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Performance

Maya Lilly and Her New Theatre Company

Maya Lilly is an actress, playwright – and now the Artistic Director and Founder of the Act Out theatre company, bringing performances of thought-provoking and socially-relevant plays to young audiences across the country. I had the chance to see her show Mixed in Los Angeles (twice!), and if it plays in your area I highly recommend you see it. Take a look at their website www.ActOutPlay.com and the variety of theater experiences they are offering. Let us know if you’ve had the chance to see any of their shows; we’d love to hear what you think. We hope seeing them will motivate you to tell your story!

 

Theatre Review: Closely Related Keys

Closely Related Keys_6Complications and celebrations of the Mixed Experience are in abundance in playwright Wendy Graf’s new play Closely Related Keys. The opening scene features Julia (played with endless energy by Diarra Kilpatrick) mid-orgasm with her boyfriend Ron (Ted Mattison). Julia is African American, Ted is not. Later we meet Julia’s father, Charlie (played by Brent Jennings), who informs Julia that she has a half sister, Neyla – who is Iraqi. Neyla (the impressive Yvonne Huff) needs a place to stay while in New York for an audition at Juilliard, and Charlie announces to Julia – at the worst time possible in her life – that Neyla will stay with her. The playwright is a white Jewish woman, and the director, Shirley Jo Finney, is African American.

Though the opening sex scene feels somewhat gratuitous, what follows is a balanced and provoking representation of cultures, races and intimate relationships colliding and evolving. Graf is not afraid to tackle race, privilege and stereotypes head-on. And while Graf may not have direct experience living within the cultures she represents, her play displays research and caring for those cultures, and for our contemporary struggle with judgement of those we don’t understand (you can hear more about this HERE in my podcast interview with Yvonne Huff). Through light, witty moments, well-developed characters, and touching monologues by Kilpatrick and Huff, Closely Related Keys leaves the audience cautiously hopeful for the future.

find out more about Yvonne Huff’s theatre company here: Lower Depth Ensemble
follow actress Diarra Kilpatrick on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/DiarraOni
follow actor Ted Mattison here: https://twitter.com/tedmattison

Fri, Feb 28 – Sun, Mar 30
Thursday, Friday and Saturday @ 8pm
Sundays @ 4pm

Show Calendar

BUY TICKETS
Previews: $15
General Admission: $25
Saturdays: $30
Opening night: $30 (with opening night party)

Special Show Info
Running time: 120 minutes.
There will be an intermission.

Lounge Theatre 1
6201 Santa Monica Blvd
Los angeles, CA  90038
Street Parking
Area Map

Reservations
(323) 960-7774

Cast: Diarra Kilpatrick, Yvonne Huff, Brent Jennings, Ted Mattison, Adam Meir
Director: Shirley Jo Finney
Playwright: Wendy Graf
Set & projection designer: Hana Sooyeon Kim
Lighting designer: Donny Jackson
Music & sound designer: Peter Bayne
Costume designer: Naila Aladdin Sanders
Producer: Racquel Lehrman
Associate producer: Victoria Watson
Presented by Hatikva Productions

Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis

I’ve always wanted to see a show at the Mixed Blood Theatre – whose mission is to invite the global village into its audience and onto its stage for provocative, inclusive, predictably unpredictable and award-winning theater.

Perusing their website, I just noticed that they are currently showing The Sun Serpent, by José Cruz Gonzalez (he was my nurturing and motivating playwriting teacher when I wrote One Drop of Love at Cal State LA). The play runs through March 22, 2014.

Here’s a little more information on the theater from their About page:

With programming in its historic firehouse in Minneapolis, in satellite venues throughout the Upper Midwest, and in the national workplace, Mixed Blood leads audiences to a much larger world, using relevant and entertaining theater to spawn a ripple effect of social change. Winner of numerous awards for its human rights and artistic accomplishments, Mixed Blood pays positive attention to differences and champions access. The company annually serves 75,000 people through its mainstage season of new plays, a regional tour of 5–7 shows, and a series of customized productions addressing workplace inclusion. In 2011, Mixed Blood launched Radical Hospitality, providing no-cost access to mainstage productions.

 

Velina Hasu Houston’s “Cinnamon Girl” Opens 3/15/14

We are enamored by the plays of Velina Hasu Houston – whose work consistently addresses the mixed experience in new and exciting ways, and whose characters are sensitively portrayed with depth and caring. We can’t wait to see her new play Cinnamon Girl.

