Aleshea Harris News

American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.), under the leadership of Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director Diane Paulus and Executive Producer Diane Borger announced its 201920 Season programming today, including subscription offerings, A.R.T. Breakout, Afterglow @ OBERON, Live @ OBERON, the Run AMOC! Festival, The Donkey Show, and A.R.T. in the World.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company announces its 2019-2020 season, which features an energizing array of plays by new voices and Woolly veterans.

Washington Ensemble Theatre has announced its 2019/2020 Season, a magical lineup of plays that revels in the beauty of ritual and rite, histories and futures, and the sacred and mystic. Centered around the theme "The Divine," WET will celebrate the magnificent and transcendent forces of nature that change the way we live. The season includes the quasi-fable Is God Is by Alesha Harris, the razor-sharp preteen energy-filled play Dance Nation by Clare Barron, Raja Feather Kelly's UGLY (Black Queer Zoo), which is the second installment of its GUSH Series, and an examination of the cosmic duality of good and evil in a new collaboration with the beloved Cherdonna Shinatra, The Strange Case of Dr. Cher and Mr. Donna. WET will continue to produce as a resident company at 12th Avenue Arts in Capitol Hill. Subscriptions start at $60 and are on sale now at www.washingtonensemble.org.  

Soho Rep., which provides a platform for vastly diverse artists to realize their boldest visions, in productions that are regularly among the most ambitious and acclaimed offerings of the theater season, will convene many of its collaborators and supporters at its 2019 Spring Fete, Monday, April 8, at Tribeca Rooftop (2 Desbrosses Street, New York, NY 10013).

This land was made for you and me" - Woody Guthrie. IAMA Theatre Company partners with the Latino Theater Company to bring the world premiere of Canyon by Jonathan Caren (The Recommendation, Need To Know) to The Los Angeles Theatre Center. Previews begin Feb. 22, with the press opening scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 28 and performances continuing through March 24.

The MacDowell Colony has awarded fellowships to 86 artists from 18 states and nine countries. Fellows will arrive from Texas, Maine, and Montana, and from as far as Chile, Australia, China, and Israel. They are working in seven disciplines, and 29 percent identify as culturally diverse. The fellowships are for upcoming late winter and spring residencies at one of the nation's leading contemporary arts organizations. 

The American Playwriting Foundation, established to make annual grants to new American plays, has selected Harrison David Rivers for The 2018 Relentless Award, the largest annual cash prize in American theater awarded to a play.

Given the current political climate in this country you have to ask if there is any such thing as a truly honest politician. Today's subject, Nehassaiu deGannes, is currently living her theatre life onstage at Studio Theatre portraying just that type, Rep. Sydney Millsap, in local playwright Sarah Burgess' Kings. The production runs through January 13th in Studio's fourth floor space.

The Sol Project (Jacob G. Padron, Artistic Director), the national theater initiative dedicated to amplifying Latinx voices and building a body of work for the new American theater, is proud to announce that founding member and artistic producer David Mendizabal will become the Associate Artistic Director, beginning immediately. Rebecca Martinez and Julian Ramirez will also join the company as members of the artistic collective.

The Drama League (Gabriel Stelian-Shanks, Executive Artistic Director) has announced the theater directors chosen to develop new plays and musicals as part of the 2019 Drama League Artist Residency Program. Public work-in-progress presentations of each residency will be held periodically throughout the year at The Drama League Theater Center, 32 Avenue of the Americas, in Tribeca. Schedules for the presentations, which are open to the public, will be available throughout 2019 at www.dramaleague.org or by calling (212) 244-9494.

Vineyard Theatre Artistic Directors Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern announce that the 2018 Susan Stroman Directing Award will be presented to Whitney White on Sunday, December 16 at The Vineyard's 2nd annual Open House from 3-7pm.

