July 11, 2011 at 7:30 pm

Lift

Written by: Walter Mosley

When a catastrophic event traps two co-workers in an elevator, a bond of incredible intimacy is forged between two otherwise mismatched souls. Suspended by a wire with no one but each other for solace, master story teller Walter Mosley weaves a tense new drama about the ethos of our times, seared with issues of race, culture, and class.

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The Audubon Ballroom at The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. 3940 Broadway, New York, NY 10032

Future Classics Reading | June 15, 2011 at 7pm

Safe House
Written by: Keith Josef Adkins
(in partnership with The New Black Fest, www.thenewblackfest.org)

The Audubon Ballroom at The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. 3940 Broadway, New York, NY 10032

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1843. Kentucky. Addison Pedigrew is a free man of color who has big dreams of opening a shoe business. His family also secretly helps fugitives flee to Liberia. When a young woman knocks on his door seeking refuge, Addison's loyalty to race and family finally clashes with his unrelenting desire for success.

Keith Josef Adkins is a playwright and screenwriter. His plays include SUGAR and NEEDLES (slated for the June 2011 Sunshine Series at Epic Theater – NYC), THE LAST SAINT ON SUGAR HILL (currently at Greenhouse Theater by MPAACT Theater Company - Chicago), THE FINAL DAYS OF NEGRO-VILLE (slated for July 2011 Represent Festival at A.C.T. – Seattle), THE DANGEROUS, a commission from The Public Theater, HOLLIS MUGLEY'S ONLY WISH (NYC Hip Hop Theater Festival 2007 - NYC, Intersection for the Arts – San Francisco), FAREWELL MISS COTTON (Black Dahlia Theater, 2006 – Los Angeles), PITBULLS, (Bay Area Playwrights Festival2006- Honorable Mention), COBRA NECK, ON THE HILLS OF BLACK AMERICA, SWEET HOME, among others.

His awards include a 2010 Gateway commission from the Obie Awardwinning Epic Theatre, a 2010 A Contemporary Theatre/Hansberry Project Commission, a 2009 New Professional Theater Playwright Award, a 2009 New York State Council on the Arts playwriting grant, a 2008 Kesselring Fellowship nomination, Richard Sherwood Distinguished Emerging Theater Artist Award, a Van Lier Fellowship with New York Theater Workshop, and a Sloan Science Foundation Playwriting Grant. Keith has been published in Humana Festival 2003 – The Complete Plays, Playscripts, and The Best Women's Stage Monologues 2005.

Keith worked as a TV writer on the CW hit comedy GIRLFRIENDS. Hisfeature film script THE DISAPPEARING is in development with SimonSays Entertainment (2010 Sundance's Night Catches Us with Anthony Mackie). Keith also worked as a story editor on the feature film Gun Hill Road, which premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

He has blogged on culture and the arts for TheRoot.com andhas made radio appearances on NPR, BBC Worldservice Radio, among others.

In 2010, Keith co-founded The New Black Fest, a festival of new and provocative playwriting, music and discussion from the African Diaspora. He serves as co-artistic director. In 2011, Keith also co-founded the American Slavery Project, a five-year series of plays and conversations around the topic of slavery and the Civil War to complement the Civil War's sesquicentennial.

Future Classics Reading | June 6, 2011 at 7pm

Voices from Harper's Ferry
Written by: Dominic Taylor
(in partnership with The New Black Fest, www.thenewblackfest.org)

The Audubon Ballroom at The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. 3940 Broadway, New York, NY 10032

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In 1859, twenty-one men, including five free Black men, attacked the arsenal at Harpers Ferry along with the legendary John Brown. This exciting new play probes into the lives of the five Black men who fought alongside Brown, and more importantly, Osborne P. Anderson, the only Black man who survived to tell the tale of Harpers Ferry.

Cast
Osborne P Anderson - Reg E. Cathey
Dangerfield Newby - Danny Johnson
Shields Green - Brandon Gill
Lewis Leary/Mr.Goodrich/Officer 2 - Keldrick Crowder
John Copeland/Officer1 - Keith Chappelle

Dominic Taylor is a writer and director.  His writing includes the plays Wedding Dance and Personal History, both published by Playscripts.com. His play UpCity Service(s)is published by Broadway Play Publishing. It is also included in an anthology entitled SEVEN MORE DIFFERENT PLAYS edited by Mac Wellman. His latest play, I WISH YOU LOVE, was staged at Penumbra Theatre in April 2011 and will be staged at The Kennedy Center in June 2011 and at Hartford Stage in July 2011.

