Woodie King, Jr.’s
NEW FEDERAL THEATRE
292 Henry Street; New York, NY; 10002-4816
Phone 212 353-1165 / Fax 212 353-1088
E-mail newfederal@aol.com/ Website www.newfederaltheatre.org
<p>Poitier Interview from L McGhee on Vimeo.</p>
For Immediate Release
Woodie King, Jr.’s New Federal Theatre
Presents an Unprecedented Month Long Reading
Series of
Great Black Plays and Playwrights
Woodie King, Jr.’s New Federal Theatre takes the innovative lead once more by producing an unprecedented month-long reading series of great Black plays by great Black playwrights! This ground breaking series, running every Friday through Monday in June, features many of Black theatre’s most popular and poignant dramas. Many of the plays, presented at the Castillo Theatre and the
National Black Theatre, have gone on to acclaimed success on other stages and won numerous awards.
Two Pulitzer Prize winning plays, Topdog/UnderDog (2002), an allegory by Suzan Lori Parks about competing brothers and No Place to Be Somebody (1970), by Charles Gordone, are on the series bill.
The first weekend features Ntozake Shange’s phenomenal choreopoem, For Colored Girls who have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf. This play went on to Broadway, garnered many awards and was adapted into a film. The award-winning actress from the original and Broadway productions, Trezana Beverly, will direct the reading. Also running the first weekend is James
deJongh’s Do Lord Remember Me, a musical extravaganza chronicling 400 years of trials and tribulations endured by African-American slaves. This reading will be directed by Reggie Life.
Other plays that will be read during this phenomenal reading series are: A Recent Killing by Amiri Baraka, Crumbs from the Table of Joy by Lynn Nottage, In the Wine Time by Ed Bullins, The Amen Corner by James Baldwin, Black Girl by j.e. Franklin, Flyin’ West by Pearl Cleage and Ceremonies in Dark Old Men by Lonne Elder. Some of the other renowned playwrights represented in the varied and diverse line up are Phillip Hayes Dean, Richard Wesley, Bill Harris, Alice Childress, Wesley Brown, and Laurence Holder. Directors participating in the series include TalvinWilks, Clinton Turner Davis, Dean Irby, Elizabeth Van Dyke, Nathan George, Marjorie Moon, and Reggie Life. The plays will be read by illustrious casts of actors.
Half of the readings will take place Fridays at 7:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the Castillo Theatre, located at 543 West 42nd Street. The other half will be read at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Sundays and at 7:30 p.m. on Mondays at National Black Theatre located at 2031 Fifth Avenue. The readings will be held throughout the month of June, 2010.
You won’t want to miss this phenomenal and historic event! See the attached schedule and get your tickets ($10 each) today! They are available at www.theatremania.com (866-811-4111) or call New Federal Theatre at 212-353-1176 for further information.