Tag: black playwrights

Black Organizations to Support during Black History Month… and every day of the year!

I've been keeping pretty busy lately.  My projects have a world all their own.  It's why I formed 55AP last Fall, but more on that another time...

Supporting me on Patreon as the hub of all of this work - I consistently create space for Black artists and my own writing, but creative time as a parent requires your children to be occupied or sleep to be at a minimum.  The balance between all of that is real.

There is truly something for everyone as it relates to Black creatives on this list:

From Blackboard Plays, the reading series I've been running for nearly 14 years at this point, to Harlem9, the OBIE Award winning producing collaborative that is responsible for "48Hours in...™Harlem" "48Hours in...™El Bronx", "48Hours in...™Holy Ground", "48Hours in...™Detroit", and "48Hours in...™Dallas"... to name a few...  PLUS the anthologies we publish that include the work we have been producing over the years.

#BMPFest exists to make space for Black Parent Playwrights to tell the stories of Black Families.  We are so nuanced and rarely are we able to live in those complexities - rarely are we invited to tell those stories.  Our Black Motherhood and Parenting New Play Festival, makes the space for that!

Obsidian Theatre Festival is a Black Theatre Festival in Detroit.  I am currently their Creative Producer and it was an important project to add to my already busy roster because it is in my hometown of Detroit and I will find any reason to create at home and support artists and aspiring artists in Detroit because I was once a high schooler who thought hard about a journey back to Detroit that didn't involve Detroit because I desired a more diverse set of opportunities and to be in New York for a while.

All of these projects have Black artists in common and today and everyday!

LEARN MORE and SUPPORT THESE ORGANIZATIONS HERE!

 

C-MORE @ the cell 2018 : THREE Readings left! Ends March 28th

It is upon us!  The 3rd Annual C-MORE Festival!

March 18 – 28, 2018

the cell

How am I involved in this?  

I’m one of the producers! (Blackboard Plays is the organization I founded in 2008… yup.. almost 10 year anniversary!)

Here’s some official information…

Nancy Manocherian’s the cell (Artistic Director Kira Simring) in Chelsea, New York City has partnered with Liberation Theatre Company and Blackboard Plays to produce five new play readings as a part of the cell’s annual C-MORE Festival.

We’ve got 3 readings left!

Friday, March 23rd at 7:30PM

From Out Beyond My Shame by Shawn Nabors

directed by Christopher Burris

 Sunday, March 25th at 2:30PM

Restless Native by Germaine Netzband

directed by Kim Brockington

Wednesday, March 28th at 7:30PM

Quarters, Halves, and the Whole by Nathaniel Johnson

These readings are a culmination of the work done through Liberation Theatre’s Writing Residency Program.

 Tickets for these events are free.

We began the festival with a reading of Our Father by Liz Morgan directed by Mary Hodges on Sunday, March 18th at 2:30PM.

The second reading was from Blackboard Plays. Queen Nanny by Camille Darby directed by Miranda D. Haymon on Monday, March 19th at 7:30PM.  

Check it out on Broadway World HERE

A little more about C-MORE

Since it’s inception in 2016, the C-MORE festival has provided playwrights and theatremakers of color the opportunity to present work that they are passionate about and create visibility for underrepresented narratives.  This year, the cell has granted two companies that have been making immense strides in telling these stories, funding and materials to present their work.  Past C-MORE presentations have included a workshop production of The Year of the Bicycle by Joanna Evans, In the Southern Breeze by Jireh Breon Holder, Shoppin’ for N.I.G.G.A.S by Garlia Cornelia, The Marks You Leave by Tyler Andrew Jones, Lovely Send Anywhere by Douglas J.Cohen, and Lambs to Slaughter by Khalil Kain.

the cell (Founding Artistic Director Nancy Manocherian and Artistic Director Kira Simring) is a non-for-profit organization dedicated to the incubation and presentation of new works by emerging artists.  Founded in 2006, the cell has produced over a dozen critically acclaimed world premiere productions of new plays and musicals over the past 10 years including Sam’s Room, Bastard Jones, Crackskull Row, Hard Times: An American Musical and more.  The cell also features the jazz @ the cell series and has served as a home base for a large community of resident artists and organizations such as Blackboard Reading Series, Artists Without Walls (AWOW), Irish American Writers and Artists (AWOW), Sybarite5, Tribeca New Music, and New York Theatre Barn.

ABOUT Liberation Theatre Company

(Founder and Producing Artistic Director Sandra A. Daley) is a home for creative emerging black playwrights, providing resources to develop their work, nurturing and inviting them to express themselves in a supportive and focused environment. LTC brings together actors, directors, and playwrights to allow playwrights the room to learn and grow, culminating in their finest work, ready for production.

ABOUT Blackboard Plays

(Artistic Director Garlia Cornelia, Co-Curator Oneké Cummings) is devoted to Black playwrights throughout the African Diaspora. Since 2008 Blackboard has presented readings every second Monday of the month at the cell our home in Chelsea where we have been incubated as a resident series.