Derek Walcott's New Play MARIE LAVEAU To have Reading Presented By NFT, 6/28

Woodie King Jr's New Federal Theatre will present the final reading in the Gurfein Foundation/Ntozake Shange Play Reading Series: Derek Walcott's new play Marie Laveau, with music by Galt MacDermot. The reading will take place Sunday, June 28th at 3pm, at Castillo Theatre, 543 West 42nd Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues). Clinton Turner Davis directs a cast that features Arthur Bartow, Trazana Beverley, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Gerard Catus, Lia
Chaing, DK Dyson, Stu Richel, Martin Shakar, and Marie Thomas as Marie Laveau.

This season NFT’s Gurfein Foundation/Ntozake Shange Play Reading Series has presented Shontina Vernon's A Lovely Malfunction; Levy Lee Simon's Smell The Power; Ed Pomerantz's A Tune Beyond Us; Josh Kashinsky's Heel In The Sand, Cori Thomas's Pa's Hat: Liberian Liberation; Mr. Walcott’s play will be the final reading of the season.

The recipient of the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature, Derek Walcott was born in Castries, Saint Lucia, the West Indies, on January 23, 1930. His first published poem, "1944" appeared in The Voice of St. Lucia when he was fourteen years old, and consisted of 44 lines of blank verse. He later attended the University of the West Indies, having received a Colonial Development and Welfare scholarship, and in 1951 published the volume Poems. In 1957, he was awarded a fellowship by the Rockefeller Foundation to study the American theater. The founder of the Trinidad Theater Workshop, Walcott has also written several plays produced throughout the United States, The Odyssey: A Stage Version (1992); The Isle is Full of Noises (1982); Remembrance and Pantomime (1980); The Joker of Seville and O Babylon! (1978); Dream on Monkey Mountain and Other Plays (1970); Three Plays: The Last Carnival; Beef, No Chicken; and A Branch of the Blue Nile (1969). His play Dream on Monkey Mountain won the Obie Award for distinguished foreign
play of 1971. He founded Boston Playwrights' Theatre at Boston University in 1981. Walcott's honors include a MacArthur Foundation "genius" award, a Royal Society of Literature Award, and, in 1988, the Queen's Medal for Poetry. He is an honorary member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. He currently divides his time between his home in St. Lucia and New York City.

Woodie King Jr. is the Founder and Producing Director of New Federal Theatre. Woodie King Jr's New Federal Theatre has presented over 200 productions in its 39-year history. Mr. King has produced and directed on Broadway, Off-Broadway, in Regional Theatres, and in universities across the United States. He co-produced For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf (first produced by NFT and Joseph Papp's Public Theatre), What The Wine Sellers Buy, Reggae and The Taking of Miss Janie (Drama Critics Circle Award). His directional credits are extensive and include work in film as well as theater.

To reserve tickets for Marie Laveau, call 212/353-1176­­. For more information, please visit www.newfederaltheatre.org.

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