Dominic has been commissioned by The Goodman, Steppenwolf and New York Theatre Worskhop, among others.  He has been awarded a series of grants and fellowships, most recently a residency at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center, in Bellagio Italy.

Dominic is an alumni member of New Dramatists. He earned his Bachelors and Master of Fine Arts degrees from Brown University. He is a Board Member of the Givens Foundation for African American Literature as well as an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota. He is also the Associate Artistic Director at Penumbra Theatre Company where he spearheads the OKRA New Play Development Program.

His directing credits include the opera FRESH FAUST at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, THE NEGROES BURIAL GROUND at the Kitchen, N.Y.C., DESTINY and UPPA CREEK at Dixon Place, and RIDE THE RHTHYM in the Hip-Hop Theatre Festival. At the University of Minnesota, he has directed The WIZ, NIGHT TRAIN TO BOLINA and EXECUTION OF JUSTICE. This season he also directed BLACK NATIVITY at Penumbra Theatre Company.

Future Classics Reading | May 25, 2011 at 7pm

Gypsy & The Bully Door
Written by: Nina Angela Mercer
Directed by: Eric Ruffin

The Audubon Ballroom at The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. 3940 Broadway, New York, NY 10032

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Sara Josephine James—hairstylist, fortune-teller, aspiring rock star, and member of the "We Bomb Truth Over Lies" graffiti rebel movement—is haunted. The City eats its residents & exiles their spirits to her apartment, forcing Sara to test the true weight of freedom and to pay the ultimate price to get there—her "self."

Nina Angela Mercer is a multi genre writer and performing artist. She has studied at Howard University, American University, and University of Maryland. She is the Executive Director of Ocean Ana Rising, Inc.(OAR) – an arts education non profit organization (www.oarinc.org) based in New York City and Washington, D.C. Much of her work is dedicated to healing trauma through artistic expression as a cultural arts activist and advocate through OAR's Safe Spaces arts outreach workshops. Her play Gutta Beautiful was staged in Washington, D.C. at The Warehouse Theatre (2005) and at The Woolly Mammoth Theatre (2006), and in New York City at Abrons Arts Center/Henry Street Settlement by AUDELCO award-winning Woodie King Jr's New Federal Theatre Company (2007). Gutta Beautiful will be staged in Trinidad by Griot Productions in 2011. Her one woman performance piece, Racing My Girl, Sally was read at The First National Conference of Women of Color Writing Plays in Chicago in August of 2008, where she was also a panelist and Fellow. Her choreopoem Itagua Meji was staged at The Brecht Forum in February 2010, accompanied by dancer/choreographer Kimani Fowlin and percussionist Matt "Swamp Guinee" Miller. Itague Meji has also been performed at Rutgers University-Newark (March 2010) and at the Alternate ROOTS Annual Meeting in Arden, North Carolina (August 2010). In July 2011, her new play Gypsy & The Bully Door will receive a full production during DC's Capital Fringe Festival. She is also the co-curator and co-founder of the "Women on Wednesday Art & Culture Project (WoW)" with her creative partner, Ebony Noelle Golden. WoW combines a performance series at The Brecht Forum with community art residencies in NYC to celebrate the artistic expressions of girls and women of the African Diaspora (www.wowproject.yolasite.com). Currently, Mrs. Mercer teaches at Medgar Evers College (CUNY) in Brooklyn, NY.

Eric Ruffin's production of A Raisin in the Sun will play at Crossroads Theatre April 14-May 1, 2011. His most recent directing credits include The Old Settler for The African Continuum Theatre Company, Gutta Beautiful at New Federal Theatre, New Kid for Imagination Stage, In The Blood, Antigone, In Arabia We'd All Be Kings, Jesus Hopped the "A" Train and Our Lady of 121st Street for the Rutgers Theatre Company, the critically acclaimed New Jersey premiere of Topdog /Underdog for Luna Stage, Cut Flowers at the Ira Aldridge Theater, Public Ghosts/ Private Stories at the George Street Playhouse, Romeo and Juliet at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and The Piano Lesson for The African Globe in Newark, NJ. He has also directed My Children! My Africa! at Luna Stage, Waiting to be Invited for The Black Theatre Troupe, and The Story for the Howard Players.