Let us know if you go, and if you’d like to add a review to our site. More info on show dates and times here: Cinnamon Girl – a new play by Velina Hasu Houston

Here’s more on Velina Hasu Houston: Official Website and an informative Wikipedia page

Paul Robeson Theatre Festival Taking Submissions – until 3/15/14

The deadline has been extended! They are looking for 20 minute plays that address Robeson’s passions: dignity, intelligence, artistry, scholarship in law and music, social consciousness in the arts, his creativity, values, his fierce resistance to inequality and defense of freedom for all, his recognition of the brotherhood of man, his constant struggle against the status quo, all that he stood for, and the price he eventually paid is the stuff of dramatic tension, and it leaves ample room for a myriad of theatrical scenarios. Please note the play need not be about Paul per se but simply inspired by and reflect some of the above mentioned attributes his life and career contained (from the Robey Theatre Company website). Keep us posted if your piece is accepted – we will help promote it! Click here for more info: Paul Robeson Theatre Festival

Ethnic Man!

Entertaining Diversity’s flagship one-man show – a fast paced, humorous and dramatic autobiographical multimedia performance. Arboleda’s story has been a particularly influential and entertaining choice of colleges and theaters around the country. Arboleda is African-American/Native-American/Filipino-Chinese & German-Danish, and he grew up in Japan. Funny, intelligent, serious, thought-provoking. Countless standing ovations, unforgettable powerful messages about race, culture, ethnicity, class, gender and religion. 900 performance around the US, in 48 states.

Find out more about Teja Arboleda’s Ethnic Man! availability for keynote speaking events, conventions, colleges…

http://www.entertainingdiversity.com/shows.html

Ungrateful Daughter in Los Angeles!

“Ungrateful Daughter: One Black Girl’s Story of Being Adopted into a White Family…that aren’t Celebrities” in the Los Angeles Women’s Theater Festival March 29th at 3pm.

ABOUT THE SHOW
“Angelina Jolie, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and Madonna have adopted black children. How could it not be good? Should you go pick one up? Especially after you see their faces on TV looking so sad? “Ungrateful Daughter”, Lisa Marie’s riveting solo show, examines being a black girl adopted into a white family and how all that relates to these celebrity crazes, the Haitian and Ethiopian ‘orphans’ and the myth of colorblind love.

In the early 1970’s Lisa Marie is adopted by a couple seeking an “Asian-mix” baby and end up with a little black girl whose racial identity is hidden by the adoption agency. Funny and sharp, it is a story that thrusts us into the complicated racial knots of being a transracial adoptee that are so hard to untangle. Especially when your family doesn’t see you as black.

In a rush of electrifying story-telling, spoken word poetry and hilarious, unexpected characterizations, Lisa Marie reveals a sometimes disturbing story that makes clear what it’s like to attend an almost exclusively white, private elementary school; expresses her fierce love for her conservative, Republican, Christian, organic farmer parents and her clashes with the new group of liberal, well- meaning, white adoptive parents that strain her patience–over and over again. Infused with a gentle sense of humor as well as a seething rage, Lisa Marie wonders if she will ever heal from the secrets, stolen histories and unknowns she and so many other adoptees share.”
http://birthproject.wordpress.com/ungrateful-daughter/

CASTING CALL: Mixed Actress Needed

I got to see a reading of this play in Los Angeles and really enjoyed it. Supernatural delves deeply into the lives of 7 women and their life choices, centered around the decision to wear their hair natural (or not) – AND – if you get cast, you get to be in a play with Kim Coles (who here didn’t love Living Single?)!

WE’RE HAVING AUDITIONS!

CASTING CALL NOTICE

 

SUPERNATURAL: The Play is going to Virginia!

Click HERE to hear what people are saying about the show!

 

SUPERNATURAL: The Play with Kim Coles will be presented at the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center in Newport News, Virginia on March 29, 2014.  We will be holding auditions for Union and non-Union Actresses in Newport News on March 8th.  If you would like an appointment to audition, please submit your picture and performing arts resume to supernaturaltheplayauditions@gmail.com.  Cast breakdown and more detailed information about the show and auditions can be found at http://www.supernaturalproject.org/#!audition-sides/c19es.

 

Seeking 7 African-American Actresses.  Feel free to forward this email to any actresses who you think would be interested and are in the Newport News, VA area.

 

Storyline:  Set in none other than Brooklyn, New York in Bed-Stuy at various natural hair events,Supernatural: The Play is a funny and insightful play about Natural Hair journeys.  The play explores the lives of seven women who are forced to confront their hair and themselves. Filled with stories of triumph. These women are guaranteed to make you laugh and  inspire you to think about what God gave you. This is one Natural Hair event filled with testimonies you don’t want to miss!

