Which is why Broadway Black has no choice but to share the release of Contemporary Plays by African American Women: Ten Complete Works by Sandra Adell. If there is one voice that’s been undervalued on stage, it’s that of the Black woman. That’s what makes this anthology so great. It’s a combined work that includes prominent Black female playwrights and some up-and-coming writers.

It features works from contemporary Black female playwrights including Blue Door by Tanya Barfield; Levee James  by S. M. Shephard-Massat; Hoodoo Love  by Katori Hall; Carnaval  by Nikkole Salter; Single Black Female  by Lisa B. Thompson; Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine by Lynn Nottage; BlackTop Sky by Christina Anderson; Voyeurs de Venus by Lydia Diamond; Fedra by J. Nicole Brooks; and Uppa Creek: A Modern Anachronistic Parody in the Minstrel Tradition by Keli Garrett.

The description reads:

African American women have increasingly begun to see their plays performed from regional stages to Broadway. Yet many of these artists still struggle to gain attention. In this volume, Sandra Adell draws from the vital wellspring of works created by African American women in the twenty-first century to present ten plays by both prominent and up-and-coming writers. Taken together, the selections portray how these women engage with history as they delve into–and shake up–issues of gender and class to craft compelling stories of African American life. Gliding from gritty urbanism to rural landscapes, these works expand boundaries and boldly disrupt modes of theatrical representation.

Sandra Adell (Ph.D., UW–Madison) is a professor of Literature in the department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Comparative Literature. Her other works include Confessions of a Slot Machine Queen, Literary Masters: Toni Morrison, Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Culture: African American Culture, and Double Consciousness/Double Bind: Theoretical Issues in Twentieth-Century Black Literature.

Contemporary Plays by African American Women: Ten Complete Works was released December 15th and is available for purchase in hardcopy, paperback, and digital copy at Amazon here.

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The project started by gathering artists from top theatre companies around the country to create a series of one-minute plays centered around the themes of race and police brutality.While it seems as though a one-minute play isn’t enough time to faithfully explore the subject matter, I ask you this question: Is one minute not the amount of time it takes for a law enforcement officer to make an incorrect assumption and leave another Black body lifeless on the ground? In one minute is someone able to be choked to death? In one minute is someone able to be held down on the ground against their will with a knee lodged in their spine? Yes, these occurrences can happen in a minute and have happened. Co-Creater and Producer of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Claudia Alick, told The Takeaway with John Hockenberry that “you can do a lot in one minute, the rigor and the restraint required means that you say something specific.”

The plays were workshopped in St. Louis from October 18th – 23rd, were produced and live streamed October 24th, and featured content by collaborators such as Lynn Nottage, Dominique Morisseau, Nikkole Salter, The National Black Theater, The Hansberry Project and American Theater Company, The Black Rep and many more. The festival will make the body of plays available for participating theatre companies who’ve sent participants — and other national partners who have opted to participate for free –with the aim to have those partnering theaters hold a specific day or week of events in staging these plays from Oct 26^th– October 30^th, 2016.

As a firm believer that the stage is the best place for art to truly live, breathe and exsist, I find productions like this to be important for the whole world to see. I don’t want to have to wait a year to be able to see these plays, but I know it will be more than worth it.

The post Every 28 Hours: 1-Minute Play Festival Tackles Race & Police Brutality in Black Communities appeared first on Broadway Black.

Miss Robinson was born in Portsmouth, Va. While working in the advertising department of “The Amsterdam News,” she noticed that many small theater companies were not being covered and volunteered to review their productions for the newspaper. In 1973, she created Audelco ”to generate recognition, understanding and awareness of the arts in black communities and to build new audiences for nonprofit theaters and dance companies.”

Nominees were announced at a ceremony in Harlem, New York on October 15th. Nominees are a result of the consensus of the Audelco Nominating Committee. These committee members are members in good standing who have contributed $50.00 or more to Friends of Audelco.

