France-Luce Benson News

Bishop Arts Theatre Center (BATC) partners with Pittsburgh artist Gab Cody to offer four online monologue-writing workshops led by nationally recognized writers France-Luce Benson, Pia Wilson, Stacey Rose and Amy Evans culminating in a public performance on Zoom.

In these pandemic times, The Fountain Theatre has been Zooming their SATURDAY MATINEE series, the latest on June 27 being France-Luce Benson's SHOWTIME BLUES. The cast of this reading includes Cecil Blutcher, Suzette Azariah Gunn and Matt Kirkwood. I had the socially distant opportunity to pose a few questions to this prolific playwright.

This week SPACE on Ryder Farm, the non profit residency program and organic farm, has announced eight 2020 CSArt Featured Artists; Lindsey Bailey (Lindsey Swop Art & Illustration), Rachel Bonds (Sundown, Yellow Moon), Amyra León (WITNESS, Concrete Kids), Kylie Manning (Every Woman Biennial at La Mama Gallery), David McDevitt (Iowa Writers' Workshop), Natalia Nakazawa (MASS MoCA Artists Residency), korde arrington tuttle (graveyard shift) and Andy Van Dinh (Semi-Permeable at Live at the Archway).

Playwrights Foundation, the West Coast's premiere launchpad for exceptional plays and playwrights, has announced the semifinalists and finalists for the 2020 Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF), which is scheduled to run July 17-26, 2020.

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Announces SEGAL TALKS Week Four

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center has announced the third weekly line-up of its new global series, SEGAL TALKS. New York, US, and international theatre artists, curators, researchers and academics will talk daily for one hour with Segal Center's director, Frank Hentschker, about life and art in the Time of Corona.

ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE announces its 50th Birthday Gala honoring the people and legacy of EST's Marathon of One-Act Plays. The 50th Birthday Gala will take place on Monday, May 13, 2019 at 6:30PM at the New York Museum of Contemporary Art (528 West 39th Street, 3rd Fl.).

BMCC's Tribeca Performing Arts Center, 199 Chambers Street, in partnership with New Federal Theatre, will present 'Hatitudes 2019: A Tribute to the Grace and Style of Our Mothers,' a benefit for Woodie King, Jr.'s New Federal Theatre, on Sunday, May 5, 2019 at 3:00 PM.

BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center, the longest operating performance venue in lower Manhattan, in partnership with the New Federal Theatre, proudly presents the second annual Hatitudes: A Tribute to the Grace and Style of Our Mothers on Sunday, May 5, 2019 at 3pm.

Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST) (William Carden, Artistic Director, Sarah McLellan, Executive Director) and the Radio Drama Network (Melina Brown, President) announced today the lineup for the 37th Marathon of One-Act Plays. This year's selection of fifteen plays were chosen from 1120 submissions. They will be presented across three different series from Sunday, May 12, 2019 through Saturday, June 29, 2019.'

City Theatre, now in its 23rd season, is the only professional theater in the country that produces 10 minute plays and musicals in a variety of year-round programming. The City Theatre National Award for Short Playwriting Contest furthers the Company's mission to identify, acknowledge and award excellence in dramatic writing. City Theatre Artistic Director Margaret M. Ledford said, "This year's Winner and Finalists were selected from a fierce pool of over 800 talented writers from around the country. The plays are an exciting mix of dramatic storytelling, some of which are plays we are already producing, or we will be presenting as readings, that we will recommend to our arts partners, and otherwise promote to bring visibility to the writers and this uniquely theatrical and versatile genre."

The New Black Fest and The Lark, two theater organizations dedicated to celebrating and advocating for stories that explore the intersection of art and social justice, are proud to announce the fifth annual The New Black Fest at The Lark. This week-long event is aimed at showcasing diverse and provocative work in a festival of Black theater artists from throughout the Diaspora, and will feature talkbacks, a panel event, and staged readings of four plays-in-progress. The festival will take place April 9-13, 2018, and will include works by 2017 Djerassi Writer in Residence France-Luce Benson (Deux Femmes On the Edge De La Revolution), 2018 Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award recipient Donja R. Love (soft), 2015 Princess Grace Award-Winner Jonathan Payne (Brother Rabbit), and artist, activist, and The New Black Fest alum Liza Jessie Peterson (Sistergurls and the Squirrel) who has performed excerpts of her one-person play The Peculiar Patriot in over 35 penitentiaries across the country.

The Monologue Project announced today their online resource featuring 30 original monologues from nationally recognized writers for theater is now available to the public.

The Monologue Project invites you to a special event that celebrates Women of the African Diaspora and their impact on theater and the world. The event will be held at the Bishop Arts Theatre Center on Monday, November 20, 2017 at 7:00 p.m. featuring some of Dallas' most talented artists.

The Monologue Project invites you to a special event that celebrates Women of the African Diaspora and their impact on theater and the world.

In this week's special edition, we caught up with playwrights from Ensemble Studio Theatre's Marathon of One-Act Plays. Series A features El Grande by Maggie Diaz Bofill, How My Grandparents Fell in Love by Cary Gitter, The Fork by Emily Chadick Weiss, Showtime Blues by France-Luce Benson, and Blue Handed by David Zellnik. For more information, visit: www.ensemblestudiotheatre.org

The Monologue Project invites you to a special event that celebrates Women of the African Diaspora and their impact on theater and the world. 

Ensemble Studio Theatre and Radio Drama Network announced today the lineup for the 36th MARATHON OF ONE-ACT PLAYS, the biennial festival series of brand new plays from emerging playwrights.

FRIGID New York @ Horse Trade will present the January installment of New York Madness on Sunday, January 29 at 8pm as part of The Fire This Time Festival.