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]]>The 4 finalists this season are: Aaron Mays with “Black Santa”, Prentiss Matthews III with “The Golden Loc” , Azure D. Osborne-Lee with “Crooked Parts” and Lori Roper with “The Sisters Grey”.
You can read more about those plays and playwrights here.
Before you make your way to the festival this summer in Detroit, you can stream plays, panels and additional content from the first 3 seasons for Free on the Obsidian Theatre Festival website! That’s right… one of the exciting things about the Obsidian Theatre Festival (and the Black Motherhood and Parenting New Play Festival), is that it is also an accessible play festival because of the streaming.
Visit the OTF website to join. OTF has 3 streaming options, and each month two featured pieces will be highlighted and shared on the festival’s website. Interested viewers can visit obsidianfest.org/watch and subscribe to any one of the three streaming packages: Slate, Noir and Black Pearl. Subscribers can enjoy Free access to all Featured and Educational Content with Slate. Noir is available for $1/ week with access to Featured and Educational Content plus a Free Gift. Noir+ is the annual version with a Discounted rate of $50/year. A Monthly subscription option is available with Black Pearl for $10/month. It includes advance invitations to Special Events and a Free Gift. Black Pearl+ is the Annual option at $100/year.
Watch an excerpt from “The Underground Color Wheel” by Cris Eli Blak which was part of Season 3 below!
ABOUT THE PLAY: In The Underground Color Wheel, we follow the twenty-year journey of painter Ivory Nichols. Despite coming from humble beginnings, Ivory doesn’t dream of being a good artist, he dreams of being a great artist. As his success grows and he begins to see his biggest dreams coming true, he finds the support of his “Ebony Mona Lisa,” Ashlyn, his best friend, Enzo, and his assistant, Lorelei. As time goes by and the pressures of success weigh heavier, the line between his art and his life begin to blur, putting everything on the line.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT: Cris Eli Blak’s work has been produced around the world. He is the winner of the Black Broadway Men Playwriting Initiative and is currently the artist in residence at the State University of New York – Oswego and the recipient of the Emerging Playwrights Fellowship from The Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre.
Blackboard Plays Founder and Detroit Native, Garlia Cornelia Jones and Blackboard Plays Associate AD, Amber D. Gray are both part of OTF. Amber is the Associate AD and General Manager for OTF, along with the Senior Producer for GhostLight Creative Productions. Garlia is also the Associate AD for OTF, as well as Senior Creative Producer. The collaborations work both ways! John Sloan III is the Senior Producer and Director of Film Production for the Black Motherhood and Parenting New Play Festival BMPFest. It’s all in the family, and we are thrilled to support each other.
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]]>The Black Motherhood and Parenting New Play Festival is a national digital tour of new work by Black parent playwrights. Following our Submission period last fall, our review committee selected 4 finalists and 2 semi-finalists. We hope that in the future we will have more Black father and Black Trans parent submissions as well and want to continue to uplift all who are a parent and caregiver.
*PAAL is a transgender and non-binary affirming space. “Mother” and “Motherhood” and their derivatives are used as inclusive terms for anyone who identifies with them.
During the winter as we began dreaming up this festival, we began thinking about partnering with Mothers leaders and parents around the country and timing it around Mother’s Day and Father’s Day in May and June of 2021. We reached out to 4 partner theaters. To be honest, there are so many more… BUT… this is only the FIRST YEAR…. so … we cannot wait to connect with you in the future.
Month by month and week by week, we reached out and introduced the project to a partner theatre, telling them about our new idea. It is now our pleasure to introduce you to our 4 partners….
Finally, stay tuned on the PAAL and Blackboard Social Media Channels to be introduced to more parent leaders throughout the festival. It is our goal to highlight how many Black parents are creating and just how many are Artistic Leaders. Our stories are vital #blackparentstoriesmattertoo We are so proud of this partnership with PAAL, who’s founder, Rachel Spencer Hewitt is a fierce mama and advocate for more things than we could list here!
~Garlia Cornelia Jones
Founder – Blackboard Plays
Producing Director – PAAL
ABOUT OREGON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL
Led by Artistic Director Nataki Garrett and Executive Director David Schmitz, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) was founded in 1935 and has grown from a three-day festival of two plays to a nationally renowned theatre arts organization that presents a rotating repertory season of up to 11 plays and musicals, including both classics and premieres. OSF productions have been presented on Broadway, internationally, and at regional, community, and high school theaters across the country. The Festival presents more than 800 performances annually and draws an audience of more than 400,000 to its home in Ashland, OR. In 2020, OSF launched O!, a new digital platform featuring performances, groundbreaking art, and mind-expanding discussions that can be accessed from anywhere in the world. O! attracts more than 10,000 views per month from audience members in over 50 countries. OSF invites and welcomes everyone, driven by a belief that the inclusion of diverse people, ideas, cultures, and traditions enriches not only the creation and experience of the work the organization presents onstage, but also our relationships with each other. OSF’s mission statement: “Inspired by Shakespeare’s work and the cultural richness of the United States, we reveal our collective humanity through illuminating interpretations of new and classic plays, deepened by the kaleidoscope of rotating repertory.”
