Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company has announced its 2017-2018 season, which features six provocative plays that will lean into the current moment, speak truth to power, and galvanize conversations about the social and political questions gripping our country.
The seven originating theaters of the Women's Voices Theater Festival - Arena Stage, Ford's Theatre, Round House Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Signature Theatre, Studio Theatre and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company - have announced preliminary details for the second installment of the Women's Voices Theater Festival, January 15 - February 15, 2018.
Steppenwolf Theatre Company Artistic Director Anna D. Shapiro and Executive Director David Schmitz announced today the 2017/18 Season. The nation's premier ensemble theater, Steppenwolf celebrates its 42nd season with seven captivating shows - three world premieres and four Chicago premieres - that embrace diversity, compassion and imagination.
Ford's Theatre Director Paul R. Tetreault today announced the Ford's Theatre 2017-2018 season will include Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman directed by Stephen Rayne; the American premiere of Jefferson's Garden by Timberlake Wertenbaker and directed by Nataki Garrett; the fantastical musical The Wiz directed by Kent Gash; and A Christmas Carol with Craig Wallace reprising the role of Ebenezer Scrooge.
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company announces its first production of Season 38, the remount of An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, directed by Nataki Garrett. The show will reunite the entire cast and production teams from Woolly's 2016 production and will run from July 18 to August 6, 2017.
The Theatre Company at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) is proud to announce the appointment of Nataki Garrett as Associate Artistic Director.
"Out of every eight drops of my blood, seven are red, but one is black." In those words, spoken with despairing apology in An Octoroon by Zoe, the titular octoroon, the illegitimate daughter of a plantation owner, are revealed the most profound and internalized depths of racism. Like a root vegetable, where the substance of the plant is buried under the ground, it truly visible only when you yank it out to examine what has grown underneath. In this case, what's above ground is a brilliant adaptation by playwright, 2016 Pulitzer finalist (for Gloria), and DC-native Branden Jacobs-Jenkins of an 1859 play by Anglo-Irish Dion Boucicault; a play that caused controversy and sold-out houses in somewhat equal measure when it played at the Winter Garden Theatre in the looming shadow of the Civil War.
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company announces its final production of Season 36, the D.C. premiere of An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, directed by Nataki Garrett. An Octoroon will run from May 30 to June 26, 2016.
The word octoroon is defined as 'a person of one-eight black ancestry.' THE OCTOROON is a 19th Century play by Irish playwright Dion Boucicault about which Wikipedia says, 'among antebellum melodramas, it was considered second only in popularity to Uncle Tom's Cabin.' AN OCTOROON is a new play by playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, who adapted the play and added himself as a character, writing the play and playing all the while male parts in white face, with the original playwright and his assistant playing roles in redface and blackface, while a rabbit seems to pull the strings behind the scenes. Got all that? Believe me, it's a lot to take in, and the play says some pretty profound things about race and racism in the past and present. But despite being a little perplexing and intentionally offensive (in a way that's not really offensive because it's satire), the whole thing is kinda brilliant in a crazy sort of way.
AN OCTOROON, which the New York Times proclaimed to be "this decade's most eloquent theatrical statement on race in America today," is a shrewdly awkward riff on The Octoroon, a 19th-century melodrama about illicit interracial love. A funny, disturbing, whirlwind of a play, AN OCTOROON riffs on the antebellum South as well as our present-day American selves, delves into the complexity of American identities and their unresolvable connection to our legacy of slavery and genocide, and perpetrates a full-blooded investigation of race and cultural politics. At the same time it is so theatrically mind-bending, funny, energetic, and demented, that it's impossible to look away.
Antaeus Theatre Company, currently preparing to transition from its current space in NoHo to its new home in Glendale, has announced five fully partner-cast productions for 2016-17:
AN OCTOROON, which the New York Times proclaimed to be "this decade's most eloquent theatrical statement on race in America today," is a shrewdly awkward riff on The Octoroon, a 19th-century melodrama about illicit interracial love. A funny, disturbing, whirlwind of a play, AN OCTOROON riffs on the antebellum South as well as our present-day American selves, delves into the complexity of American identities and their unresolvable connection to our legacy of slavery and genocide, and perpetrates a full-blooded investigation of race and cultural politics. At the same time it is so theatrically mind-bending, funny, energetic, and demented, that it's impossible to look away.
Mixed Blood Theatre has inhabited the historic firehouse on the West Bank for 40 years and is celebrating its anniversary with the first phase of a major venue renovation, a revitalized commitment to its West Bank community, and an ambitious season of new work!
Centering on the lives of four strippers, and propelled by the poetry and athleticism of live pole dancing, PUSSY VALLEY is a profound exploration of the African American, white, gay, straight, young, and old denizens of a strip club in contemporary rural Mississippi. Embedded in a world of poverty, abuse, power imbalances, racism, jealousy, homophobia, abandonment, and sexploitation, this searing drama reveals resilient women in pursuit of happiness, stability, motherhood, independence, a decent living, and romance, always battling for personal integrity.
The William & Eva Fox Foundation and Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, have announced the ninth round of Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowships recipients. The program is designed to support actors' professional and artistic development, to enrich relationships between actors and nonprofit theatres and to ensure continued professional commitment to live theatre. Funded by the Fox Foundation and administered by TCG, the fellowship is one of only a few programs of its kind for actors in the country.
A trio of strong female performances anchor playwright Eisa Davis' Bulrusher; an intriguing story of a mixed-raced 18-year-old with psychic powers growing up in a predominantly white 1950s California town.
Skylight Theatre Company and Lower Depth Theatre Ensemble present the Los Angeles Premiere of Pulitzer Prize Finalist Bulrusher, written by Eisa Davis and directed by Nataki Garrett. The show opens on 8pm on August 23rd and 3pm August 24th. RECEPTION TO FOLLOW BOTH PERFORMANCES. Runs 8pm Fridays and Saturdays, 3pm Sundays through September 28, 2014 at the Skylight Theatre, 1816 1/2 N. Vermont, LA, 90027
Black Women: State of the Union (BWSOTU) will be hosting talkbacks following evening performances of Black Women: State of the Union... Taking Flight on Feb. 16th, 22nd and 23rd at Company of Angels in downtown Los Angeles. Noted authors Tanya Alexander-Henderson, Kellie Dantzler, Sigrid Gilmer, Penelope Lowder and Lisa B. Thompson will join the producers and directors for a lively discussion of societal issues faced by Black women in modern-day America.
Black Women: State Of the Union returns to the Company of Angels' black box performance space in the historic Alexandria Hotel in downtown Los Angeles due to overwhelming audience response from last year's run at the Skylight Theater. BWSOTU-Taking Flight re-opens February 15th and runs Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 3pm through February 24, 2013.
Celebrating, and empowering, through works from some of the nations most artistically significant Black female voices, KTC's Skylight Theatre is providing a home for this unique five-week production. Featuring new plays, visual arts, and community events, collaborators have created this platform for encouraging Black women to self-identify as dynamic, expressive, and nurturing contributors to society.
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