SheATL Arts Announces Three New Plays Selected For the 2021 Summer Theater Festival Season

SheATL Arts has announced their lineup for the 2021 SheATL Summer Theater Festival, its first in-person festival after hosting its inaugural year digitally in 2020. After a rigorous, months-long selection process, the SheATL has selected the three full-length plays that will be presented as a part of the Festival for a hybrid in-person and digital audience: Four Wives and a Will by Bernette Sherman, And God Forbid It Should Be So by Roz Sullivan-Lovett, and To Free A Mockingbird by Grace Aki.

The in-person Festival performances will run from August 25-28, 2021, at Atlanta's Windmill Arts Center. In order to keep cast and crew safe, the audience will be required to follow COVID-19 guidelines including presenting proof of vaccination or a negative test 48 hours prior, and wearing a mask during the performance. All three performances will be video recorded, and the recordings will be live-streamed September 9-11th. Tickets to both the in-person and online performances are now available at www.SheNYCArts.org/She-ATL.

And God Forbid It Should Be So is a short exorcism of gendered narratives featuring a spirited maiden, a blood-thirsty bridegroom, and roughly six variations of the 17th- century fairy tale Bluebeard's Wife. While trapped in the quiet dining room of their own body, a young person scrambles to construct a queer selfhood in time for their future spouse to knock on the door. A story about unimaginable adulthoods and non-binary identity, this play digs up and feasts on the horror of discovering who you are.

About Four Wives and a Will: When Will Crossman dies and leaves behind four ex-wives and a daughter, there's also a mysterious box that everyone wants to get their hands on at the reading of the will. Lenora fails to guard it and the truth about Kimberly's father is revealed. Despite his flaws, Will tries to make some things right through his will. With humor and pointed lines, these women show the impact of personal histories on their emotional and mental health - and the importance of self-care. Still, there's no love lost as bitterness and jealousy threaten to derail the evening.

To Free a Mockingbird is a combination of storytelling and stand-up, with heart. We follow Grace's family's journey across the sea and through the south. An examination of 'Gone with the Wind', family secrets and how our stories get told. To Free A Mockingbird is a vulnerable and daring piece, filled with Grace's effortless humor and honesty. This is her story and maybe yours as well.

SheATL Arts is a program of SheNYC Arts, the country's premier program for showcasing up-and-coming writers and composers of marginalized genders and identities. SheNYC Arts is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization devoted to jump-starting the careers of these writers through Summer Theater Festivals in New York City, Los Angeles, and Atlanta annually, as well as CreateHER, a semester-long program for high school students interested in careers as playwrights and producers. Through additional educational and community engagement programs, SheNYC aims to make the theater industry a better place for all people. Learn more at www.SheNYCArts.org.