SISTER'S KEEPER Premieres Tonight as Part of TNC's Dream Up Festival
"Sister's Keeper" is a play co-written by Cordelia Donovan and Terri Jones Salter and directed by Cordelia Donovan. Eve finally finds love the modern way (online) when she meets Brandon. She struggles to move forward with her new relationship while also maintaining her friendship with best friend Tonette, a party animal and social butterfly who has her eye on Brandon. Suspicions of AIDS make an unwelcome entrance. Luckily, Eve has her loyal sister Margo by her side who has had to fill the role of mother after the death of their parents. The sisters are incredibly close and look out for each other, but they ultimately are very different people with different paths they must take. "Sister's Keeper" will have its world premiere tonight, September 10, through September 14 in Theater for the New City's 2015 Dream Up Festival.
The play is a rewrite of the 1989 play "Miracles" by Lynda J. Jones that chronicled the life of a young African American Christian woman who contracts AIDS at a time it was only thought of as a Gay man's disease. At the time, this was an unspoken topic and a revolutionary play in the African American and Christian community. Jones dreamed of presenting this play in New York but that never happened as she took ill and quickly died. Cordelia Donovan, who worked on the original production as her assistant, was so impressed and touched by the play that she collaborated with her daughters Terri Jones Salter and Sherri Jones to re-imagine the work as a look at the modern day plight of the HIV/AIDS epidemic among the African American community. The play will feature live gospel music.
Cordelia Donovan (playwright and director) is an entrepreneur, media maven and publicist. During the past 18 months she has successfully produced several projects including a short film, "The Lost Book Of Rap," the feature length documentary "Heart of the Shore," a feature length narrative based upon the best selling novel "Respect the Jux," and a music video for Pendullum Records R&B artist Shaliek. Shaliek's song "The Past" topped Billboard Music Top 10 R&B charts. Donovan is a graduate of the prestigious Pingry School and Cornell University.
Terri Jones Salter (playwright and producer) is author of "Sins of My Mother," a novel chronicling the spiritual journey of a "people pleasing" woman who sacrificed her personal happiness in an attempt to mend the lives of her dysfunctional family. "Sins of My Mother" helped her attain publishing success, giving her a readership of thousands and an exclusive book deal with Black Expressions, the largest ethnic book club in the country. She is currently working on a screenplay and completing a book on parenting. Other pursuits include relationship coaching and creating support networks for women.
The sixth Dream Up Festival (www.dreamupfestival.org) will be presented by Theater for the New City (TNC) from August 30 to September 20, 2015, offering a lineup of wide-ranging and original theatrical visions embracing drama, musicals, improv, aerial and more. This year, owing to growing popularity, the festival has expanded beyond its primary venue. Previously, all productions were presented at Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave. This year, 19 productions will be presented at TNC and seven will be presented at an outside venue, The Producers Club Theaters at 358 West 44th Street.
The festival is dedicated to new works. TNC feels this festival is especially needed now in a time of declining donations to the arts, when grants are not being awarded due to market conditions and arts funding is being cut across the country and abroad. The festival aims to push ideas to the forefront through imaginative presentations so as to challenge audience expectations and make us question our understanding of the way art illuminates the world around us.
IF YOU GO:
SISTER'S KEEPER
September 10 at 9:00 PM, September 11 at 6:30 PM, September 12 at 8:00 PM, September 13 at 2:00 PM, September 14 at 9:00 PM.
Theater for the New City (Johnson Theater), 155 First Ave.
Presented by Theater for the New City (Crystal Field, Artistic Director) as part of the Dream Up Festival 2015.
Tickets $20
Box office: (212) 254-1109, www.dreamupfestival.org
Runs: 50 mins. Critics are invited to all performances.
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