We must never forget to honor and support organizations such as Audelco, as they put their passion for theatre and the arts into action. Without organizations like this, much of Black Theatre would go unrecognized. Our talent often goes ignored or is grossly undervalued in the world of mainstream award shows. The passion and commitment to honoring Black Theatre is underscored on the Audelco website:

The Committee reaffirms its commitment to recognizing excellence in Black theatre within the five boroughs in the New York metropolitan area. The Committee shall make every effort to see all productions produced primarily by, but not limited to, Black theatre companies, as well as productions showcasing the talents of the performers of color. To that end, due consideration shall be given to all artists regardless of ethnicity.

And now here are some of this years nominees:

Best Revival

Aint Misbehavin’ Irving Street Rep/Faison Firehouse Theater

A Band of Angels New York City Children’s Theater

Flambeaux Obsidian Media Group/Braata Prods.

For the Last Time Clement Arts/Epic Theatre Ensemble

Texas in Paris  York Theatre Company

The Fortress of Solitude  The Public Theater

Mighty Real: A Fabulous Sylvester Musical AnthonyKen, LLC/Sheryl L. Ralph

These are just a few of the nominees and categories. For the entire group of nominees scroll down. The awards ceremony will take place Monday, November 16th at the Peter Norton Symphonyspace in New York City. We salute all of the nominees and wish you best of luck during the awards!

The post Billy Porter, Lillias White, & More Among 44th Annual Audelco Award Nominees appeared first on Broadway Black.

Cori Thomas, Nikkole Salter, Chisa Hutchinson, Lenelle Moise and Jocelyn Bioh.

The aim of UN-TAMED is to participate and dig deeper into the national conversation around Black womanhood and social perceptions of Black femininity while providing black women with a creative platform to personalize these issues.

Nikkole Salter: An Obie Award-winning actress and writer for the Pulitzer Prize nominated play, In The Continuum. She was most recently seen performing the role of ‘Cookie’ in the West Coast Premiere of Tarell McCraney‘s new play Head of Passes at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. As a dramatist, Salter has written 6 full-length plays, been commissioned for full-length work by six institutions, been produced in five countries on three continents, and been published in twelve international publications. Her plays include Lines in the Dust, Carnaval, Repairing a Nation and the co-authored Freedom Rider. Salter is a 2014 MAP Fund Grant recipient, a Eugene O’Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference semi-finalist, and a two time Playwrights of New York (PoNY) Fellowship nominee. She is currently working on commissions from Woolly Mammoth, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and was selected to write the screen adaptation of Claude Brown‘s New York Times Bestselling novel, Manchild in the Promised Land. She also serves as Executive Director of THE CONTINUUM PROJECT, INC., a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that creates innovative artistic programming for community empowerment and enrichment. Salter is an active member of the Actors Equity Association, SAG/AFTRA, the Dramatists Guild, and sits on the board of the Theatre Communications Group.  She received her BFA in theatre from Howard University and her MFA from New York University’s Graduate Acting Program.

Chisa Hutchinson: Earned a B.A. in Dramatic Arts from Vassar College and an M.F.A. in Playwriting from NYU.  She’s been writing and performing with the New York NeoFuturists and is a Staff Writer for Blue Man Group. Hutchinson tends to write plays about underrepresented folks that require a minimum of five actors. Her plays include Dirt Rich, She Like Girls, This is Not The Play, Sex on Sunday, Tunde’s Trumpet, The Subject, Mama’s Gonna Buy You, Somebody’s Daughter, Alondra was Here and Dead & Breathing. Hutchinson has presented at various venues such as Lark Play Development Center, City Parks’ Summerstage, Working Man’s Clothes, the New York NeoFuturists, Partial Comfort, Mad Dog Productions, Atlantic Theater Company, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and many more. She has won a GLAAD Award, the John Golden Award for Excellence in Playwriting, a Lilly Award, a New York Innovative Theatre Award, the Paul Green Award, a Helen Merrill Award, the Lanford Wilson Award, and has been a finalist for the highly coveted PoNY Fellowship.

Cori Thomas: Thomas’ plays include: When January Feels Like Summer, Pa’s Hat: Liberian Legacy, My Secret Language of Wishes, and His Daddy. Her plays have been developed and produced at Sundance Theatre Lab, Goodman Theatre, City Theatre Co., Page 73, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Playwrights Horizon, Lark Play Development Center, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Going To The River, Pillsbury House Theatre, and many more. She has received the Edgerton New Play Award from Sundance Theatre Lab, and the 2011 American Theatre Critics Association Osborn Award for Best New Play (When January Feels Like Summer). Thomas is a co- founder of The Pa’s Hat Foundation, Inc., an organization focused on helping former child soldiers of Liberia heal after long-standing civil war through a focus on arts education and literacy.

