Frank Silvera News

Lone Star Media has announced their first production, post-pandemic, as part of their new and refocused mission to support playwrights from across the Latiné diaspora: David Davila's Aztec Pirates and the Insignificance of Life on Mars.

France-Luce Benson, Adrienne Dawes, Deneen Reynolds-Knott, and Mars Wolfe will be developing their work in The Fire This Time Festival New Works Lab. Get all the details here.

From August 10 to 26, the Negro Ensemble Company, Inc. (NEC), in conjunction with their residency at Penn Live Arts, will perform the world premiere of 'Mecca Is Burning' at Harlem School of the Arts.

Paramount+ has announced that Academy Award® winner Morgan Freeman will join the cast of the upcoming original series LIONESS alongside series lead and executive producer Zoe Saldaña, Academy Award winner and executive producer Nicole Kidman, and Laysla De Oliveira. Freeman will play Edwin Mullins, the United States secretary of state.

Obie Award-winning director and playwright, Stevie Walker-Webb, will helm the new musical Gun & Powder.  Following a sold-out run at Washington D.C.’s Signature Theatre in 2020, reading presentations for the production will take place in New York City on December 15 and 16.

National Black Theatre has announced the cast for The Gospel Woman - the first workshop production of its 2022-2023 programmatic season. Performances are set to run from November 9 through November 13, 2022 at Chelsea Factory in NYC.

MILE SQUARE THEATRE (MST) has announced their first production of Kevin R. Free’s first season as Artistic Director, of Angelica Chéri’s BERTA, BERTA, directed by Kevin R. Free. BERTA, BERTA will play a four-week limited engagement at Mile Square Theatre.

Detroit Repertory Theatre names Kendra Ann Flournoy as its new managing artistic director. Flournoy joins the theatre’s new executive artistic director Leah Smith in running the organization’s business operations and artistic programming.

One of the ways The Negro Ensemble Company, Inc. (NEC) fulfills its mission to discover and nurture new, innovative works by skilled and creative artists is its NEC Cutting Edge Playhouse: Emerging Playwrights Competition, which will be mounted for the second time May 5 to 29, 2022.  

Now in its ninth season of supporting emerging writers The Farm Theater has awarded their 2022/23 College Collaboration Project Commission to playwright Deneen Reynolds-Knott (Antepartum at The Fire This Time Festival; Shoebox Picnic Road Side: Route One with Alabama Shakespeare Festival).

Tony Award-nominated and Obie Award-winning theater company Clubbed Thumb and two-time Tony Award nominee Heidi Schreck have announced the Clubbed Thumb Constitution Commissions.

The Tony Awards Administration Committee has announced that they will present the 2020 Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre to four outstanding contributors to the Broadway industry - Fred Gallo, President of PRG Scenic Technologies; Broadway press agent Irene Gandy; stage manager Beverly Jenkins and New Federal Theatre, Woodie King, Jr. Founder.

As the industry and theater artists grapple with equity and the many issues facing the field, the 2021-2024 Core Writers Mathilde Dratwa, L M Feldman, Franky D. Gonzalez, Yilong Liu, TyLie Shider, Deborah Yarchun, and Nathan Yungerberg will be given the space and support to create over the next three years.

The Billie Holiday Theatre has announced the return of its monologue showcase series - 50in50 – with a special fifth anniversary edition of the show - 50in50: Shattering the Glass Ceiling. For this year’s show, 50 original monologues were selected from women of African descent from across the globe and will be read by 50 women actors.

San Diego Repertory Theatre has announced today the details of the brand new San Diego REP Black Voices 2021 Play Reading Series, a brand new program that will be presented in March and April, 2021. The series will consist of a selection of plays representing a diverse range of Black voices.

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.