Frank Silvera News

The Black Seed has announced that close to 100 Black theatres across the country will receive grants ranging from $10,000 to $150,000.

EgoPo’s 2020-21 season continues with a presentation of Lawrence Theatre Company’s newest play, Three OG’s, as a live, virtual reading at 8pm on January 22nd, 2021. Written by Lawrence Theatre Company’s founder, Derrell Lawrence, Three OG’s stars John Canada Terrell, Brian Anthony Wilson and Lawrence’s Artistic Director, Damien J. Wallace.

Cygnet Theatre has announced the line up for The Bill and Judy Garrett Finish Line Commission. The Fall 2020 and Winter 2021 playwrights include Angelica Chéri and Aurin Squire. Normally free public readings of the plays are held in person at the theatre, but due to COVID-19 gathering restrictions all artist work will be held via Zoom.

Amidst our recent heatwave, Dr. Heather Nathans, a theatre professor, practitioner, and writer raised by two historians, felt a particular physical connection to the stuffiness eighteenth century Bostonians would have undoubtedly experienced in theatres during the summer.

Urban Stages has announces #NWORD, a virtual reading and performance. This will be part of Urban Stages' September Play Fest & Fundraiser to raise funds and continue the theater's decades long efforts of discovering and producing new plays by diverse up-and-coming artists.

Broadway Black, the multimedia organization highlighting the achievements of Black theatre artists, will present the inaugural Antonyo Awards, a celebration of the Black Broadway and Off-Broadway community.

The AUDELCO and Obie Award-winning Billie Holiday Theatre announced today cast details for a special edition of its breakout 50in50 monologue showcase series - 50in50: Love in the Time of Corona - with title inspiration from the classic novel Love in the Time of Cholera by Nobel prize winning Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez.

Playwrights Foundation, the West Coast's premiere launchpad for exceptional plays and playwrights announces the lineup for the 2020 Bay Area Playwrights Festival.

The Billie Holiday Theatre will present the third reading under its new #StayAtHome Reading Series with a special reading of James's Sheldon's Reparations, the critically acclaimed play which had its world premiere at The Billie last November.

The AUDELCO and Obie-Award-winning Billie Holiday Theatre will present a special virtual edition of its popular 50in50 monologue showcase series with the highly anticipated 50in50:Letters to Our Sons as part of its new #StayAtHome Reading Series, an innovative online play reading series.

In 1876, New Haven resident Edward Alexander Bouchet became the first African American to earn a doctorate degree in the United States. On Tuesday, February 18, 2020, at 5:30 p.m., playwright Calvin Alexander Ramsey will visit the New Haven Museum to share Bouchet's little-known story and emphasize the steadfast support of his parents and members of the New Haven community along the way. Admission is free.

Full casting has been announced for Chicken and Biscuits at Queens Theatre! 

The year may be winding down, but Queens Theatre is just getting started with a trio of Queens debuts, two Family Series shows based on beloved children's books and the launch production of a family comedy that was a hit with our Reading Series audiences.

The year may be winding down, but Queens Theatre is just getting started with a trio of Queens debuts, two Family Series shows based on beloved children's books and the launch production of a family comedy that was a hit with our Reading Series audiences.

In Chicken and Biscuits, Baneatta and Beverly attempt to put their sisterly differences aside to bury their father, Bernard. All is well at the funeral until it's revealed that Bernard had not just two daughters, but three. Wig pins loosen, as truths emerge, leaving this African-American family to confront their skeletons head on; naturally with lots of love, shade, and prayer along the way.

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.

Lone Star Theatre Company has announced that Kat Lozano joins ANIMAL HUSBANDRY as lead producer. The London based, Texas born, actress joins a team of producers that include producer Elda Ruiz-Dawson and associate producers Ramiro & Lupita Davila, Charles Barksdale, and Luis Ochoa-Andrade. David Davila's Animal Husbandry will premiere at the Under St. Mark's Theatre as part of the New York International Fringe Festival this October 2019 with direction by Sidney Erik Wright and intimacy choreography by Adele Rylands. The play stars David Michael Kirby and Daniel Anthony Hidalgo with lighting design by Hao Bai and costume design by Keyon Woods.

Lone Star Theatre Company is proud to announce that David Davila's Animal Husbandry will premiere at the New York International Fringe Festival this October 2019. This will be Lone Star Theatre's first full production after eight years of successfully bringing a?oeTexas Pages to New York Stagesa?? through its on-going reading, one-act play, and concert series. With direction by Sidney Erik Wright and starring David Michael Kirby and Daniel Anthony Hidalgo, Animal Husbandry will open October 10th at the Under St. Mark's Theater. 

The Billie Holiday Theatre Artistic and Executive Director Dr. Indira Etwaroo announced the line-up today for The Billie Holiday Theatre's Fall 2019 Season and 2019 a?" 2020 Season Highlights at their newly-renovated home at Restoration Plaza on 1368 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216. This historic landmark theater a?" theater home to the largest community of African Americans in the nation: Central Brooklyn a?" encompassing a 199-seat theater, state-of-the-art studio spaces, a gallery space, and outdoor plazas, has been home to world-class storytelling for 47 years. Forged in the sociocultural and aesthetic kiln of the Civil Rights and Black Arts Movements, The Billie Holiday Theatre continues to celebrate the diversity, intersectionality, and complexity of the African diaspora from around the corner and around the world with an almost-five decade, keenly honed consciousness for social justice through narrative.

The Frank Silvera Writers Workshop kicks off its forty-seventh annual reading series this Monday September 9th at 7pm with David Davila's immigration drama, Aztec Pirates And The Insignificance Of Life On Mars. The reading, directed by Nilsa Reyna, features Ollie Corchado, Cory Alexander, Lillian Andrea De Leon, Julia Botero, Selina Michelle Fonseca, Gerard Lucero, Alexandra Castro, and Jatnna Marte.