six girls and two boys-- tell how they left home and were seduced, lured, kidnapped into a life of prostitution; about the trouble in their families which forced them from home; how they became prostituted; the daily violence in "the life;" how they escaped and their struggle to survive. It is designed to serve as a vehicle to raise awareness of child sexual exploitation in the United States.

"It gives kids a heads-up about what an abusive relationships looks like," Lake Fortson explained to the Boston Globe. "They (victims) are psychologically terrorized."

Deborah Lake Fortson will attend the May 12 and 13 shows and will be available for discussion with audience members and media afterwards.

Body and Sold runs May 12 - June 3, 2007 at Karamu House in the Arena Theater at 4 PM. Tickets are $6 for youth and $8 for adults. Karamu is located at 2355 E. 89th. Street. For more information call 216.795.7077 or visit http://www.karamu.com/. To learn more about Body and Sold and how you can stage a reading to raise funds to fight against child sexual exploitation in your community, please click here.