Pearl Cleage News

Atlanta's nationally acclaimed ALLIANCE THEATRE and Jennings Hertz Artistic Director Susan V. Booth just announced the productions of the Theater's 50th anniversary season. Since opening in 1968 the Alliance has been dedicated to expanding hearts and minds on stage and off with diverse programming for all ages, including 110 world premieres.

Westport Country Playhouse will host a 2018 Season Kick-off Party on Saturday, April 7, from 5 to 8 p.m., offering a fun atmosphere with food trucks, beer tastings, exhibits, and special ticket discounts. In addition, a "Sneak Peek" of the upcoming season will be hosted by Mark Lamos, Playhouse artistic director, at 6:30 p.m.  The "Sneak Peek" will feature guests representing all of the upcoming productions, including playwrights, directors, and designers. Admission is free and open to the public. 

American Blues Theater, under the continued leadership of Artistic Director Gwendolyn Whiteside, announces the lineup for its 2018 - 2019 Season, "Home Sweet Home." American Blues' 33rd Season will include the Chicago Premieres of On Clover Road by Steven Dietz, directed by Halena Kays and The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey by James Lecesne, directed by Kurt Johns; Flyin' West by Pearl Cleage, directed by Chuck Smith; the 17th annual production of It's a Wonderful Life: Live in Chicago! from Frank Capra's film, directed by Gwendolyn Whiteside; and The Spitfire Grill - a musical book, lyrics, and music by James Valeq & Fred Alley, music directed by Malcolm Ruhl.

The Alliance Theatre is pleased to announce its upcoming production TWO ONE-ACT PLAYS BY PEARL CLEAGE, featuring Hospice and Pointing at the Moon, performed back-to-back.  Pearl Cleage is a beloved Atlanta author and playwright, perhaps best known for her novel What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, an Oprah Book Club selection, and her play Blues for an Alabama Sky.  Hospice was first performed in 1983 and was honored with five AUDELCO Awards for achievement Off Broadway; Pointing at the Moon is a world premiere.  Performances are March 23 - April 15, 2018, at the Southwest Arts Center while the Alliance Theatre undergoes a complete renovation.  Opening night is Thursday, March 29. 

Chicago's Eclipse Theatre Company, the only theatre company in the Midwest to focus on a single playwright each season, has announced that they will feature the works of legendary American playwright William Inge for the 26th Anniversary, 2018 Season. Eclipse plans to explore the range of Inge's canon with three full productions, readings, and public events focused on the playwright and his works.

Dr. Barbara Ann Teer's National Black Theatre NBT welcomes Roscoe Orman (Sesame Street, The Night Of) in Nambi E. Kelley's play 'Blood,' the first I AM SOUL PLAYWRIGHTS RESIDENT workshop. The show is directed by Elizabeth Van Dyke.

Theatre Communications Group (TCG) and Project1VOICE (P1V) in association with The Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (Rose Library) at Emory University and Theater Emory are proud to announce a screening for the #LegacyLeaders video of Douglas Turner Ward in Atlanta.

Dr. Barbara Ann Teer's National Black Theatre NBT announced today that Roscoe Orman (Sesame Street, The Night Of) will star in Nambi E. Kelley's play 'Blood,' the first I AM SOUL PLAYWRIGHTS RESIDENT workshop. The show will be directed by Elizabeth Van Dyke.

Spelman College's newly formed Department of Dance Performance and Choreography has chosen a unique approach to teaching the next generation of dancers, choreographers and change makers by accentuating Black feminist theory. As a result of integrating the works of notable Black feminist writers and activists such as bell hooks and Audre Lordethroughout the curriculum, the department is cultivating freethinkers and intelligent movers interested in becoming influential creators, writers, historians, educators and scholars within the evolving field of dance.

The 4th Annual Detroit Fringe Forward Festival, #DFFF2017, is here! The fest brings together performing artists from across the Midwest for a four-day exploratory, immersive, and experimental entourage of performing, visual and fringe theatre, open to all.

Westport Country Playhouse announces its 2018 season, featuring five productions that are big for the soul, according to Artistic Director Mark Lamos. The Connecticut professional theater's lineup includes two comedies, one modern and one classic; a drama; a musical; and a world premiere, running from May 29 through November 17.

This has been an unusual weekend for me. I had the privilege of attending two compelling plays written by African Americans about African Americans and performed by African Americans. Both shows are moving presentations that made me laugh. They made me cry. And they made me view the lives of families very different from my own with a new sense of understanding.

The 4th Annual Detroit Fringe Forward Festival, #DFFF2017, is here! The fest brings together performing artists from across the Midwest for a four-day exploratory, immersive, and experimental entourage of performing, visual and fringe theatre, open to all.

Through incisive considerations of site, history, biography, and portraiture, Beverly Buchanan (1940 2015) produced landmark bodies of work, including cast concrete and mixed-media sculptures, drawings and books, and evocative paintings and photographs. 'Beverly Buchanan Ruins and Rituals,' on view September 14-December 2, 2017, at the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art.

The Alliance Theatre has assembled a diverse group of 21 students for the 16th Palefsky Collision Project, an annual program that gives high-school students a platform to tackle important social issues.  Guided by the Alliance's Mellon Playwright in Residence Pearl Cleage, director Patrick McColery, and assistant director Rodney Williams, participants are encouraged to find and claim their own voices within a judgment free zone of creativity and community. This innovative program challenges metro Atlanta teens to 'collide' with a classic text and make it their own.  This year's catalytic text will be Congressman John Lewis's graphic novel March.  As a young student activist, Congressman Lewis was inspired by the 1958 comic book Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story.  Now he brings the Civil Rights Movement to life for a whole new generation. 

Atlanta's nationally acclaimed Alliance Theatre celebrated its upcoming renovation with a special ground breaking last week on the Alliance Stage. Staff, Board Members, Donors and special guests donned hard hats as a large section of the stage wall toppled over, signifying the start to the theater's transformation. Scroll down for photos from the ground breaking, plus watch the moment the wall fell! 

The Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDC Foundation), the not-for-profit foundation of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), hosted its star-studded 'Mr. Abbott' Award Gala honoring Kenny Leon at espace in New York City yesterday, March 27. BroadwayWorld was there and brings you photos from the cocktail party below!

The Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDC Foundation), the not-for-profit foundation of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), announces talent for the star-studded 'Mr. Abbott' Award Gala at espace in New York City on March 27.

The Ensemble Theatre kicks off its 40th Anniversary Season audience choice, The Nacirema Society Requests the Honor of your Presence at a Celebration of Their First One Hundred Years, by Pearl Cleage and directed by Eileen J. Morris with Opening Night and media reception, Thursday, March 23, 2017.

Tony Award-winning director Kenny Leon and True Colors Theatre hosts a town hall meeting on the importance of theatre in our community on Thursday March 16 at 7 PM at Fulton County's Southwest Arts Center.