Marcus Scott News

Astoria Performing Arts Center (Dev Bondarin, Artistic Director), in association with Teresa Lotz, presents six new musical shorts written in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Featuring the work of fifteen writers, six directors, and a large number of actors, the contributing artists joined the project in the early days of the crisis in the spirit of developing new work without being in the same room to do so. 

Musical Theatre Factory presents a one night only evening of celebration, affirmation and liberation with TROY ANTHONY AND FRIENDS, in concert on Sunday March 1, 2020, at 7pm. Featuring the work of Troy Anthony (The River is Me, Dark Girl Chronicles, Antioch Mass) in his Joe's Pub debut sung by a 12 piece all POC choir, alongside the work of collaborators Sukari Jones, Nia Witherspoon and Marcus Scott, Troy will also be joined be special guest artists representing the Musical Theatre Factory POC Roundtable - Rona Siddiqui, Michelle J. Rodriguez, Jerome Ellis, and Kirya Traber & Sissi Liu - in a powerful evening of song!

In Spring/Summer 2020, the Downtown Urban Arts Festival (DUAF) will return for its 18th annual season with Reg E. Gaines, Tony-nominated for Bring in da Noise Bring in da Funk, back as its Artistic Director. After his evaluation of scripts from a new crop of emerging playwrights from around the world, DUAF is has announced its 2020 finalists.

Ridin' Shotgun, written by Juan Ramirez, Jr., won BEST PLAY at the 17th Annual Season of THEATER at the Downtown Urban Arts Festival (DUAF).

The Downtown Urban Arts Festival today announced its 2019 artist line-up for the 17th annual multi-disciplinary arts festival showcasing music, poetry, live theater and film. The five-week Downtown Urban Arts Festival performs April 11-May 18 at Joe's Pub, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, The Wild Project and Tribeca Film Center, respectively.

Liberation Theatre Company (LTC), will have public play readings by members of their Writing Residency Program as part of C-MORE Festival 2019, a production of nancy manocherian's the cell (Artistic Director, Kira Simring), March 31 through April 5, 2019 in Chelsea.

TeeRico by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Montclair Film, GrassROOTS Community Foundation, the First Congregational Church and Nassan's Place were honored at Vanguard Theater Company's Annual Gala at The Loft in Montclair on November 3, 2018, at 7PM. Honorees and guests celebrated Vanguard's mission of D.R.E.A.M. - Diversity, Reciprocity, Education, Awareness and Mentorship.

In Spring 2019, the Downtown Urban Arts Festival (DUAF) will return for its much-anticipated 17th annual season. Reg E. Gaines, Tony-nominated for Bring in da Noise Bring in da Funk, is back as the Artistic Director of the festival. After his evaluation of scripts that were received from across the U.S., the following writers and their plays were selected as the finalists for the 2019 season.

Road Less Traveled Productions (RLTP) is excited to announce its 10-Minute Play Fest which will showcase 7 area playwrights and world-premiere their ten-minute pays on Saturday January 28th at 7:30pm. The event, led by RLTP Literary Department Manager Katie Mallinson and New Play Coordinator Jon Elston, will feature selected writers and plays which include:

DIXON PLACE, presents Marcus Scott's Tumbleweed on August 24, 2018 through August 26, 2018 (performances take place Today & Saturday, August 24 & 25 at 8:00pm & Sunday, August, 26 at 2:00 pm). Following an interracial family living in a townhouse within the Morningside Park area of New York's Upper West Side over the course of a weekend, TUMBLEWEED is a slice of life drama about a young girl named Willow whose off-putting natural hair combined with both her family's open acceptance of it and lack of maintenance, as well as her blooming womanism, causes controversy in the household.

DIXON PLACE, presents Marcus Scott's Tumbleweed on August 24, 2018 through August 26, 2018 (performances take place Friday & Saturday, August 24 & 25 at 8:00pm & Sunday, August, 26 at 2:00 pm). Following an interracial family living in a townhouse within the Morningside Park area of New York's Upper West Side over the course of a weekend, TUMBLEWEED is a slice of life drama about a young girl named Willow whose off-putting natural hair combined with both her family's open acceptance of it and lack of maintenance, as well as her blooming womanism, causes controversy in the household.

