The New Black Playwright's Fest looking for one-act plays

THE NEW BLACK PLAYWRIGHT'S FESTIVAL LOOKING FOR ONE-ACT PLAYS! (Atlanta, GA)

The New Black Playwright's Festival returns to Actor's Express this fall and they are looking for new one-act scripts to be produced as staged readings. The exciting series brings back to the Atlanta theatre community the opportunity to hear from new writers with great stories. The festival endured a long absence from the Atlanta theatre scene.

"It has certainly been way too long but I am very excited about our re-launch," says Founder Karen Horne Seymour.

The festival enjoyed several years of progress and success when it first began in 1997. The following six years, the Festival presented more than twenty-seven playwrights and twenty-nine plays. The stage readings have a scheduled three night run beginning Sunday, September 18, 2011 at Actor's Express 887 W. Marietta Street in the King Plow Art Center. For information on submitting your play please contact by phone or email: The New Black Playwright's Festival 404-399-0604newblackplaywrights@hotmail.com Visit their facebook page Freddie Ashley Artistic Director Actor's Express 887 West Marietta Street NW, Suite J-107 Atlanta, GA 30318 404-875-1606 administrative office 404-607-SHOW box office

The Science of Acting: The Biograph

The Biograph.

Before you apply this to a character, do the exercise on your own life and realize that everything that you know about yourself, your character knows about his or her self.

The numbers across the top signify years of age.

The words down the side signify the "arenas of life" - the things which we all have in common yet which for each of us are unique and in turn make each of us unique and give us our quirks.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 - up to your characters' current age

Parents
Mother
Father
Grandparents
Homes
Siblings
School
Education
Grades
Food
Religion
Sex
Parties
Hobbies
Work
Dating
Vices
Clothing
Health

Add to this list as things occur to you.


For more information on the science of acting, contact

Jaz Dorsey
Dramaturg
The African American Playwrights Exchange
www.africanamericanplaywrightsexchange.blogspot.com
jazmn47@aol.com

AAPEX Book Review: Dr. Frank E. Dobson, Jr's RENDERED INVISIBLE: STORIES OF BLACKS & WHITES, LOVE & DEATH

Dr. Frank E. Dobson, Jr.

The African American Playwrights' Exchange

Recommended Reading

RENDERED INVISIBLE: STORIES OF BLACKS & WHITES, LOVE & DEATH

by Dr. Frank E. Dobson, Jr.,

Director of Vanderbilt University's

Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center

& Adjunct Professor at Fisk University

Intense in both style and subject matter, RENDERED INVISIBLE is a collection of one novella and five shorter pieces which, collectively, offer insight into America's "culture of race" as it impacts all of us, both psychologically and emotionally. The protagonists are African American men ranging from the blue collar anti-hero of the title piece to a fatherless child named "junior" to a fellow who seeks to balance his own life issues when faced with the life of another man who has escaped the genocide of Rwanda. Dobson's skills as a dramatist infuse all six pieces with a powerful sense of personality, drawing the reader into each character's unique emotional turmoil. Throughout is the thread of social alienation which continues to haunt this country, where the promise of equality can't shake free from the enigma of race.

The stories in RENDERED INVISIBLE all have strong cinematic qualities. One piece, BLACK MESSIAHS DIE, has already made the transition to stage play under the title YOUNG MESSIAHS FLY.

The collection is also sure to find a place on the reading lists for courses on contemporary American and African American literature.

Dobson's strong connection to his material no doubt has its roots in a career which spans forty years and fuses outstanding academic achievements with a clear passion for community involvement and mentoring, and a life which has journeyed from the working class streets of Buffalo, NY to the prestigious halls of Nashville's Vanderbilt University to classrooms across the country.

For more information on Dr. Dobson and RENDERED INVISIBLE, visit www.frankedobsonjr.com

To order the book, please click the post's title.

Book review by Jaz Dorsey,

AAPEX Dramaturg

Atlanta Playwright Calvin Ramsey Wins AAPEX New Voice 2011 Award

Calvin Ramsey

The African American Playwrights' Exchange is pleased to recognize Atlanta based playwright and author Calvin Ramsey as AAPEX's New Voice of 2011. This recognition goes to Calvin for the outstanding job he has done of parlaying his research on The Negro Motorists Green Book into successes on two fronts - a drama, THE GREEN BOOK, which opens at Atlanta's Theatrical Outfit on August 17th - and an award winning children's book, RUTH AND THE GREEN BOOK, which has received a bronze medal in the Childrens' Picture Book category of the ForeWord 2011 Book of the Year Awards. In addition to his accomplishments as a writer, Calvin is also a significant force in the Atlanta theatre community, as indicated by the numerous conversations I have had with actors and other artists who have worked with him over the years - and the upcoming run of THE GREEN BOOK will surely shine a light on the amazing work being done in theatre in what is possibly the most fascinating city in the United States. Come to Atlanta and Go to the Theatre

Jaz Dorsey

Dramaturg AAPEX

Owa's A PARADISE LOST reading at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture -- July 11th (Pittsburgh)

Please click image to enlarge. 

Alicia Keys to produce Lydia R. Diamond's STICK FLY on Broadway

Diamond’s drama tells of an upscale African-American family that has a home on Martha’s Vineyard. One adult son is an affluent plastic surgeon, while the other is a not-yet-published novelist. Both bring their girlfriends for the weekend; that one is white will lead to complications.

The play will be staged by Kenny Leon, one of the comparatively few directors to have guided two Tony-winning revivals: “Fences” in 2010 and “A Raisin in the Sun” in 2004. He has yet to cast the show.