He founded "The Acting Studio" at the Newark School of the Arts, a professional training program in acting, and was the founder and Artistic Director for the Newark Youth Ensemble, Newark, NJ. Additionally he has served as the Artistic Director for The New Jersey Performing Arts Center's Young Writer Workshop and has taught acting and performance theory courses at various schools including Howard University, Duke Ellington School of the Arts, and Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts.

Mr. Ruffin holds a B.F.A. in Theatre Arts from Howard University and an MFA in Directing from Rutgers University. He is a Society for Stage Directors and Choreographers Associate, a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect and a 1999 recipient of the New York Drama League Directing Fellowship. He has also been honored with a Shakespeare Theatre Acting Fellowship and the Princess Grace Grant for Dance.

Future Classics Reading | May 4, 2011 at 7pm

Kingdom
Written by: David Emerson Toney

Starring: Ian Eaton*, Luke Forbes*, Susan Heyward*, Jordan Mahome*

Stage Managed by: Joan H. Cappello*
*member of Actors Equity Association.

The Audubon Ballroom at The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. 3940 Broadway, New York, NY 10032

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Kingdom, an urban meditation on Shakespeare's Richard III, is set above a barbeque joint in Cleveland in 1968. Three brothers are at odds over who will win the family business. When a young woman enters the picture in order to produce an heir, the rivalry turns into complete chaos.

David Emerson Toney's playwriting credits include Kingdom, The Soul Collector, Elysian Fields, Coming Home, and The Last of Midnight. His play Kingdom was a finalist for the 2004 Theodore Ward Prize. Kingdom was also a part of the 2005-2006 season at the ETA Creative Foundation theatre in Chicago and was nominated for the Helen Hayes/Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play or Musical for 2005, stemming from its production at the African Continuum Theatre Company. His film and television writing credits include staff writer for Fox's In Living Color, screenwriter for New Line Cinema's House Party III, head writer and story editor for ESPN, Sony Wonder and Jumbo Pictures. His animation credits include head writer, story editor and development for the company Abrams Gentile Entertainment and the French company Gaumount Entertainment. In 1995 Mr. Toney was the co-winner of the "Script to Screen" screenplay competition, sponsored by the Independent Feature Project and Writers Guild of America for his screenplay Sticks and Stones.

Future Classics Reading | APR. 20, 2011 at 7pm

Blood-bound and Tongue-tied
Written by: Jacqueline E. Lawton

The Audubon Ballroom at The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. 3940 Broadway, New York, NY 10032

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A depression-era adaptation of the Oedipus Rex myth, Blood-bound and Tongue-tied follows the astonishing journey of Jocasta, a black woman who passes for white and shuns her entire past when she falls in love with, Laius, a successful white politician. With the birth of their son, Oedipus, Jocasta's lies instigate a wave of bloodshed and carnage on the African American community.

Jacqueline E. Lawton received her MFA in Playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin, where she was a James A. Michener Fellow. She participated in the Kennedy Center's Playwrights' Intensive (2002) and World Interplay (2003). Her plays include: Anna K; Blood-bound and Tongue-tied; Deep Belly Beautiful; A Delicate People; The Devil's Sweet Water; Ira Aldridge: the African Roscius (National Portrait Gallery commission); Lions of Industry, Mothers of Invention (Discovery Theater commission); and Mad Breed (Active Cultures commission). Her plays have been developed and received workshop readings at the Kennedy Center's Page to Stage Festival (sponsored by Shakespeare Theatre Company); Rorschach Theater Company's Magic in Rough Spaces, Round House Theatre; and Woolly Mammoth Theater Company (with support from Arena Stage). Ms. Lawton is a three time semi-finalist for the Playwright's Center PlayLabs and a two time recipient of the Young Artist Program Grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities for Playwriting. Most recently, Ms. Lawton's play, Ira Aldridge: the African Rocius, starring Avery Brooks, received public readings at the National Portrait Gallery. Currently, she is working on two new plays, Bend and Sway, Don't Break and Love Brother's Serenade. She is also a professional dramaturg and member of LMDA.

Future Classics Reading | FEB. 23, 2011 at 7pm

Sweet Maladies
Written and Directed by: Zakiyyah Alexander
Stage Managed by: Joan H. Cappello

The Audubon Ballroom at The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. 3940 Broadway, New York, NY 10032

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It's been two years since slavery was abolished in the South and three recently freed slave girls stuck in 'the big house' play the only game they know: history. But what happens when the game turns sticky sweet and deadly?

