“It doesn’t start with A Raisin In the Sun, and it doesn’t end with August Wilson.”
This fall, why not stay in your pjs, sip some coffee,
and expand your theatre horizons?
Black Plays with Bethany Mayo
An online workshop
$125
November 6- December 18, 2022
Join teaching artist Bethany Mayo for this guided play reading experience and survey of Black American playwrights prior to 1955. Sessions are broadcast via Zoom & accessible from anywhere!
Part spotlight on Black culture, part play analysis, and part discussion group, this online course is intended for anyone curious about Black theatre history.
You’ll gain skills for unpacking dramatic texts as well as a greater appreciation for the roots of Black playwriting in America. Use that newfound knowledge to impress friends and colleagues, diversify your personal reading list, or assist with dismantling hegemonic racist structures around you!
All are welcome & no prior experience or knowledge is required. Intended for artists, non-artists, students of life, theater buffs, and the generally curious. Help us achieve a blend of ages, races, and perspectives for this interactive online experience. Digital copies of the plays will be provided to attendees.
A NOTE ON CONTENT: Due to the nature of the subject matter, this workshop is recommended for ages 18+.
Scholarships are available! Please send your name and email to info@sistersfreehold.org by 11:59pm on Friday, November 4th. Recipients will be selected by lottery.
Sessions occur on the following Sundays from 11am-12:30 EST:
11/6: Introduction to Black social & cultural history c. 1900 & How We Talk About Plays
11/13: Rachel by Angelina Weld Grimke (1916)
11/20: Color Struck by Zora Neale Hurston (1926)
NO CLASS ON 11/27 (EAT SOME LEFTOVERS!)
12/4: Black man and the moon, A dramatic phantasy by W.E.B Du Bois (1931) & Mulatto: A Tragedy of the Deep South by Langston Hughes (1935)
12/11: Florence by Alice Childress (1949)
12/18: The Amen Corner by James Baldwin (1954)
Bethany Mayo is an actor and teaching artist. Her undergraduate degree in Musical Theater is from William Woods University, and her Masters in theater education was earned from The Catholic University of America where she developed an interest in the lack of diversity in classic and dramatic literature and decided to do something about it.
When not in the classroom or on stage she can be found in her studio, sewing or playing fair-to-middling piano. Her favorite Baltimore City credits include Powell in Men on Boats/Cohesion Theater; Mistress Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor/Baltimore Shakespeare Factory; The Player, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead/Fells Point Corner Theater. She is a founding member of the Black Classical Acting Ensemble at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company. She currently resides in the Tidewater region of southeastern Virginia with her husband and dog.