ABOUT THE REPERTORY THEATRE ST. LOUIS
The Rep is the St. Louis region’s most honored live professional theatre company. Founded in 1966, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis is a fully professional theatrical operation belonging to the League of Resident Theatres, The League of St. Louis Theatres and is a constituent member of Theatre Communications Group, Inc., the national service organization for the not-for-profit professional theatre. Visit www.repstl.org for more, and find The Rep on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube
ABOUT BISHOP ARTS THEATRE CENTER
Nestled in the heart of Dallas’ Oak Cliff community, the Bishop Arts Theatre Center is an award-winning, multidisciplinary arts organization. Founded in 1993, the mission of the organization is to cultivate a diverse and vibrant arts community while creating opportunities for local and emerging artists through performances and education. BATC is the recipient of Theater Communications Group 2019 Peter Zeisler Memorial Award, several Irma P. Hall Theater Awards and most recently Dallas Business Journal Leaders In Diversity Award. The company offers a full season of theatre performances, jazz concerts, a speaker series, and year-round arts education programs impacting over 35,000 people nationwide.
ABOUT DETROIT PUBLIC THEATRE
Detroit Public Theatre produces nationally recognized plays and programs with world-class writers, directors,actors, and designers in the heart of Detroit’s cultural district. We create bold, relevant, work that illuminates the thrills, joys, and challenges of our shared humanity. For more information about Detroit Public Theatre, visit www.detroitpublictheatre.org or call (313) 974-7918.
Stay tuned for tickets to our festival, streaming at bmpfest.veeps.com between May 20 – June 17, 2021. In the meantime, support the BMP Fest on-line via our online campaign!
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]]>The post Submissions Open! The Black Motherhood and Parenting New Play Festival. appeared first on Blackboard Plays.
]]>We have been busy at work finding new ways to strengthen the work of Blackboard during this challenging time.
It is with great pleasure that we announce our partnership with the Parent Artist Advocacy League (PAAL) on a New Play Festival!
The Black Motherhood and Parenting New Play Festival is open to parents and caregivers that identify as Black. Blackboard’s mission has always been devoted to Black Playwrights and through this partnership with PAAL, we are more specifically looking to uplift the experiences of Black Parenthood.
*PAAL is a transgender and non-binary affirming space. Mother is an inclusive term for anyone who identifies with it.
Here are some details:
Submit 10 pages MAX of a play that you would develop into a One-Act.
Selected writers will develop a One-Act centering on The Black Parent and caregiving experience to premiere Digitally during the Spring of 2021.
- 4 finalists will be selected to develop their work with a director and digital production elements to premiere during the Spring of 2020.
- A 10-minute version of that play will be read at the PAAL Closing Summit in November.
- 2 awards will go to plays that engage with the theme of Black motherhood.
- 1 award will be for plays that explore transgender, non-binary, and other gender-specific experiences of parenting.
- 1 award will be for a submission that examines Black fatherhood.
Submissions Close on November 16, 2020 at 11:59pm EST.
We look forward to reading your submissions!
Questions or concerns: info@blackboardplays.com
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]]>The post REGISTER – Blackboard Virtual FEATURE: yOU CaN TAke ouT a PArEnT pLUS lOaN by Camille Thomas – Monday, May 25, 2020, 7:30pm on Zoom! appeared first on Blackboard Plays.
]]>With that….
Please JOIN US… on Zoom at 7:30pm on Monday, May 25, 2020
The “House” will open at 7:15pm.
yOU CaN TAke ouT a PArEnT pLUS lOaN
Written by and Featuring, Camille Thomas
Directed by Molly Bennett
ABOUT THE PLAY
Camille Thomas, a creator and activist, navigates a predominantly white institution in pursuit of an undergraduate degree through rising tuition costs, familial expectations, and her own personal aspirations. This one woman show merges monologues, slam poetry, and character defining moments from her past.
ABOUT CAMILLE
Camille Thomas (She/her/hers) hails from Detroit, Michigan and is a recent graduate of Michigan State University. Since moving to New York a year ago she has interned at Manhattan Theatre Club with their Stargate program, where she assisted in devising an off-Broadway production. Additionally she performed with American Slavery Project in their Unheard Voices series. Camille is overjoyed to present “yOU CaN TAke ouT a PArEnT pLUS lOaN” with Blackboard plays.
If you are able, we ask that you support Blackboard with a $10 Suggested Donation
You can also become a patron and support us all year long.
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