Zakiyyah Alexander is a writer and actor. She is the author of: 10 Things to Do Before I Die (Second Stage Uptown), Sick? (Summer Play Festival), The Etymology of Bird (Hip Hop Theater Festival, Providence Black Repertory Theatre), Blurring Shine (Market Theater, Johannesburg), Sweet Maladies (Rucker Theatre), something new, You Are Here, and The Focus. Her work has been seen and/or developed at: WET, A Contemporary Theater (ACT), Bristol Riverside Theater, Philadelphia Theater Company, The Humana Festival, Penumbra Theater, The Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Rattlestick Theater, Hartford Stage, 24/7 Theater Company, the Hip Hop Theater Festival, Vineyard Theater, the Women's Project, Gale GAtes et. al, La Mama Theatre, Greenwich Street Theater, etc. Awards include: Helen Merrill Emerging Playwriting Award, ACT New Play Award/Lorainne Hanseberry Prize, Stellar Network Award, Theodore Ward Prize, Jackson Phelan Award, Drama League New Directors/New Works, New Professional Theatre Playwriting Award, Young Playwrights Inc.,etc. Her work is included in the current edition of New Monologues for Women by Women, featured in the book of essays, Girls who like Boys who like Boys, and Game on: The Humana Festival '08 Anthology. A resident member of New Dramatists; past residencies and fellowships include: EST's Youngblood, the Women's Project Writer's Lab, the Women's Work Project, and the Drama League. She has received commissions from: Second Stage, The Philadelphia Theater Company and the Children's Theater of Minneapolis. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama (MFA in playwriting); currently on faculty at Bard College where she teaches undergraduate playwriting. Zakiyyah is a native New Yorker and was raised in Queens and Brooklyn.

Joan H. Cappello* is a stage manager. Her credits include—The Working Theater: Stefanie Zadravec's Honey Brown Eyes, OyamO's Killa Dilla, Mike Batistick's Port Authority Throwdown; The Talking Band: Ellen Maddow's Panic! Euphoria! Blackout; New Dramatists: Workshop of Sarah Ruhl's adaptation of Orlando, by Virginia Woolf; PlayTime Retreat 2008, 2009; Michael Weller's Beast at New York Theater Workshop; Katori Hall's Hoodoo Love at The Cherry Lane Theater; Haruki Murakami's Wind Up Bird Chronicle at 3LD Art and Technology Center, to name a few. Also, 15 productions for The Classical Theatre of Harlem from 2002-2007 including tours to Germany and Miami, and currently the SM for their Future Classics Reading Series. Regional: Rose and Kimberly Akimbo for The Schoolhouse Theater. Member of Actor's Equity Association.

Future Classics Reading | FEB. 16, 2011 at 7pm

Watch Night
by Laiona Michelle
Directed by: Bridget Beirne

The Audubon Ballroom at The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. 3940 Broadway, New York, NY 10032

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Watch Night.1960. A small Alabama town divided by a double lynching, compromises the pure and simple love between two teenagers on opposite sides of the tracks.

Laiona Michelle is an actor and writer. Her performance credits include—Off Broadway: The Black Nativity, One, and Whatever Man. Regional: Constant Star (Recipient of the 2005 NAACP Hollywood Award and 2004 Barrymore Award). Dinah Was, Merrimack Rep. Theatre (Nominated- Best Leading Actress in a Musical by the IRNE Awards), Yellowman, Arena Stage (Nominated, Outstanding Lead Actress by Helen Hayes Awards); New Repertory Theatre (Nominated, Best Supporting Actress by the IRNE Awards); Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Westport Country Playhouse, Delaware Theatre Company, Laguna Playhouse, Syracuse Theatre Company, Florida Stage Theatre, Virginia Stage Company, The Shakespeare Theatre Company, among others. International: Celebrate the Possibilities, for the Winter Olympics in Seoul, Korea. Television/Film: Law & Order, All My Children, and LIFT. Education: MFA, Brandeis University, 2000.

Future Classics Reading | Nov. 17, 2010 at 7pm

Muddy The Water
by Darren Canady

The Audubon Ballroom at The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. 3940 Broadway, New York, NY 10032

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Directed by: Martin Damien Wilkins

New Hope Baptist Church, a prominent and deeply traditional community of believers, is scandalized when one of its ministers is caught with his pants down in a local park notorious for cruising. The minister’s arrest and subsequent disappearance throws the New Hope fellowship into turmoil. Forced to confront their secrets and prejudices, New Hope's members begin an epic battle between the old and new orders.

