BLACK WOMEN: STATE OF THE UNION Takes Flight at KTC's Skylight Theatre, 10/27

Celebrating, and empowering, through works from some of the nations most artistically significant Black female voices, KTC's Skylight Theatre is providing a home for this unique five-week production. Featuring new plays, visual arts, and community events, collaborators have created this platform for encouraging Black women to self-identify as dynamic, expressive, and nurturing contributors to society.

"Standing on the shoulders of legendary writers such as Lorraine Hansberry (A Raisin In The Sun - first Broadway play written by a black woman) and Ntozake Shange (For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf-experimental choreopoem), Black Women: State Of The Union-Taking Flight takes a refreshing and new look at life and the current topics that speak to where we are, and where we aim to be" - says Director Nataki Garrett

Offerings will include Sigrid Gilmer's Simulacra, which pokes fun at the representations of Black women in recent feature films; Lisa B. Thompson's I Don't Want to Be, about the ties of survival that strengthen the mothers of innocent crime victims; Kellie Dantzler' Evolutionary takes a look at a prominent Civil Rights activist mother giving deathbed advise on the need for humor; Tanya Alexander-Henderson's Ritual is a poetic inspirational meditation; and Penelope Lowder's The Follicle Prison War, an hilarious parody about notions of beauty and hair weaves set in the future.

BLACK WOMEN: STATE OF THE UNION-Taking Flight runs Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 3pm through November 18, 2012 (Mary Magdalene fund raiser on 11/17). The Skylight Theatre is located at 1816 N. Vermont, LA, 90027. Tickets are $17-$25 ($15-$17 Senior/Student discount). Reservations: 702 KTC-TKTS (702-582-8587) or online at www.ktctickets.com.

THE KATSELAS THEATRE COMPANY is widely respected for its history of developing artists (actors, musicians, writers, designers, and directors) while helping to create the next generation of theatre goers - thus its passion for new original plays that speak to today's audiences. In just the last two years KTC has produced ten World Premiere productions including INFLUENCE (2010 Los Angeles Drama Critic's Circle nomination for Best Actor and two LA Weekly nominations for Best Play and Best Production), HERMETICALLY SEALED (2011 Los Angeles Drama Critic's Circle nomination for Best Actress, an LA Weekly nomination for Best Ensemble and the LA Times List of top ten productions for 2011) and MAD WOMAN (2011Los Angeles Drama Critic's Circle nomination and an LA Weekly nomination for Best Solo Performance). KTC believes in the importance of the artist in our community. Its programs, (INKubator, SoloMojo, KTC Playwrights Lab, KTCKids, KTC Underground and NewVoices), its educational workshops - even its main stage productions are designed to help the artist find their unique voice and achieve their vision....and audiences love it! All by itself, in just two small theatres, KTC's monthly INKubator series (launched Jan 2011) has premiered new works-in-progress by more than forty Los Angeles writers ages 17 to 80 for over 1200 audience members. Adding audience "chats" and quarterly follow-ups with the artists to monitor their progress; the entire venture has been an unqualified success.

Photo courtesy BWSOTU.