Donja R Love News

Williamstown Theatre Festival announced today additional casting for the 2019 season as well as details about additional programming, commissions, and fellowships.

The Outer Critics Circle, the organization of writers covering New York theatre for out-of-town newspapers, national publications and other media beyond Broadway, welcomes 'Tootsie' star Julie Halston along with 'Torch Song' sensation Michael Urie to announce the nominees for the 2018-19 season today, April 23rd. Click here to watch live!

The Lark has announced its BareBones program will return this season with a workshop production of On Every Link a Heart Does Dangle; or Owed by Tim J. Lord, directed by Meredith McDonough. The play, a radical reimagining of the Oedipus myth, will run at The Lark's BareBones Studio from May 10-19, 2019, at 311 West 43rd Street, 5th Floor, in New York City.

The Off-Broadway League today announced nominations in 19 categories - and bestowed one special award - for the 34th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway. The Awards will be handed out on Sunday, May 5, 2019 at NYU Skirball Center for Performing Arts, beginning at 7:00pm EST. The Lucille Lortel Awards are produced by the Off-Broadway League by special arrangement with the Lucille Lortel Theatre Foundation. Additional support is provided by TDF. Beloved and celebrated entertainer, Wayne Brady, will emcee the ceremony.

New Conservatory Theatre Center Founder & Artistic Director Ed Decker announced the line-up for NCTC's 2019-20 subscription season last night at NCTC's annual Season Announcement Party for subscribers, donors and artists.

The Playwrights Realm announces the 10th Anniversary INK'D Festival of New Plays (April 2019), the annual showcase of new works by The Realm's Writing Fellows. Over the past decade, the festival has introduced audiences to a diversity of fresh perspectives on theater's ability to address the world around it-and has proven to be an indispensible launching pad for the voices driving the future of playwriting.

Soho Rep. presents the New York Premiere of Obie Award-winning playwright Christopher Chen's Passage (April 23-May 26), a fantasia on colonialism past and present that asks the question: if Country Y occupies Country X, can someone from Country X and someone from Country Y ever form a mutual relationship? Directed by Saheem Ali, Passage is a playful and gripping experiment that isolates power as the sole differentiator between people challenging the arbitrary binaries that define how we live.

The New Black Fest and The Lark, two theater organizations dedicated to celebrating and advocating for stories that uplift the wide range of experiences in our complex world, are proud to announce the sixth annual The New Black Fest at The Lark.

The Playwrights Realm (Founding Artistic Director Katherine Kovner and Producing Director Roberta Pereira) announces Beyond the Realm (February 2019), a month-long festival showcasing bold new works-in-progress by four boundary-pushing playwrights, with four workshops of new plays by MJ Kaufman, Nia Witherspoon, Michael Yates Crowley, and Asiimwe Deborah Kawe. Responsiveness and a commitment to playwrights' needs are at the heart of the Realm's practice; with the launch of this new program-in lieu of a second full-length production this season-the Realm seizes the opportunity to devote the beginning of the year to these four playwrights testing and honing their exhilarating new works. Throughout a month of programming, the definitions of theater will be challenged as the festival creates new ways of presenting live storytelling and blurs the lines that divide creators from spectators. Tickets for the Festival are free and reservations open to the general public on Tuesday, January 22nd. Donors receive early access starting January 17th. For more information, visit http://www.playwrightsrealm.org/beyond/.

AUDELCO has announced the nominees for their 2018 'Viv' Awards, honoring Black Theatre in New York City.

New York Stage and Film has announced that Donja R. Love's soft will be the second installation in their NYC Reading Series at Barnard College, held on Monday, October 29th at 7:00pm at the Glicker-Milstein Theater at The Diana Center. Directed by Awoye Timpo, the cast of soft features Gabriel Diego Hernandez, Galen Ryan Kane, Obie and AUDELCO Award winner Russell G. Jones, Andy Lucien, Joshua E. Nelson, Cristina Pitter, Lortel Award nominee Namir Smallwood, Ryan Jamaal Swain, and James Udom.

Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, is pleased to announce the recipients of the second and third rounds of the 2018 Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards. The awards, totaling $1,114,000 allow 27 productions extra time for the development and rehearsal of new plays with the entire creative team, hoping to extend the life of the world premiere play after its first run.

MCC Theater's return of the critically acclaimed, sold out, extended, award-winning play School Girls; or, the African Mean Girls Play, written by 2017-18 Tow Playwright-in-Residence Jocelyn Bioh, and directed by Tony Winner Rebecca Taichman opened last night, October 22nd. The encore production will be performed at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street) from October 16th through November 25th.

Atlantic Theater Company stages the world premiere production of Fireflies, written by Donja R. Love and directed by Saheem Ali. Fireflies is the second part of Donja R. Love's trilogy, which began with the acclaimed play Sugar in Our Wounds, also directed by Saheem Ali. Fireflies just opened last night, October 15th for a limited engagement through Sunday, November 11th, 2018 Off-Broadway at the Linda Gross Theater (336 West 20th Street).

Manhattan Theatre Club's New York premiere of The Niceties, written by Eleanor Burgess and directed by Kimberly Senior (Disgraced), begins performances tomorrow at The Studio at Stage II - Harold and Mimi Steinberg New Play Series at New York City Center (131 W. 55th Street). Opening night is set for Thursday, October 25.

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.

Atlantic Theater Company stages the world premiere production of Fireflies, written by Donja R. Love and directed by Saheem Ali. Fireflies is the second part of Donja R. Love's trilogy, which began with the acclaimed play Sugar in Our Wounds, also directed by Saheem Ali. Get a first look at the company in rehearsal below!

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.

Over the past twelve years, The Playwrights Realm, led by Founding Artistic Director Katherine Kovner and Producing Director Roberta Pereira, has continually produced work by brave new voices and expanded its commitment to providing holistic support to playwrights striving to make a life in the arts. With its 2018-2019 Writing Fellowship, The Playwrights Realm is proud to grant a career-propelling honor to four tremendously talented playwrights exhibiting drive and commitment to the form: Bleu Beckford-Burrell (Lyons Pride), Sarah Einspanier (I LOVE SEAN), Keelay Gipson (#NewSlaves), andElse C. Went (Saving Throw).