The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation announced its 2018 grants in The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation's Women Playwrights Commissioning Program. These grants fund commissions for female playwrights at selected theaters nationwide. The 2018 recipients are:

The Movement Theatre Company is proud to announce the extension of the New York Premiere production of WHAT TO SEND UP WHEN IT GOES DOWN by Aleshea Harris (Is God Is), directed by Whitney White (Macbeth in Stride). Originally scheduled to play its final performance on December 8,  2018, WHAT TO SEND UP WHEN IT GOES DOWN will now play an additional week through December 16, 2018.

The Movement Theatre Company (David Mendizabal, Deadria Harrington, Eric Lockley, and Taylor Reynolds - Producing Artistic Leadership Team) is proud to present the New York Premiere production of WHAT TO SEND UP WHEN IT GOES DOWN by Aleshea Harris (Is God Is), directed by Whitney White (Macbeth in Stride) at the A.R.T./New York Theatres in the Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre from November 11, 2018 - December 8, 2018. Opening night will be Monday, November 19, 2018.

The Movement Theatre Company presents the New York Premiere production of WHAT TO SEND UP WHEN IT GOES DOWN by Aleshea Harris (Is God Is), directed by Whitney White (Macbeth in Stride) at the A.R.T./New York Theatres in the Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre from November 11, 2018 - December 8, 2018. Opening night will be Monday, November 19, 2018.

The Movement Theatre Company announces complete casting for the New York Premiere production of WHAT TO SEND UP WHEN IT GOES DOWN by Aleshea Harris (Is God Is), directed by Whitney White (Macbeth in Stride) at the A.R.T./New York Theatres in the Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre from November 11, 2018 - December 8, 2018. Opening night will be Monday, November 19, 2018.

Today, influencer and talent manager ChiChi Anyanwu of the NYC Black Theater Network, Marcia Pendelton, President of Walk Tall Girl Productions/Black Theater Online, and the award-winning Vineyard Theatre (Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern, Artistic Directors; Suzanne Appel, Managing Director) announced BLACK PLAYWRIGHTS: THEY SPEAK. WHO LISTENS? A Black Theater Fall Preview: Off Broadway Edition. The event is scheduled at Vineyard Theatre (108 E. 15th Street) on Monday, October 15, 2018 at 7:00 p.m. Four-time Tony Award-winning producer Ron Simons of SimonSays Entertainment (A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, Porgy & Bess, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Jitney) will host the program whose purpose is to bring attention to the unprecedented number of plays by black playwrights being produced Off-Broadway this season.

Today ChiChi Anyanwu of the NYC Black Theater Network, Marcia Pendelton, President of Walk Tall Girl Productions/Black Theater Online, and the award-winning Vineyard Theatre announced BLACK PLAYWRIGHTS: THEY SPEAK. WHO LISTENS? A Black Theater Fall Preview: Off Broadway Edition.

Cleveland Play House (CPH) brings to life Lynn Nottage's complex story of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Rust Belt drama Sweat.  Set in Reading, PA, this relevant story offers audience members suspense through its intricate portrayal of characters battling to survive in a city crippled by economic stagnation. CPH Artistic Director Laura Kepley will direct. Previews begin on October 13th, with press opening on October 19th at the Outcalt Theatre in Playhouse Square. This production is sponsored by Great Lakes Brewing Company.

Playwright Aleshea Harris' play IS GOD IS, receiving just its second production at Minneapolis' Mixed Blood Theatre, is a revenge play. More than that, it's a revenge fantasy. Filled with the kind of vengeance that we don't resort to in real life because we're civilized people, but it sure is fun to think about. When you hear of a man who does horrible things to his wife and/or children, or even worse, experience it first hand, there's a part of the primal brain that wants to deliver an eye for an eye. This play is the cathartic fulfillment of those desires. It reminds me of the Dixie Chicks' song 'Goodbye Earl,' in which two friends conspire to kill the abusive husband of one of them. Critics cried - you're advocating violence and murder, how horrible! No - it's fiction, art, fantasy, metaphor, seeing an evil someone get what they deserve, if only in our imagination. Such is IS GOD IS, tenfold, in all its horrific yet somehow satisfying violence to avenge great hurts against one's self and loved ones.