Featuring: Richard Abrams*, Carl Cofield*, Nikiya Mathis*, Lakisha Michelle May*, Tina Fabrique*, Brenda Pressley*, Heather Alicia Simms*, Curtis Wiley*, and Michelle Wilson*

Darren Canady’s False Creeds was named the winner of the Alliance Theater's Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition.  His work has been seen at the Eugene O’Neill Playwriting Conference, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Quo Vadimus Arts’ ID America Festival, the Fremont Centre Theatre, Chicago’s Congo Square Theatre, Old Vice Theatre (London).  He was a fellow in the Juilliard School's Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program, and a member of Primary Stages’ Dorothy Strelsin New Writers Group.  He currently teaches playwriting at the University of Kansas.  Mr. Canady holds a BA in Creative Writing from Carnegie Mellon University and an MFA from New York University.

Martin Damien Wilkins has directed work at the Toronto Centre for the Arts and in Ars Nova’s A.N.T. Fest, NYMF, and the Tisch School’s Freeplay Festival.  He has served as an Associate Director for Colman Domingo and Charles Randolph-Wright and has assisted Wendy C. Goldberg, Molly Smith, Tazewell Thompson, and Kate Whoriskey.  He has directed readings for Primary Stages, the Lark Play Development Center, and the BE Company.  He has been the recipient of Arena Stage’s Allen Lee Hughes Directing Fellowship and a Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation Observership.  Mr. Wilkins is a proud member of The Movement Theater Company and is an Associate Member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

Future Classics Reading | June 16 , 2010 at 7pm

VSOP (Very Special Old Preserve)
By Laurence Holder

The Schomburg Center 515 Malcolm X Boulevard at 135th Street (2 or 3 train to 135th St.) ADMISSION IS FREE

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Starring and codirected by: Mansoor Najee-ullah and Rony Clanton

Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell… giants of bebop… the two jazz pianist… in the midst of the oddities and peculiarities of their relationship… VSOP takes an odyssey to the nightclub where they will play.

Laurence Holder is the author of many jazz plays and VSOP is the prequel to MonknBud, a three-character play featuring Monk, Nellie Monk and Bud, and the one-character Monk, which explores Monk's inner thoughts about what he was doing in the music.

Other jazz plays include Hot Fingers (about Jelly Roll Morton), Scott Joplin, Bird (about Charlie Parker), Ethel Waters, The Miles Davis Quintet, The Gospel According To Max Roach, Hot Snow (about Valiada Snow) and Swee'Pea and The Duke (about Lena Horne, Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn).

Mr. Holder has won writing awards for Political Theatre, AUDELCO Awards for M: the Mandela Saga (about Winnie and Nelson Mandela) and for When The Chickens Came Home To Roost (about Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X). He runs Writing Workshops for the New Federal Theatre and The Negro Ensemble Company.

Mansoor Najee-ullah is thankful to God and humbled by the opportunity to perform and co-direct a play by such a stellar playwright as Mr. Laurence Holder. Mansoor holds a BA in Theatre and Communication from Queens College/CUNY, an MA in Theatre Education from New York University and a Certificate of Advance Graduate Study in Educational Administration and Supervision from the Leadership Academy at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. He is now the Director of Academic Foundations at Hudson County Community College. He has taught in the Theatre and Speech Departments at the University of South Carolina, Pace College, Bronx Community College/CUNY, Medgar Evers College/CUNY and the Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY. He has directed theatre at New York University, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Brown University and many Off-Off-Broadway theatres and community theatres in New York City. Within the New York City Department Education, he taught Drama and Social Studies for thirteen years at William J. O'Shea Middle School. In the area of arts administration he was the District Arts Coordinator for District 9 Bronx and the Regional Arts Supervisor for Region 10 in Manhattan. He performed on Broadway in The Might Gents, G.R. Point, Mule Bone and Sweet Bird of Youth starring Lauren Ball. He performed Off-Broadway at Joseph Papp's Public Theatre in The Forbidden City, at Manhattan Theatre Club in The Sirens and In The Wine Time, and at the Ensemble Stage Theatre where he created the role of Marvin X in Salaam, Huey Newton, Salaam directed by Woodie King Jr. On television he has appeared in Oz, Guilding Light, As The World Turns and All My Children.