Lenelle Moïse: Author of Haiti Glass (City Lights/ Sister Spit), an internationally touring performer, and a Huntington Theater Company Playwriting Fellow. Her two-act comedy Merit won the 2012 Southern Rep Ruby Prize. She also wrote, composed, and co-starred in the critically acclaimed drama Expatriate, which launched Off Broadway at the Culture Project.

Jocelyn Bioh: Proud native New Yorker. As a playwright she’s credited with African Americans (Southern Rep Ruby Prize Finalist 2011), Nollywood Dreams, Four, and the libretto for The Ladykiller’s Love Story currently in development with Hi-Arts NYC. She graduated with a B.A in English/Theatre from Ohio State University and an M.F.A in Theatre – Playwriting from Columbia University. Acting credits include Broadway: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. Off Broadway: An Octoroon, Seed, and Neighbors. Regional: BootyCandy, Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet. TV: “Louie” (FX,) “One Life to Live” (ABC), CoverGirl Spokesmodel (National Commercial/Print Ads).

The New Black Fest previously commissioned Facing Our Truth: Short Plays on Trayvon, Race and Privilege and HANDS UP: 6 Playwrights, 6 Testaments and prides itself on being a movement that “is a gathering of artists, thinkers, activists and audiences who are dedicated to stretching, interrogating and uplifting the Black aesthetic.”

This is most certainly a great step in that direction. In my mind it’s going to be a mixture of concepts presented by Patricia Hill Collins, bell hooks, and beauty shop chair talk all brought to life by these five talented Black female playwrights. It’s a production I don’t want to miss, and neither do you.

Un-Tamed: Hair, Body Attitude will play at The Martin Segal Theatre at CUNY Graduate Center in October 2015.

The post The New Black Fest: Five Black Women Playwrights For UN-TAMED: HAIR BODY ATTITUDE appeared first on Broadway Black.

McCraney’s play Head of Passes is currently on stage at Berkeley Rep. Described as a “poignant and poetic new play about the journey of family and faith, trial and tribulation,” Head of Passes takes place in a “dilapidated house near the ever-shifting mouth of the Mississippi,” where “Shelah’s family gathers on a stormy night for her birthday—bringing ghosts and secrets of the past with them. As her roof buckles under the weight of the rain, Shelah’s convictions begin to wash away, leaving her to excavate the truths buried below.”

Featuring a powerhouse cast including Cheryl Lynn Bruce (The Gospel of Lovingkindness, Gem of the Ocean, The Convert, Intimate Apparel) reprising her role from the Chicago world premiere, Michael A. Shepperd (Choir Boy, Take Me Out, Master Harold and the Boys), Jonathan Burke (Choir Boy, Langston in Harlem, The Wiz), Francois Battiste (Bronx Bombers, Magic/Byrd, Detroit ’67, Broke-ology, The Good Negro), Nikkole Salter (Tough Titty, Stick Fly, Jitney), Brian Tyree Henry (Fortress of Solitude, The Book of Mormon, The Brother’s Size), Kimberly Scott (Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Ruined) and Sullivan Jones (One Night in Miami, Intimate Apparel), this production is making a lot of good noise down in the Bay.

“McCraney writes the richest dialogue of any scribe of his generation.” — Chicago Tribune.

“A stunning production…Every one of the performances is spot-on, effectively shaping distinct personalities who give credible, affecting and sometimes amusing shape to McCraney’s tale, which was inspired by the Book of Job. But this is Shelah’s drama, and Bruce dispatches it with heart, power and conviction that is as close to biblical as we’re likely to see on a stage. It’s a tour-de-force to remember, in an expertly crafted play.” — Huffington Post.

Head of Passes is on the Thrust Stage at Berkeley Rep now until May 24th. If you’re in the Bay, or can get to the Bay, this is a MUST SEE.

WATCH: Playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney talks about the heart of his play.

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