Alice Childress News

Prolific playwright Dominique Morisseau's SKELETON CREW begins June 5, 2018 as the next Geffen Playhouse production. SKELETON CREW, the final play in Dominique's three-play cycle THE DETROIT PROJECT, focuses on four co-workers of an auto factory about to go under, circa 2008.  We had the chance to catch Dominique in between her multi-tasking of writing on her multitude of projects, including Showtime's Shameless and the upcoming AIN'T TOO PROUD scheduled for a Broadway run.

Boston Court Performing Arts Center presents the West Coast premiere of Her Portmanteau written by Mfoniso Udofia and directed by Gregg T. Daniel, May 24 - June 30, 2018 (press opening June 2).  The production stars Joyce Guy (Abasiama), Omoze Idehenre (Adiaha) and Dele Ogundrian (Iniabasi).

Manoa Valley Theatre is proud to announce a presentation of this year's Project1VOICE One Play One Day project Flyin' West, locally produced by Excellence Happens in Cooperation with Project1Voice, live on stage June 18th. Advance tickets are $25, $30 on the day with discounts available for groups of 10 or more. A portion of the proceeds benefit Manoa Valley Theatre. For tickets and more information visit www.excellencehappens.com. 

Manoa Valley Theatre is proud to announce a presentation of this year's Project1VOICE One Play One Day project Flyin' West, locally produced by Excellence Happens in Cooperation with Project1Voice, live on stage June 18th. Advance tickets are $25, $30 on the day with discounts available for groups of 10 or more. A portion of the proceeds benefit Manoa Valley Theatre. For tickets and more information visit www.excellencehappens.com. 

Project1VOICE One Play One Day 2018 is set with national staged readings of Pearl Cleage's Flyin' West on Sunday, June 17, and Monday, June 18. Theater companies, museums, colleges and universities around the country unite for this eighth annual theater celebration that revives and re-introduces forgotten classic plays in the American theater. Check your local listings for exact dates and times in your area.

Boston Court Performing Arts Center presents the West Coast premiere of Her Portmanteau written by Mfoniso Udofia and directed by Gregg T. Daniel, May 24 - June 30, 2018 (press opening June 2).  The production stars Joyce Guy (Abasiama), Omoze Idehenre (Adiaha) and Dele Ogundrian (Iniabasi).

A Noise Within (ANW) presents A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, directed by Gregg T. Daniel, the sixth production of its 26th season performing February 25 to April 8 (Press Opening March 3). Now added - three performances - Wednesday, March 14 at 7:30 pm, Wednesday March 29 at 7:30 pm, and Sunday, April 8 at 7 pm.

A Noise Within (ANW) presents A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, directed by Gregg T. Daniel, the sixth production of its 26th season performing February 25 to April 8 (Press Opening March 3).

The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle (LADCC) has announced its nominations and special awards for excellence in Los Angeles, Orange County and Ventura County theatre for the year 2017 (Dec. 1, 2016 Nov. 30, 2017).

At a time when the USA is waffling on its commitment to honor Harriet Tubman with her image on the 20 dollar bill, Woodie King, Jr.'s New Federal Theatre will present 'Harriet's Return: Based Upon the Legendary Life of Harriet Tubman,' written and performed by Karen Jones Meadows. The production takes audiences on a deeply personal, high energy journey into the private and public life of this famed Underground Railroad conductor, spiritual icon, revolutionary, and entrepreneur, whose life spanned nine decades and still influences the consciousness of people throughout the world. The production is directed by Clinton Turner Davis and will take stage February 8 to March 4 at Castillo Theatre, 543 West 42nd Street.

At a time when the USA is waffling on its commitment to honor Harriet Tubman with her image on the 20 dollar bill, Woodie King, Jr.'s New Federal Theatre will present 'Harriet's Return: Based Upon the Legendary Life of Harriet Tubman,' written and performed by Karen Jones Meadows. The production takes audiences on a deeply personal, high energy journey into the private and public life of this famed Underground Railroad conductor, spiritual icon, revolutionary, and entrepreneur, whose life spanned nine decades and still influences the consciousness of people throughout the world. The production is directed by Clinton Turner Davis and will take stage February 8 to March 4 at Castillo Theatre, 543 West 42nd Street.

At a time when the USA is waffling on its commitment to honor Harriet Tubman with her image on the 20 dollar bill, Woodie King, Jr.'s New Federal Theatre will present 'Harriet's Return: Based Upon the Legendary Life of Harriet Tubman,' written and performed by Karen Jones Meadows.

The Artistic Home will open its 2017-18 season with a lesser known, but wholly timely piece: WEDDING BAND: A LOVE/HATE STORY IN BLACK AND WHITE, by eminent African-American playwright and author Alice Childress. It opened to the press on Sunday, October 29 and will run through December 17, 2017. Last seen in Chicago in 2003 in a co-production between Steppenwolf and Congo Square Theatre, its first-ever showing here thirty years prior was but one stop in this play's march toward due recognition.

I love a good tragic love story, and it doesn't get much more tragic than an interracial couple in 1918 South Carolina. But Penumbra's gorgeous production of the 1966 play WEDDING BAND by Alice Childress (whose TROUBLE IN MIND was seen at the Guthrie last year) is not just a beautiful, complicated, and ultimately tragic love story. It's also (not unlike TROUBLE IN MIND) a still timely work that speaks to the issues of race, racism, and privilege in ways that feel entirely relevant. With a super talented cast directed by Penumbra's founder Lou Bellamy (who recently passed the Artistic Director baton to his daughter Sarah) and gorgeous design, WEDDING BAND is a show not to be missed, and my favorite of my five-show weekend.

Theatre Communications Group (TCG) and Project1VOICE (P1V) in association with The Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (Rose Library) at Emory University and Theater Emory are proud to announce a screening for the #LegacyLeaders video of Douglas Turner Ward in Atlanta.

Audiences have just two weeks left to see the unanimously acclaimed and multi-award nominated production of Alice Childress' Trouble in Mind. Directed by Laurence Boswell and starring Olivier Award-nominated Tanya Moodie, the production will end its strictly limited run at London's Print Room at the Coronet on Saturday 14 October.

Theatre Communications Group (TCG) and Project1VOICE (P1V) have announced a screening series tour for the #LegacyLeaders video of Douglas Turner Ward coming to three cities this fall.

Print Room at the Coronet welcomes the London transfer of Alice Childress' Trouble in Mind. Following a critically acclaimed run at in the Ustinov Studio in November 2016, Trouble in Mind runs in Notting Hill now through 14th October 2017, directed by Laurence Boswell with Tanya Moodie in the lead role of Wiletta Mayer. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Lynchburg, Virginia. The former site of a thriving cotton mill is now an impoverished neighborhood. Deeply affected by all of the recent killings, of young black men like himself, Ruffrino, a 14 year old militant, incites riots at school and online. More and more at odds with his mother and grandfather, the boys' anger grows beyond containment while the family home literally sinks into the cotton field, and no one seems to notice but him.

Penumbra Theatre kicks off its 41st season Crossing Lines with Alice Childress' nearly forgotten masterpiece, Wedding Band.