Rony Clanton marked his Off-Off-Broadway directorial debut with Amiri Braka's The Toilet. He originated the role of Foots in the original Off-Broadway production. Hampton is a product of The Henry Street Settlement, Harlem Youth Opportunity Unlimited (HARYOU Act) and Robert Hooks Group Theatre Workshop. His films appearances include The Cool World, The Education Of Sonny Carson, The Killing Zone, Def By Temptation, Rappin, Juice, Devil's Advocate, and The Third Miracle. Mr. Clanton is a recipient of the TOR Award and a lifetime member of the Actors Studio.  

Future Classics Reading | April 21 , 2010 at 7pm

The Trazana Beverley Project: King Lear
By William Shakespeare

The Schomburg Center 515 Malcolm X Boulevard at 135th Street (2 or 3 train to 135th St.) ADMISSION IS FREE

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Directed by Trazana Beverley

Featuring Trazana Beverley as King Lear With Beverley Prentice, Georgia Southern, Robin LeMon, Sheldon Woodley, Kim Sullivan, Jarde, Lelund Durond Thompson, Arthur Barto, Brian Coats, Gabe Portunando, Leon Brown, Don Arrup and Chris Triana

            Fool:   Come hither, mistress.  Is your name   

             Goneril?

            Lear:   She cannot deny it.

            Fool:   Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint-stool. 

TRAZANA BEVERLEY won the 1976 Tony Award for her performance in the Broadway production of for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf.  She is recognized as one of our country’s great actresses and is also a master acting teacher, director and singer.  Highlights of her distinguished acting career are Mother Courage, A Raisin In The Sun, Flyin’ West, Peer Gynt, Constant Star, Macbeth, Medea and King Lear.  She has appeared in the films Beloved, Resurrection and Carolina Skeletons and Margaret and the Saturday Night Ladies. In addition, she is creator of the one-woman show The Spirit Moves and her cabaret act The Music In Me.  Her recent regional directing credits include Spell#7, Native Son, In The Blood, From The Mississippi Delta, Pecong, The Trojan Woman, Salome, Yellowman, The Bluest Eye and Blue Door.  Her work has been sighted in American Theater Magazine and Towards a Poor Theatre.  Among her honors are Mademoiselle Woman Of The Year, The Audelco Recognition Award and The Theater World Award.

Did you know that your donations help pay the actors? Please consider a recurring donation of only $10 a month! A small donation indeed makes a big difference. 

Future Classics Reading | MARCH 17 , 2010 at 7pm

Cherokee Rose
By Leslie Lee

The Schomburg Center 515 Malcolm X Boulevard at 135th Street (2 or 3 train to 135th St.) ADMISSION IS FREE

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Cast: Count Stovall, Pawnee Sills, Linda Powell, Justice Pratt, Justine Hall, Natasha Williams, Jamal McCree, Ralph McCain, Elizabeth Rolston, and Nancy McDoniel

Directed by Clinton Turner Davis

In the waning days of his life, the patriarch of an affluent African American family, in order to bring closure to a sordid moment in his youth involving a teenage Native American girl and her family, must decide whether to reveal this lingering blemish to his children and bring possible shame to a legacy of huge success, triumph and honor.

Leslie Lee is a Pennsylvania native whose plays include Black Eagles, The First Breeze of Summer (Obie, Outer Critics Circle Award, Tony nomination), Elegy to a Down Queen, Colored People's Time, The War Party, Between Now and Then. Lee’s list of screenplays includes The First Breeze of Summer, Almos' a Man, Go Tell It on the Mountain (American Playhouse),Summer Father.  He is the recipient of an NEA grant in playwriting, Rockefeller Foundation Playwriting Grant, Shubert Foundation Playwriting Grant, New York State Council on the Arts grant for playwriting, and playwriting fellowship at the O'Neill Playwrights Conference.

