New Black Womxn Baltimore Theater Company Announces Play Festival And Event Series

New Baltimore theater company Two Strikes Theatre Collective announces Black womxn play festival, writing seminar, and Facebook Live event series.

The Brown Sugar Bake-Off Play Festival, in partnership with Baltimore's female-focused Strand Theatre Company, invites playwrights and directors who identify as Black womxn to develop 10-minute plays for a virtual festival on Oct. 17 that is free and open to the public.

Two Strikes and the Strand will host a free virtual writing seminar on Aug. 22 from 11:30am to 1:30pm on Zoom. For those interested in participating in the workshop, send an email to info@strand-theater.org to sign up. The Brown Sugar Bake-off is accepting play submissions until Sept. 7. A panel of readers will select plays to be included in the October event.

"We were born with two strikes against us: Being a womxn and being Black. We understand that too often Black womxn are underserved, underrepresented, underutilized and underestimated in society and the arts. We want that to change," says Aladrian C. Wetzel, executive director of Two Strikes Theatre Collective.

Two Strikes Theatre Collective was founded in 2019 by Baltimore-area theater artists Christen Cromwell, Lauren Erica Jackson, Aladrian C. Wetzel, Dana Woodson, and Rachel Wilson.

Wetzel is an multi-hyphenated artist and staff member with Fells Point Corner Theatre and Fools and Madmen. Cromwell is a high school English and theater teacher, as well as a director, playwright and member of The Strand Theater Company. Jackson is a company member with Single Carrot Theatre. Woodson and Wilson have performed with various companies in the DMV.

"We aim to tell stories that represent the full range of personal identities and experiences of Black womxn. Our event is an artistic response to the worldwide outcry against systemic racism. Though Black Lives Matter was founded by three Black women, the movement--much like liberation movements before it--has historically erased and undervalued Black women."

Two Strikes will host a digital event series focused on Black womxn artists and their intersectionality with topics that include Black femme films, representation in DMV theater, Black womxn-owned businesses, and more. Information about dates, times and platform will be announced on Facebook and our website soon.

Two Strikes Theatre Collective is an independent Baltimore theatre company founded in July 2019 to celebrate, promote, and encourage the intersectional voice of Black womxn and how it can be used for social change through art and community engagement. Created as a direct response to a lack of diversity and representation in theater spaces and propelled forward by the #sayhername movement, our mission is to create art that is unapologetically Black femme centric, to upset the White patriarchal status quo, and to provide creative outlets for Black womxn in the Baltimore community to express themselves through art. We were born with Two Strikes against us: Being a womxn and being Black. We choose both. We are the match to ignite the revolution of Black womxn.