Keelay Gipson News

Now in it's seventh season, the Obie Award winning The Fire This Time Festival has commissioned seven playwrights to write new 10-minute plays for the 2016 festival, which will run January 18-February 6 at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery). The 2016 playwrights will include Tanya Everett (Without Scars with Breast Friends), Keelay Gipson (The Lost at Planet Connections Theater Festivity; N/F at Downtown Urban Theater Festival), Jireh Breon Holder (2012-13 Kenny Leon Fellow, Alliance Theatre), Roger Q. Mason (Onion Creek with Son of Semele Ensemble, Los Angeles), Stacey Rose (2015-16 Dramatists Guild Fellow), Korde Arrington Tuttle (Beautiful Mess in Around the Block: a 5D Project), and Nia Ostrow Witherspoon (Global Arts Fund Grant for The Messiah Complex). 

Broadway's new musical Amazing Grace officially opens tonight, July 16, at Broadway's Nederlander Theatre (208 West 41st Street). The show stars Tony Award nominee Josh Young, Erin Mackey, Tony Award winner Chuck Cooper, Tom Hewitt, Chris Hoch, Stanley Bahorek, Harriett D. Foy, Laiona Michelle, Rachael Ferrera and Elizabeth Ward Land. Scroll down to learn more about the cast, plus check out interviews with the company!

The Downtown Urban Theater Festival (Reg E. Gaines, Artistic Director) will present its 13th annual season in New York City today, May 13th - 30th, 2015.

The Downtown Urban Theater Festival announces that acclaimed playwright/director/actor Danny Hoch will receive the 2015 DUTF Playwright Masters Award at this year's Opening Night event, which will take place tonight, May 12th at 8:00 p.m. at 40/40 Club (6 West 25th Street, NYC). 

The Downtown Urban Theater Festival (Reg E. Gaines, Artistic Director) will present its 13th annual season in New York City from May 13th - 30th, 2015. 

The Downtown Urban Theater Festival (Reg E. Gaines, Artistic Director) will present its 13th annual season in New York City from May 13th - 30th, 2015.

?The Downtown Urban Theater Festival announces that acclaimed playwright/director/actor Danny Hoch will receive the 2015 DUTF Playwright Masters Award at this year's Opening Night event, which will take place on Tuesday, May 12th at 8:00 p.m. at 40/40 Club (6 West 25th Street, NYC). 

The Downtown Theater Festival (Reg E. Gaines, Artistic Director) proudly announces that its 13th annual season will take place in New York City from May 13th - 30th, 2015.

54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Britton Smith in A Musical Exploration of Love tonight, February 14, 2015 at 11:30pm.

54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Britton Smith in A Musical Exploration of Love on Saturday, February 14, 2015 at 11:30pm.

Downtown Urban Theater Festival (DUTF) has chosen 28 diverse finalists for its 13th Annual season to run on the Mainstage at HERE in SoHo from May 13-30, 2015. This year, DUTF attracted some of the best new and emerging playwrights who hail from all over the country. After several weeks of review by the DUTF team and Artistic Director Reg E. Gaines, Tony-nominated for Bring in da Noise Bring in da Funk, the finalists are:

54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Zi Alikhan in #LOOKING on March 31st at 11:30pm. #LOOKING is about the crazy, exciting, IBS-inducing world of being gay in your twenties, looking for love in New York City. Drawing from artists as varied as Betty Who, Cole Porter, and (duh) Taylor Swift, Zi Alikhan weaves together first loves, first subway tears, and first Tinder dates in a night that sets out to explore the shitstorm of a path that is #LOOKING for something more in NYC.

Ni****/Fa****: a new play premiering as part of the Downtown Urban Theater Festival is a two-hander that takes on race and sexuality; a topic that, as the play's title suggests, can often be a provocative discussion. The play, written by Keelay Gipson is being co-produced by BASiC Theatre Project and directed by BASiC's artistic director and co-founder, Zi Alikhan. The show features Sean Bell and Stephen Conrad Moore in the titular roles. The show premieres in the festival tonight, March 15th.

Downtown Urban Theater Festival (DUTF) opened on Wednesday, February 27, 2013 with sold-out performances of The Rules of the World, written by Lavinia Roberts, and The Last Day of Oscar Wilde's Life, written by Adam Esquenazi Douglas. DUTF playwrights in attendance at the Opening Night Playwrights Reception included Anselmo Coy Martinez, Adam Esquenazi Douglas (pictured), Lavinia Roberts (pictured), Nelson Diaz-Marcano, Keelay Gipson, D. L. Siegel, Dana Tarantino and Jo Shui. Check out photos below!

Ni****/Fa****: a new play premiering as part of the Downtown Urban Theater Festival is a two-hander that takes on race and sexuality; a topic that, as the play's title suggests, can often be a provocative discussion. The play, written by Keelay Gipson is being co-produced by BASiC Theatre Project and directed by BASiC's artistic director and co-founder, Zi Alikhan. The show features Sean Bell and Stephen Conrad Moore in the titular roles. The show premieres in the festival on March 15th.

For its 11th Annual season, Downtown Urban Theater Festival (DUTF) declares, 'our superheros are the writers' through a groundbreaking campaign that features vibrant and ingenious illustrations of the playwrights by Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez of Studio Edgardo. This much-anticipated season will keep audiences on The Edge of their seats with theatrical works that effortlessly swing through urban landscapes ranging from Brooklyn, USA to the Ukraine to intimate stories about Oscar Wilde to hip hop alien abduction ... and much more. DUTF rolls into HERE in SoHo, NYC for three weeks, today, February 27 through March 16, 2013.

For its 11th Annual season, Downtown Urban Theater Festival (DUTF) declares, 'our superheros are the writers' through a groundbreaking campaign that features vibrant and ingenious illustrations of the playwrights by Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez of Studio Edgardo. This much-anticipated season will keep audiences on the edge of their seats with theatrical works that effortlessly swing through urban landscapes ranging from Brooklyn, USA to the Ukraine to intimate stories about Oscar Wilde to hip hop alien abduction ... and much more. DUTF rolls into HERE in SoHo, NYC for three weeks, February 27 through March 16, 2013.