Quick Silver Theater Company Announces 2019 Citizen One Reading Series

Quick Silver Theater Company (QSTC) will present a staged reading of Lisa Strum's She Gon' Learn.

QSTC's Playwrights of Color Summit (POCS) is a week-long residency that allows previously unproduced playwrights an opportunity to work exclusively on their plays. She Gon' Learn was submitted to QSTC as part of our fourth annual POC Summit call for new works, and will be presented as part of our Citizen One Reading Series. QSTC's fourth annual 2019 POC Summit focused on four female solo artists of color. We chose to offer a safe space and artistic support to a segment of women who have been consistently hushed, denied and/or shunned during prior organized efforts towards equality for women.

Citizen One Reading Series

Reading Date: Friday November 22nd, 2019 at 8 pm.

Every QSTC staged reading is followed by a talk-back or QST Conversation.

Admission $10

Seating is Limited

This reading will take place at the Episcopal Actors Guild.

Guild Hall

1 East 29th Street between 5th and Madison Avenues

New York, New York 10016

This year's featured Citizen One playwright is Lisa Strum. She Gon' Learn is a play about wanting love, life lessons, dating, sex, childhood, betrayal, and the Black female experience/identity. She Gon’ Learn had its premiere in October 2015 as part of the Emerging Artists Theatre Festival, directed by Ngozi Anyanwu. The character of Lisa has been looking for love in all the wrong places. In a hilarious and poignant tracing of the heart's scars, we watch Lisa navigate a triumphant (and sometimes painful) coming of age journey. Channeling eight characters, she examines her past, and finds her way back to the greatest love of all: her damn self!

"What I have not had the opportunity to do is JUST be the playwright. I don't know what the show really sounds like or looks like, or if it can actually stand-alone without me as the performer? I want the opportunity to work on the piece from the outside and witness another actor's fresh perspective on the work. To see where and how it needs to grow in the story, in the characters and in the writing." -Lisa Strum

QSTC is very excited to be partnering with Lisa and director Candis C. Jones this November as Lisa reexamines She Gon' Learn as the playwright.

Lisa Strum is an actor, playwright, singer and director. Additionally, she is the Associate Producer of The New Black Fest, and serves as the Artistic Associate and Casting Director at Jersey City Theatre Center. She Gon' Learn was awarded "Best Educational Show" at the United Solo Festival in 2015 and was a Finalist for The Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award in 2016. The piece was also workshopped with GO-SOLO, The Emerging Artist Theatre and The Lark. Lisa was the recipient of the Playwrights Initiative Fellowship at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program in September of 2017 where she began work on her second play, AN ACTOR PREPARES, part one of a trilogy named The Trauma Cycles.

As part of the 2019 Citizen One Reading Series, actress Ebony Marshall-Oliver (Ain't No More, The Public Theater) will take on the solo role. Ebony's additional credits include: Off-Broadway; Seusssical (Sour Kangaroo-TWUSA) Regional; Sister Act (Deloris- EverBlue Arts), Dreamgirls (Dallas Theater Center), Memphis (Felicia-Theatre3), The Color Purple (Celie-Jubilee Theatre), Charlayne Woodard's Pretty Fire Trilogy (Jubilee Theatre).

Candis C. Jones: (Director). Upcoming Productions: 53% OF at The Alliance Theater, Cullud Wattah (The Public Theater) Upcoming Workshops: Trapt (Joe's Pub), A Dead Black Man (Playwrights Realm), Pipeline Festival (Women's Project Theater). Past Productions: Pipeline (Detroit Public Theater), Nike (A.C.T. New Strands Festival), Gloria (AADA), The Wolves (AADA), Brother Rabbit (New Black Fest), Name Calling (Kennedy Center), The Fire This Time Festival (Kraine Theater) New Shoes (The Drama League), Morning in America (Primary Stages), TEMBO! (Zanzibar International Film Fest). Awards and Fellowships: Lilly Award, Fellow WP Theater's 2018-2020 Lab, Drama League Alumni. www.candiscjones.com