The Hansberry Project Hosts Reading Of New Keith Josef Adkins Play 7/24

The Hansberry Project, with support from ACT - A Contemporary Theatre, announces its first new play commission. Keith Josef Adkins, a New York-based playwright, was awarded the commission, underwritten by Gian-Carlo and Eulalie Scanduzzi as the sixth play commissioned by ACT through the New Works for the American Stage program. The play, with a Working Title The Final Days of NegroVille (a comedy that turns tragic), will have its first public reading on July 24 at 7:30 p.m. in collaboration with and at Theatre Off Jackson. Adkins will be in attendance and a post-reading discussion will follow.

The Final Days of NegroVille is set in a small town close to a large city. Built largely on the success of its Black middle class inhabitants (doctors, lawyers, school administrators), the town is fraught with dysfunction - loneliness, infidelity, and a loss of history. Over the course of a single day, the town's well-educated African-American mayor, the play's central character, is caught in a series of events that challenge the truth about the town's history and forever change the future for this set of middle class African-Americans.

A cast of veteran Seattle performers are featured in this first public reading, including: Timothy Piggee as Mayor Cornell Gates, Tracy Michelle Hughes, Monique Robinson, Reginald A. Jackson, Jose Rufino, Kibibi Monie, and Shanga Parker.

When Adkins arrives in Seattle, he will work with Hansberry Project Artistic Director Valerie Curtis-Newton to prepare for an evening of firsts! The Final Days of NegroVille marks the first time in more than a decade in the Seattle area that an African-American play has been commissioned by a regional theatre interest under the leadership of African-Americans. It connects the Hansberry Project to a national revival of support for the work of Black playwrights. At the end of June, Adkins along with Jocelyn Prince, the artistic associate at New York's Public Theater, and fellow playwright J. Holtham (Welcome to New Jersey) announced their co-leadership in development of the New Black Fest, a festival showcasing innovative work by and about Black people from around the world. They recently won support from Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, Lynn Nottage.
Keith Josef Adkins is a playwright, screenwriter, and blogger. His plays include Safe House, Farewell Miss Cotton, The Patron Saint of Plants, Pitbulls, Salt on Sugarhill, Hollis Mugley's Only Wish, On the Hills of Black America, Wilberforce, The Global Warming Plays, Cobra Neck, and Sweet Home, among others. He has received commissions from the Goodman Theatre New Stages Series, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Mark Taper Forum, and The Joseph Papp Public Theater and New York City Council on the Arts. Awards include 2009 New Professional Theater Playwright Award, Richard Sherwood Distinguished Emerging Theater Artist Award, Robert S. Duncanson Artist Fellowship Residency, Cleveland Public Theater Best Play of the Festival Awards, and a 2008 Kesselring Prize nomination, among numerous other honors. For three seasons Keith also worked on the CW hit comedy series Girlfriends. His screenplay, The Disappearing, commissioned by Starburst Films is slated for production later this year. He blogs regularly on art and culture at TheRoot.com and makes appearances on NPR's All Things Considered.

About The Hansberry Project at ACT
Named for activist-playwright Lorraine Hansberry, The Hansberry Project produces plays, workshops, and other community related activities in collaboration with ACT Theatre and other community partners. Our mission is to make significant and long-lasting contributions to the vitality of Seattle's theatre community by producing work that is stimulating, relevant, entertaining, emotionally satisfying, artistically excellent, and focused squarely on African American life, history and culture. To that end, we are committed to developing and producing the best plays of the Black theatre - classics and new works alike. The Hansberry Project is a place where professional artists are empowered to speak to a broad and diverse audience on a range of themes and to work in a variety of styles from realism to hip-hop and beyond; A place where audiences are invited to be entertained, to have a voice, to have meaningful experiences, and to become more actively engaged beyond one performance.

About ACT - A Contemporary Theatre
Located in the heart of downtown Seattle and serving a population of curious, open-minded, and brave audiences, ACT - A Contemporary Theatre is the only local theatre in Seattle dedicated to producing contemporary work with promising playwrights and local performing artists since 1965. A theatre of new ideas, ACT serves as a cultural engine that makes plays, dance, music, and film that touch us. Because contemporary life demands examination, ACT is driven to inspire and strengthen our diverse community through works that advance our understanding of human life. ACT is an interactive community where artists and the public witness, contemplate, and engage in dialogue on today's thought-provoking issues, ideas and art, presented with intelligence, insight, and humor.

ACT's New Works for the American Stage Program

A first of its kind program for commissioning new work with leading local and national playwrights. ACT's first completed commission, Becky's New Car by Steven Dietz (commissioned by Charlie Staadecker in honor of Benita Staadecker), was produced on the ACT Mainstage in 2008 and is now being presented at other regional theatres throughout the United States. ACT has five additional new plays in commission:

Desert Birds by Julie Marie Myatt

Commissioned in 2006 by Art Wahl in honor of Eva Wahl

 

How to Remove Blood from a Carpet by Laura Schellhardt

Commissioned in 2007 by Paul and Paula Butzi

A new play to be announced by Jason Grote

Commissioned in 2008 by Gian-Carlo and Eulalie Scandiuzzi
Maggie Cassidy by Chris Jeffries

Commissioned in 2009 by Dennis Forsyth in honor of Elaine Spencer

The Final Days of NegroVille by Keith Joseph Adkins

Commissioned in 2009 by Gian-Carlo and Eulalie Scandiuzzi

ACT gratefully acknowledges the generous support of Season Sponsors ArtsFund, ACT Foundation, The Mayor's Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, and The Shubert Foundation, along with Producing Partners 4Culture, The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, The Boeing Company, Microsoft Corporation, Nesholm Family Foundation, the Peg & Rick Young Foundation, and PONCHO.