Cezar Williams News

The Fire This Time Festival, the destination for early career and emerging playwrights from the African diaspora, announces its 2020 dates. The 14-day festival, presented in collaboration with FRIGID New York, which annually honors Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will take place from January 20 to February 2, 2020. This year, seven commissioned dramatists will be presented in repertoire as part of the annual celebration held at the Kraine Theater in the East Village.

Performances began Tuesday February 26th, for the New York premiere of Surely Goodness and Mercy, a truly Keen story about an exceptional boy living a troubled life in Newark, NJ who does a good deed for an often unnoticed person. Sarita Covington, Jay Mazyck, Brenda Pressley, Courtney Thomas, and Cezar Williams star under Jessi D. Hill's direction. Performances for this limited Off-Broadway engagement of Surely Goodness and Mercy will continue through Saturday April 13th only, with opening night set for Wednesday March 13th.

Performances begin tomorrow, Tuesday February 26th, for the New York premiere of  Surely Goodness and Mercy, a truly Keen story about an exceptional boy living a troubled life in Newark, NJ who does a good deed for an often unnoticed person.   Sarita Covington, Jay Mazyck, Brenda Pressley, Courtney Thomas, and Cezar Williams star under Jessi D. Hill's direction.

Today Keen Artistic Director Jonathan Silverstein announced the cast for the New York premiere of  Surely Goodness and Mercy, a truly Keen story about an exceptional boy living a troubled life in Newark, NJ who does a good deed for an often unnoticed person.   Sarita Covington, Jay Mazyck, Brenda Pressley, Courtney Thomas, and Cezar Williams will star under Jessi D. Hill's direction. The design team includes Lee Savage (scenic), Nicole Wee (costumes), Devorah Kengmana (lighting), and Sadah Espii Proctor (sound).

Quick Silver Theater Company's (QSTC) third annual Citizen One Reading Series launches Friday November 16th.  QSTC will present staged readings of four emerging playwrights of color as part of their series.

Quick Silver Theater Company (QSTC) will present staged readings of new works by emerging playwrights of color. QSTC's Playwrights of Color Summit is a week-long residency that allows previously unproduced playwrights an opportunity to work exclusively on their plays. These plays were submitted to QSTC as part of our POC Summit's call for new works, and will be presented as part of our Citizen One Reading Series.

Planet Connections 10th Annual Theatre Festivity's banner season culminated with the Planet Awards. Planet Connections was proclaimed one of the leading summer festivals in New York.

TenthPlanet: Planet Connections 10th Annual Theatre Festivity played to packed houses and great acclaim for each production. Another sold out house was achieved for the company's annual 'Playwrights for a Cause' event, this year, benefiting the Ali Forney Center. The banner season culminates with the Planet Awards. This year, the gala event will be Today, September 21, at the Abrons Arts Center at 466 Grand St, New York City. Tickets and further info: planetconnections.org/

American Bard Theater Company presents the New York City premiere of You Wouldn't Expect, a play written by Marilynn Barner Anselmi examining the staggering truths about the coercive influence of the government-sponsored eugenics program and its direct focus on poverty and race. Cezar Williams directs a cast of eight, including Cherie Danielle, Adiagha Faizah, Carl Fisk, Erin Gilbreth*, Ross G. Hewitt, Malikha Mallette, Okema T Moore*, and Atiya Yanique Taylor. Fifteen performances will be staged at The Chain Theater, 312 West 36th Street in New York City, from September 19-October 7, 2018.

TenthPlanet: Planet Connections 10th Annual Theatre Festivity played to packed houses and great acclaim for each production. Another sold out house was achieved for the company's annual 'Playwrights for a Cause' event, this year, benefiting the Ali Forney Center. The banner season culminates with the Planet Awards. This year, the gala event will be Friday, September 21, at the Abrons Arts Center at 466 Grand St, New York City. Tickets and further info: planetconnections.org/

Dr. Barbara Ann Teer's National Black Theatre NBT announces the culminating workshop productions of two I Am Soul Playwriting Resident playwrights, Angelica Ch ri and Derek Lee McPhatter. Ch ri's workshop production, Crowndation: I Will Not Lie David, will be directed by Cezar Williams and star Sheria Irving (Broadway: ROMEO AND JULIET, TV/Film: The Good Wife; Madame Secretary) in a one woman show.

Now in its ninth season, the Obie Award winning The Fire This Time Festival will kick off on Monday, January 15 with an opening night reception at The Kraine Theater and continue with a special off-site event and panel discussion at Atlantic Theater Company on Wednesday, January 17, followed by full-length play readings and the 10-Minute Play Festival, directed this year by Candis Jones.

Now in its ninth season, the Obie Award winning The Fire This Time Festival has commissioned six playwrights to write new 10-minute plays for the 2018 festival, which will run January 15-28, 2018 at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery).

Quick Silver Theater Company will present staged readings of new works by emerging playwrights of color. QST's Playwrights of Color Summit is a week-long residency that allows previously unproduced playwrights an opportunity to work exclusively on their plays. These plays were submitted to QST as part of our POC Summit's call for new works. QST will be presenting its series in partnership with Ensemble Studio Theatre.

Dr. Barbara Ann Teer's National Black Theatre's 49th season cedes the floor to modern-day griots with gripping, one-person tales capturing the trauma and triumph of a people. In a nod to the African tradition of the storyteller and historian who inspires and uplifts, the season is anchored by two one-person shows, The Peculiar Patriot, by Liza Jessie Peterson, a coproduction with Hi-ARTS, and Sancho by Paterson Joseph, a coproduction with Classical Theatre of Harlem (CTH) and Pemberley Productions. Themed "Black to the Future," the 49th season-which includes workshop productions by resident playwrights-seeks to take stock of the present and look to the past to predict and help shape a brighter future for Black people.

Founded in 2013, QST is a collective of thirteen artists dedicated to amplifying the collective voice, individual potential, the overall presence of people of color, women and other marginalized groups within the American theatrical landscape.

FRIGID New York @ Horse Trade in association with The Dirty Blondes will present the World Premiere of Ashley J. Jacobson's How to Be Safe, directed by Cezar Williams, June 1-17 at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery).

Now in its eighth season, the Obie Award winning The Fire This Time Festival will run January 16-February 5, 2017 at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery).

On the heels of their successful production Brothers from the Bottom starring Wendell Pierce, a play about gentrification, The Billie Holiday Theatre (BHT) is pleased to announce the world premiere of Dancing on Eggshells by award-winning playwright Cynthia G. Robinson and directed by the Billie Holiday Theatre's own Cezar Williams.