Denise Manning News

Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST) has announced complete casting for the 38th Marathon of One-Act Plays, which will be fully comprised of work from artists who identify as Black, Indigenous & People of Color (BIPOC). This year's selection of eleven plays was curated by Co-Artistic Directors Mike Lew (Teenage Dick) and Colette Robert (Behind the Sheet). Ten plays will be presented across two different series from Sunday October 16 through Sunday November 13 at EST.

With a name lending new urgency to a rhyming couplet from the African-American spiritual 'Mary, Don't You Weep' ('God gave Noah the rainbow sign / No more water, the fire next time') the annual Fire This Time Festival has produced dozens of ten-minutes plays in its mission to 'provide a platform for early-career playwrights from the African diaspora to explore new directions for 21st century theater'.

Ryan Frostig took Broadway World reporter Stephen Mosher on an extremely personal journey with HIGHER LOVE! A POP FANTASIA ON QUEER THEMES.

FRIGID New York will present the 13th Annual The Fire This Time Festival at The Kraine Theater, July 7-10. The festival will feature World Premiere 10-minute plays by early career and under-represented playwrights from the African diaspora, co-directed by Zhailon Levingston and actor, writer, director and TFTT alum Tracey Conyer Lee. 

The Center for Fiction, a 200-year-old literary nonprofit that has created an immersive home for readers and writers in downtown Brooklyn, and Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, will co-present Story/Teller Arts: Aleshea Harris with Nissy Aya on June 8 at 7pm ET at The Center for Fiction, 15 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217, and via livestream.

The important and impressive series at 54 Below highlighting new composers puts musical theater writer Brandon Webster center stage.

Next month, FEINSTEIN’S/54 BELOW, Broadway’s Supper Club & Private Event Destination, will present some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond.

CHICKEN & BISCUITS, the new comedy written by Douglas Lyons and directed by Zhailon Levingston, made its Broadway debut just last night, October 10, at the Circle in the Square Theatre (235 West 50th Street.) The limited engagement runs through Sunday, January 2, 2022. We have photos from inside the big night!

CHICKEN & BISCUITS, the new comedy written by Douglas Lyons and directed by Zhailon Levingston, made its Broadway debut just last night, October 10, at the Circle in the Square Theatre (235 West 50th Street.) The limited engagement runs through Sunday, January 2, 2022.

Playwrights Horizons will welcome audiences back into its building with What to Send Up When It Goes Down, written by Aleshea Harris (Is God Is), directed by Whitney White (Our Dear Dead Drug Lord, The Amen Corner) and co-produced with the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), in association with The Movement Theatre Company.

BAM and Playwrights Horizons announce today the performance dates and updated location information for the spring presentation of Aleshea Harris's What to Send Up When It Goes Down, directed by Whitney White.

Times Square Alliance has announced the second annual Songs for Our City songwriting competition, which will take place daily this June 1–5, 2021. Songs for Our City will highlight original music from Broadway actors and composers to provide a unique and interactive way for audiences to enjoy new music, while celebrating the Broadway community.

SamJam Productions will present God is A Comedian by Denise Manning. This self-produced and crowd funded Comedy Special is created by and for Black Womxn. SamJam productions is a Black owned production company started and created by Denise Manning with a mission statement of producing work for and by Black womxn.

Broadway’s Black Voices of the Future, a concert featuring the works of emerging Black artists, will premiere tonight, January 25. This special virtual concert will be produced by John Znidarsic and Zhailon Levingston.

On December 21, 2020 at 8 pm EST, the stars of Broadway, TV, and film will unite for a holiday celebration concert to support Middle Collegiate Church. Director/Choreographer Matthew Johnson Harris (Take Me to the World at Carnegie Hall, Alvin Ailey core instructor) will direct and host.

The Theater will revisit the play as part of the its 'Two River Rising' online benefit series with Leigh Silverman directing. Act 1 will stream live on Wednesday, September 16 and Act 2 with a Q&A on Thursday, September 17 at 7:00pm EDT.

De Frente Productions is a new company founded by two Argentinian women, Ivi Uman and Camila Zitelli. Both graduated from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy and proceeded to finish their Bachelor in Fine Arts at The New School in Manhattan.

a??Theater podcast a??Playing on Air is a??launching its spring season of short audio plays. Every Sunday from April 5 through the end of May, a new short play will arrive, free and instantly accessible, in subscribers' feeds and on Playing on Air's website.

Musical Theatre Factory announces complete casting for The Fari Chronicles: A Metropolis Story, showcasing work from the new afrofuturist musical, Metropolis, in concert on Sunday February 2, 2020, at 9:30pm. Created by AriDy Nox and Brandon Webster this will be a riveting evening featuring songs and scenes from the genre-bending score and time-twisting book of this brand new dystopian musical - It is the night before the Apocalypse and Fari, an Android-Unit turned space-time-continuum anarchist is at the center of the devastation. The Fari Chronicles is a concert rendition of the First Act of the afrofuturist musical Metropolis.

At a Virginia university established by a founding father, TJ is a university dean and Sally his work-study student. But TJ's power has limits and Sally knows it. In TJ Loves Sally 4 Ever, playwright James Ijames hotwires a ride that leaves history's burdens in the dust and off-roads a trail for the future.