New Works Playwright Competition Winner Workshops THE GREEN BOOK WINE CLUB TRAIN TRIP at OCTA

Local playwright Michelle Tyrene Johnson, winner of Olathe Civic Theatre Association's inaugural New Works Playwright Competition, returns for the Winner Workshop of the competition's wildly popular script, The Green Book Wine Club Train Trip.

Last fall, local playwrights were invited to submit teasers of never-before-seen scripts, with the top five performed as script-in-hand readings during the March semi-finals. Over the course of two nights, audiences voted for the winning script, which will now receive two full-length staged readings July 7 and 8.

The play focuses on five contemporary black women who take a weekend train trip as part of the book and wine club they are in together. Marie, a librarian, in addition to arranging the trip, is also conducting family research which involves looking through The Negro Motorist Green Book, the guidebook used by African-Americans in pre-segregation America to know the safe and welcoming places to stay and patronize while traveling. Marie accidentally time travels to the 1940s, where she stays in a boarding house mentioned in the book. She discovers family secrets and gets an up-close view of how the present and the past compare, contrast, and converge.

Johnson has worked on this story for a year and a half and says that "winning the competition is an invigorating acknowledgement of local support of her work." Her plays have been produced on stages around the Kansas City area, in several New York City festivals, and in the states of California, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. Johnson says her goal as a playwright is "to keep writing plays that travel well to other communities - to make people think, laugh, cry, and see citizens of the world through the new eyes an engaging story inspires."

She brings to the workshop the following remarkable local artists: director Teresa Leggard (also a poet and playwright who holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC)), and cast members Marica Davis (Marie), Rasheedat "Ras" Badejo (Saige/Lucy), Lanette King (Alicia/Cotton Blue), Amber McKinnon (Toni/Henrietta), Aisha Ogbeh (Lynn/Bertha), and Earl McWilliams (Stage Directions/Male Voices). Alexa Cioffi will run light and sound for the two workshop readings.

Director Leggard feels audiences will love "the larger-than-life characters and the time travel element." When asked what drew her personally to the play, she responded "the variety of black female voices ... we've got a diversity of black womanhood, across age, class, orientation, generation - literally across time."

Johnson and Leggard first worked together on a project during Teresa's time at UMKC and continue to collaborate on projects in Kansas City. Regarding this script, they're "pretty tickled at how The Negro Motorist Green Book seems to be emerging in the zeitgeist right now. From Huffington Post to CBS News to The New York Times. It's nice being ahead of that curve."

This will be the second full-length reading for The Green Book Wine Club Train Trip - the first was held in New York City at the National Black Theatre this March just after OCTA's semi-finals. On seeing it interpreted by two different casts within the same month, Johnson said: "It was an incredibly educational experience to see how the same play can inspire different interpretations of my text."

Spearheading the competition is local actor and playwright, Andrew Joseph Brown. Brown explains: "We're thrilled to see the final stage of this competition. It's something we've been working on for over a year now and we hope audiences will be just as thrilled to see this brand new story on the OCTA stage."

The two staged readings are Friday, July 7 and Saturday, July 8 at 8:00 pm. Suitable for ages 12 and above with some strong language. Regular tickets are $10. Tickets for OCTA subscribers are $5. Tickets and more information are available at: www.olathetheatre.org.

Olathe Civic Theatre Association is a 501c3 organization producing theatre in Olathe since 1974. Performing in the Buddy Rogers Family Playhouse, OCTA produces five high-quality, engaging, and thought-provoking theatre productions a year. Through the generosity of volunteers, season ticket holders, donors, and the City of Olathe, OCTA has grown into one of the most progressive community theaters in the Kansas City metropolitan area.

Pictured: Michelle Tyrene Johnson, winner of OCTA's New Works Playwright Competition - March 2017. Photo by Rita Marks.