 

SUBMISSION DEADLINE:  March 2, 2014.  To submit yourself for an audition, please send your picture and resume to supernaturaltheplayauditions@gmail.com. In the subject line put “Submission for the role of [CHARACTER NAME].”  ALL ACTRESSES MUST BE LOCAL HIRES LIVING IN OR NEAR NEWPORT NEWS, VA.

 

Please feel free to forward this email to any actresses who may be interested.

 

 

SUPERNATURAL: THE PLAY (7 Roles)
AEA Letter of Agreement
Producers, Writers and Directors:
Candace O. Kelley, Audrey Kelley and Gilda Rogers
Location: Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center, Newport News, VA
Performance Date: March 29, 2014

 

ALL ROLES ARE FOR AFRICAN-AMERICAN WOMEN.

 

KEE KEE – Kim Coles (CAST)

[KEE KEE] Age 25-40.  This charismatic African American woman from Brooklyn is an entrepreneur and YouTube rock star who hosts her own natural hair events.  Wears her hair natural – the bigger the better.  Vivacious and colorful yet down to earth.  Looking for a stand-up comedian. (Seeking Understudy)

 

[DR. JENKINS] Age 30-60. An anthropologist who is on a mission to educate black women around the world about their ancestral history.  Is currently an Associate Professor at Columbia.  Look up Dr. Joy DeGruy Leary.

 

[HANNAH] Age 30-40. A light-skinned, mixed race woman (black/white) .  Her father is black and her mother is Jewish.  She was caught between gefilte fish and chitlins.  Wears her hair natural.  From New York.

 

[CONSTANCE] Age 50-65. A suave lesbian writer who looks like a man.  Wears her hair natural.   From San Francisco.

 

[NIECEY] Age 25-45.  A fashionable, educated woman who is an assistant to a successful politician.  Wears her hair bone-straight relaxed and long.

 

[BERTINA] Age 35-50.  A dark-skinned woman from Jamaica.  She is concerned that her little sister uses skin lighteners with dangerous chemicals.  Actress must be able to speak with an authentic Jamaican accent.

 

[DORIS] Age 33-45.  A southern preacher’s wife who is a cancer survivor.  Wears her hair natural.

 

Closely Related Keys – World Premiere Play Opens 2/28/14

Closely Related KeysClosely Related Keys tells the story of a young attorney whose carefully constructed life begins to crumble with the discovery of an Iraqi half sister who has fled Iraq,  arriving unexpectedly in the U.S.  It’s about love and loyalty, secrets and lies, and how the past , never being dead, just hovers around waiting to smack us upside the head.   Join us for this journey about picking up the broken pieces of the past to imperfectly assemble a new family and future.
Tickets now on sale!
Closely Related Keys Lounge Theatre
6201 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA
In Wendy Grafs World Premiere drama, an African-American attorneys carefully constructed life begins to crumble when she is shocked to discover she has an Iraqi half-sister who comes to the U.S. with a questionable agenda. Directed by the award-winning Shirley Jo Finney.
February 28 – March 30, 2014Box Office:
www.plays411.com/relatedkeys — with AJ Meijer andSandy Joseph.

United Solo Festival Submissions Open DEADLINE 3/3/14

The 5th annual UNITED SOLO THEATRE FESTIVAL

September 18 – November 23, 2014

Theatre Row

410 West 42nd Street, New York City

 

UNITED SOLO THEATRE FESTIVAL™ is an annual international festival for solo performances held in New York City. Through a variety of one-person shows, the Festival explores and celebrates the uniqueness of the individual. Productions are selected from openly solicited submissions and presented at the highly acclaimed Theatre Row in the heart of the New York City theatre district on 42nd Street. Renowned solo performers as well as new talents bring their works in many categories (e.g. storytelling, puppetry, dance, multimedia, documentary, musical, improv, stand-up, poetry, magic, performance art, drama: tragedy or comedy). The artists benefit from being presented by United Solo, a company made up of artists and producers with vast experience in solo performance. Theatre companies are given the opportunity to reach out to the industry, generate income from ticket sales from up to eight performances at the Festival, and receive media attention through previews, profiles, and reviews. Shows are also considered for participation in the exclusive United Solo showcase in Europe, as well as for script publication and other honors at the Festival. Submissions open early in the calendar year, and selected participants are announced in spring.

Official website: http://unitedsolo.org/us/ufest/