Previews begin November 18th with the opening scheduled for December 8th.

Please click the post's title to visit the "Stick Fly" website.

AAPEX Book Review: Dr. Henry Miller's THEORIZING BLACK THEATRE

Subway Reading: THEORIZING BLACK THEATRE

I thought that I would read Dr. Henry Miller's new book from cover to cover before writing a review, but I quickly discovered that THEORIZING BLACK THEATRE is not that kind of book.

THEORIZING BLACK THEATRE is the kind of book that you KEEP in your backpack and take out on the subway with pen in hand so you can take notes. Every couple of pages you will go over enough material to constitute an undergrad course in African American theatre and dramaturgy.

For instance, I have had the book for several months and have made it to Chapter 2, page 77. For every hour I have spent reading, I have spent 5 at the computer googling a whole new world of American theatre artists whose contributions have not been recognized in any theatre history book I have ever read. At this point, I am fixated on a playwright named Angelina Grimke (1805 - 1879) and her circle and the movement of African American dramaturgy from musicals to drama, as it is recognized in Grimke's anti-lynching drama RACHEL.

Theoretically, THEORIZING BLACK THEATRE is about the dialectic between Art & Propaganda in African American drama, but in pursuing this line of discourse, Dr. Miller gives us a whole new look at out country and begins to undo the damage that segregation has done to our historical perspective, especially as it is taught to us as students of American history and culture. Anyone who is fascinated with who we are needs to grab a copy of Dr. Miller's book & a pen and just get on the A train and read.

Jaz Dorsey
Dramaturg
The African American Playwrights Exchange
Nashville, Tennessee

Please click the post's title to buy the book on Amazon.com.

Jamal Williams' play about Pearl Bailey ("Cooking With Pearl") opens July 13th (Harlem)

Jamal Williams

If you happen to be in New York around the middle of July, please come check Pearl out in the play, "Cooking With Pearl" which makes its world premiere on Wednesday July 13, 2011. The cast is a fabulous veteran group of actors. I hope everyone can make it to this limited run (12 shows over two weeks.) We have a fabulous cast and a perfect Harlem location at the Harlem School of the Arts Theatre. I'll be coming up from Atlanta to be present. Hope to see you there.

Jamal Williams


To learn more about The Harlem School of the Arts, please click the post's title.


Congratulations, Jamal!
AAPEX staff

Book Review: Henry Miller's Theorizing Black Theatre

Please click to enlarge.

From the Spring 2011 edition of Broadside, the journal of the Theatre Library Association. To learn more about the TLA, please click the post's title.

AAPEX Interview: Calvin Ramsey and THE GREEN BOOK

A HISTORY LESSON 

or Google This!

                                                   
For me, AAPEX (The African American Playwrights Exchange) has been a history lesson rooted deep in what historical philosophers call "revisionism." Since founding this network on January 1, 2007, I have been completely reeducated in American history by playwrights and the research they have done to bring the world a greater knowledge of the African American contribution to literature, journalism, business and the arts. From Phillis Wheatley to Hannah Elias to Madam C J Walker & Ida B. Wells to Amelita Boynton Robinson to Paul Robeson and Billie Holiday, I have found a new country.

The newest discovery to come on my radar - thanks to Atlanta Playwright CALVIN RAMSEY - is an amazing publication that dates from 1936- 1964 - The Negro Motorists Green Book - a guidebook for safe and comfortable traveling during the era of segregation.

If you google The Green Book, the first entry you will find is a facsimile of the 1949 edition.

If you keep on checking out entries, you will find again and again references to Ramsey and his play - THE GREEN BOOK - including a NY Times article about the staged reading of the play at Washington, D. C.'s Lincoln Theatre a couple of years back.

And if you can make it to Atlanta on August 17th, you can join the gala audience when THE GREEN BOOK  opens at Atlanta's Theatrical Outfit.

I asked Mr. Ramsey to tell us something about himself and the journey to his play. This is what he had to say:

"My oldest brother was very involved in musical theatre and exposed me at an early age about the magic of theatre and the arts.

I always wanted to write from the age of six.   I knew that one day that I would write.

I have lived in California, Martha's Vineyard,  NYC, St. Croix and St.John of the Virgin Islands and now Atlanta. I was born in Baltimore Maryland and reared in Roxboro North Carolina. I had a rural and and urban upbringing spending nine years in both places. As I traveled, I observed and read a lot  - as Langston Hughes wrote, I wondered and wandered. My travels and different jobs helped season me as a writer. I drove cabs, bartended, bell hopped, farmed, sold advertising and insurance and painted houses.

The Green Book came into my life through little Tony,  a son of two of my friends who died in a traffic accident.  Little Tony's grandfather came down from NYC to attend the funeral and this was his first time in the deep south. He mentioned that he was looking for a Green Book.  I ASKED HIM WHAT WAS A GREEN BOOK AND FROM THERE I WAS ON MY WAY WITH MY RESEARCH. I dedicated my children's book "Ruth and the Green Book" to Little Tony and his family.

Atlanta as a theatre town has been very good to me; everyone's experience is different. I think its a good town for developing new work but a bit of a challenge of getting new work mounted."

Don't miss Calvin Ramsey's THE GREEN BOOK 

at 

The Theatrical Outfit.
Please click the post's title to visit the website.

Come to Atlanta and Go to the Theatre!

Jaz Dorsey
Dramaturg
The African American Playwrights Exchange
www.africanamericanplaywrightsexchange.blogspot.com