THE SIMARABOO TWO to Have Staged Reading at Asolo Rep/FSU'S Asolo Conservatory

Award winning actor, playwright and producer, Phillip Gregory Burke, will have a reading of his latest play, "The Simaraboo Two," in Sarasota, Florida, at Asolo Repertory Theater and Florida State University's Asolo Conservatory, on December 13, at 7:30 p.m., as part of their inaugural New Works Play Lab.

"I wanted to write a play about the Maroon communities formed because of colonization of the Americas, in places like the Great Dismal Swamp, where populations of African and Indigenous peoples creolized their diverse cultures into one," Burke said in a statement. "I love ancestry and genealogy and this play with music and dance, is a lyrical love letter to the past, written in the present, and will hopefully be preserved in our futures."

The play is the first in a 10-play cycle by Burke examining the sociology of The African Diaspora.

Marcus Denard Johnson, Conservatory Director at FSU/Asolo Conservatory, believes that the inaugural program will "give our MFA acting students experience with developing a new full-length play, working alongside professional playwrights and directors, and culminate in a staged reading."