Central Works to Present THE MUSEUM ANNEX Beginning in October

CENTRAL WORKS 2022 SEASON will conclude with a new comedy from the Central Works Writers Workshop The Museum Annex written by Mildred Inez Lewis, playing Oct 15 - Nov 13 at the historic Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Avenue, Berkeley. Central Works is committed to premiering new works inspired by social issues, contemporary texts, and history. The new comedy The Museum Annex is written by Mildred Inez Lewis, and directed by Elizabeth Carter with a cast that features Monique Crawford, Juanita Harris, Julia Jackson, Brittany Nicole Sims and Success Ufondu. Production stage management is by Natalia Rivera Ramos, costume design by Tammy Berlin with lighting design by Stephanie Anne Johnson and sound design by Gregory Scharpen. (Performances Thur & Fri 8pm, Sat 7pm, Sun 5pm)

"Directing a production of The Colored Museum in college expanded my idea of what it was possible to do with comedy. I wrote The Museum Annex as a comic love letter to African American women with everyone invited to listen in, engage, heal and laugh." remarks Mildred Inez Lewis.

In 1986, George C. Wolfe's play The Colored Museum premiered. The play imagined a series of 11 scenes, or "exhibits" in a metaphoric "museum," where each of these exhibits addressed a range of different themes and aspects of the African American experience. The Museum Annex, opening on October 15, is an homage to Mr. Wolfe's play, adding something of a "new wing" onto the original museum.

The Central Works Writers Workshop is an ongoing commissioning program established in 2012. Twice a year, in 12-week sessions, 8 local playwrights are selected to develop projects through informal readings and carefully directed discussions. This season in addition to The Museum Annex by Mildred Inez Lewis, Cristina García's Dreaming in Cuban and Patricia Milton's Escape from the Asylum emerged from this program.. For more information, visit our website: www.centralworks.org

Mildred Inez Lewis (playwright) writes and directs for theater, film and the digital space. A Dramatists Guild member, she belongs to the Antaeus, Company of Angels, EST-Los Angeles and PlayGround-LA writing groups.Upcoming Productions include Ghosts Of Blackness with Harlem9/Lucille Lortel/National Black Theatre; $10 And A Tambourine with Antaeus; The Museum Annex, inspired by The Colored Museum with Central Works (Berkeley, CA); We Dreamed Ourselves, Dragon Egg Productions (Oakland, CA); and Down Home, Valdez Theatre Conference (Valdez, AK). Upcoming Publications: The Gift And /kom'plisit/ with Broadway Play Publishing. Roost First, Then Fly in Applause Books' 2020 10-Minute play collection. Recent Productions: Aithiopes Imagined with Antaeus. We Jump Broom and Acknowledge with PlayGround-LA.. Awards: 2021 L.B. Williams award, New Circle Theater. 2018-9 PLAY

Elizabeth Carter (director) is an actor and director based in the San Francisco Bay Area. A graduate of Mills College she was the 2022 Inaugural SDFC Lloyd Richards New Futures Director in Residence at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. In 2021 Ms. Carter directed Stoop Story for the Aurora Theatre (rehearsed and intended for the stage, but because of Covid restrictions, was ultimately offered online). and the virtual production of Feel the Spirit for Shotgun Players and Colt Coeur. Her professional directing debut came in 2017 with Bondage by Star Finch, first produced at Alter Theatre and remounted at ACT's Costume Shop the following year. Other theaters for which she has directed include TheatreFirst, ACT MFA program, African American Shakespeare, the California Shakespeare Theatre's Summer Conservatory as well as assistant directing credits for the Berkeley Rep and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. As an award winning Bay Area actor, Ms. Carter's theater credits include Aurora Theatre, Cal Shakes, Marin Theatre, Lorraine Hansberry, TheatreWorks, Shotgun Players and The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep.

Production team:

Directed by Elizabeth Carter, featuring Monique Crawford, Juanita Harris, Julia Jackson, Brittany Nicole Sims and Success Ufondu. The production stage management is by Natalia Rivera Ramos, costume design by Tammy Berlin with lighting design by Stephanie Anne Johnson and sound design by Gregory Scharpen.

Central Works The Company

For over three decades Central Works has filled a special niche for theater artists in the San Francisco Bay Area, producing more new plays by local playwrights than any other company in the region. "The New Play Theater" utilizes three basic strategies: some are products of the Central Works Method, some are developed in the Central Works Writers Workshop, and some come to the company fully developed.

Central Works Method plays bring together writer, actors and director at the very outset of the playwriting process. In a supportive workshop environment, group research and collective brainstorming contribute to the entire development of the script.

Company co-directors Jan Zvaifler and Gary Graves remain steadfast in their mission to develop and produce new works. "New plays are the lifeblood of the theater," says Ms. Zvaifler. "We look at current events, politics, classic literature and traditional storytelling to bring our audience face to face with the challenges of our lives everyday, juxtaposed against the reflections of history, both recent and far-reaching. Given our current harrowing times, we all need an opportunity to pause, feel, think and act." The special intimacy of the Central Works theater offers this in a truly unique package.

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