On June 1, Artistry Music, A Mack Ave Label will release Soul Side of Town, Tower of Power's 25th album- a cranial-crushing funk amalgamation of soul, vintage R&B, groove, pop and rock.  It's the centerpiece for a celebratory 50th Anniversary campaign that includes the re-release of four hard to find independent productions  The East Bay Archive Vol. 1 (a 1973 live recording from Boston), Oakland Zone (a 2008 release celebrated for the return of drummer David Garibaldi after several years away), Great American Soulbook (an all-star affair of soul classics featuring guests such as Joss Stone, Tom Jones, Sam Moore and Huey Lewis), and 40th Anniversary: Live at The Fillmore in San Francisco (a deluxe multi-disc CD/DVD collector's item loaded with great new live renditions of hits plus interviews with alumni past and present).

Next week, FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club & Private Event Destination, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit www.54Below.com/Feinsteins or call (646) 476-3551.

FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents Wild Young Hearts: The Marcus Scott Songbook on May 24, 2018 at 9:30 PM. The concert explores the world of what Scott calls 'Afro-Americana' and what it could be through his music and lyrics. The centerpiece of the concert is Scott's show Cherry Bomb (2017 Drama League First Stage in Artist Residence and Finalist for National Black Theater's I am Soul and Yale Institute for Musical Theatre's residencies), an original musical that tells the story of an ambitious young man and the depths he and his high school friends will go to in ensuring that they and their dreams have a place in the world.

After last season's much-buzzed-about Butterfly and Carmen, HEARTBEAT OPERA-the daring young company whose unconventional orchestrations and stagings of classic operas have been called 'a radical endeavor' by Alex Ross in The New Yorker-returns to Baruch Performing Arts Center with its fourth annual Spring Festival May 2-13, 2018. Heartbeat premieres adaptations of two operatic masterpieces, both radically staged, trimmed down and re-orchestrated: Mozart's DON GIOVANNI and Beethoven's FIDELIO.

Liberation Theatre Company (LTC) a Harlem-based independent theatrical producer and playwright development company established to support emerging Black playwrights, has chosen four promising new writers to participate in their Writing Residency Program for 2018-2019, the second year of the program.

Despite some great music, nobody ever said that Beethoven's FIDELIO is an easy opera to love. Yet, the reduced, revised and reconfigured 90-minute version that Heartbeat Opera premiered the other night--as part of this year's NY Opera Fest from the New York Opera Alliance--showed some fearless work that was somehow true to the original yet very current. This tale of the rescue of a political prisoner, Florestan, by his wife, Leonore, disguised as a prison guard, will always work. And the powerful use of a chorus of prisoners–here, represented by projected work of actual prison choruses from around the Midwest—was a master stroke.

On June 1, Artistry Music, A Mack Ave Label will release Soul Side of Town, Tower of Power's 25th album- a cranial-crushing funk amalgamation of soul, vintage R&B, groove, pop and rock.  It's the centerpiece for a celebratory 50th Anniversary campaign that includes the re-release of four hard to find independent productions  The East Bay Archive Vol. 1 (a 1973 live recording from Boston), Oakland Zone (a 2008 release celebrated for the return of drummer David Garibaldi after several years away), Great American Soulbook (an all-star affair of soul classics featuring guests such as Joss Stone, Tom Jones, Sam Moore and Huey Lewis), and 40th Anniversary: Live at The Fillmore in San Francisco (a deluxe multi-disc CD/DVD collector's item loaded with great new live renditions of hits plus interviews with alumni past and present).

After last season's much-buzzed-about Butterfly and Carmen, HEARTBEAT OPERA-the daring young company whose unconventional orchestrations and stagings of classic operas have been called 'a radical endeavor' by Alex Ross in The New Yorker-returns to Baruch Performing Arts Center with its fourth annual Spring Festival May 2-13, 2018. Heartbeat will premiere adaptations of two operatic masterpieces, both radically staged, trimmed down and re-orchestrated: Mozart's DON GIOVANNI and Beethoven's FIDELIO. 

This year marks the Season Sweet 16 for the powerful Downtown Urban Arts Festival (DUAF).