ODYSSEY: RACE AND RACISM Opens June 11 At Hollywood Fringe Festival

Odyssey: Race and Racism. A Hollywood Fringe Festival selection, written and performed by Levy Lee Simon. Directed by Juliette Jeffers.

The show will be presented at The Broadwater Main Stage (1076 Lillian Way, Hollywood, CA 90038) Sunday, June 11, 2023 at 8:30 p.m., Saturday, June 17 at 6:00 p.m., Sunday, June 18 at 2:00 p.m.

Levy Lee Simon is one of the most critically-lauded of L.A.-based playwrights. The author of some 20 plays, his previous works for the stage include The Magnificent Dunbar Hotel (L.A. Times Critic's Choice), For the Love of Freedom- The Haitian Trilogy (L.A. Times Critic's Choice), The Bow Wow Club (Lorraine Hansberry Award), The Guest at Central Park West (Audelco Award), Gentrified- Metaphor of the Drums, A Heated Discussion and its follow-up A Heated Discussion- Revisited and more. His film The Last Revolutionary can be seen at Amazon Prime. The Harlem native received his MFA at the University of Iowa Playwrights Workshop.

Now Levy Lee takes stage as an actor, performing his script Odyssey: Race and Racism. Its episodic structure allows him to move between straight narrative and spoken-word performance. He tackles the all-too-timely subject of racism head-on. It is in part a memoir of his personal encounters with racism at school, at work, on the beach. It is a bearing of witness to the repeated murders of Black people by the men in blue sworn to serve and protect them. In one sequence, a Black detective seeks revenge...until he finds something better. After indicting America for its Original Sin, he celebrates how Black Excellence emerged in America despite everything. He contemplates solutions to the problem of racism. The show becomes a profound expression of hope.

Juliette Jeffers directs. The prolific Caribbean-American director, writer and actor is herself an accomplished solo writer-performer (Batman and Robin in the Boogie Down- Drama Desk nomination, Bronx Council of the Arts Award; Chocolate Match.com). She's a recurring guest star r on The Residence, a Shondaland series headed for Netflix. You've also seen her recently in Tulsa King, 9-1-1: Lone Star, Chicago Med, Kidding, Law and Order: Organized Crime, and much more, including some fifty commercials. The Bronx native is a graduate of Hofstra University.

This is the first live engagement of Odyssey: Race and Racism. It was previously presented as a streaming entertainment during the pandemic lockdown.

You will find the exceptional playwright Levy Lee Simon to be just as compelling as a performer.