Future Classics Reading | FEB 17 , 2010 at 7pm

Follow Me To Nellie's
By Dominique Morisseau

The Schomburg Center 515 Malcolm X Boulevard at 135th Street (2 or 3 train to 135th St.) ADMISSION IS FREE

Cast: Nellie-Lynda Gravatt, Na Rose-Kelly McCreary, Ossie-Warner Miller, Rollo-Michael Genet, Ree Ann-Michelle Wilson, Marla-Nyahale Allie,  Sandy-Andrea Patterson,  Tom Jr.-Adam Couperthwaite, Stage Dir.-LaVonda Elam

Directed by Kamilah Forbes

If you follow the footsteps to Nellie Jackson’s Whorehouse, you may discover a hopeless blues singer looking for a way out, a brave freedom fighter looking for a way in, and a house of wounded women, looking for a new day. In 1955 Mississippi, during the reign of segregation, to get what they’re looking for may cost everything they have…

Dominique Morisseau Detroit native, is a playwright, actress, and arts advocate for social justice. Her list of plays includes: Black at Michigan (Cherry Lane Studio), Retrospect For Life (Hip Hop Theatre Festival), Follow Me To Nellie’s (the Standard), and The Emcee Inquisition (Shooting Star Theatre). She is the recipient of two NAACP Image Awards, a Jane Chambers Award Honor, a Wendy Wasserstein nomination, and a current member of the Public Theatre’s Emerging Writer’s Group.

Future Classics Reading | Jan 20 , 2010 at 7pm

RED ROOSTER
By Pia Wilson
Directed by Justin Emeka

The Schomburg Center 515 Malcolm X Boulevard at 135th Street (2 or 3 train to 135th St.) ADMISSION IS FREE

CAST: Crystal A. Dickenson (BROKE-OLOGY), Arthur French (DIVIDING THE ESTATE), Erwin Thomas (SOUTHERN PROMISES), Marjorie Johnson (HOO-DOO LOVE), Ron Simons (MARAT/SADE at CTH), and Daveed Audel.

Joyce, a Hurricane Katrina refugee from New Orleans' Ninth Ward, is living in New Jersey with an elderly man named George.  Joyce and George have an agreement:  She'll take care of him and he'll eventually sign his house over to her as payment.  All is going well for them until George's son comes home and wants the house for himself.  

Pia Wilson (playwright) received a 2009 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and is a member of the 2008 Emerging Writers Group at The Public Theater. Full-lengths: Red Rooster (Public Theater, Emerging Writers Spotlight Series); Tree of Life (Red Room Theater); The River Pure for Healing (2008 Resilience of the Spirit play festival)  Short plays and one-acts:  Dressed In Your Dreams (Stagecrafter's New Works Play Festival); Whatever and Delicately (Groove Mama Ink; Looking Glass Theatre, Spring 2008 Writer/Director Forum);  The Rooster Never Crows (OneHeart Productions).

Future Classics Reading | may 20 , 2009 at 7pm

DIANA SANDS PROJECT
By PJ Gibson
Directed by Reggie Life

The Schomburg Center - 515 Malcolm X Boulevard at 135th Street (2 or 3 train to 135th St.)
ADMISSION IS FREE

When the American actress Diana Sands died in 1973, she left behind a remarkable body of work that spanned stage, screen and television. Ms. Sands played Benethea opposite Sidney Portier in the seminal film A Raisin in the Sun and appeared in groundbreaking TV shows such as I Spy and Julia. As a stage actress she was an original member of the acting company at Lincoln Center, and she broke the then very powerful color barrier in live theatre, playing roles such as Joan of Arc and appearing opposite Alan Alda in The Owl and the Pussycat on Broadway in 1964. Simply put, she achieved a transformational career in the history of American acting. Yet few people today know her real story, perhaps because she was a figure 20 years ahead of her time, living and working well before the terms “color blind” and “non-traditional” casting became common parlance in the theatre industry. Noted author P.J. Gibson (Daughters of the Moon) has been commissioned by CTH to bring this story to the stage. This is the first dramatic treatment of Ms Sands’s life and work, and it is being created with the participation of Ms. Kathryn Leary, her first cousin and head of The Diana Sands Project, an organization dedicated to keeping her memory alive.

P.J. Gibson (playwright) has written over thirty plays, including Long Time Since Yesterday, which had had upwards of sixty productions. Her other works have been presented throughout the United States, Europe and Africa. A published writer, Ms. Gibson also has numerous poems and short stories to her credit. She has been the recipient of many honors including the Bushfire Theatre of Performing Arts Seventh Annual "Walk of Fame" where her signature and hand print are imprinted in their Sidewalk of Fame, a Shubert Fellowship, a playwriting grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, two prestigious Audelco Awards, two PSC-CUNY Research Award grants and six playwriting commissions. She has been an Artist in Residence at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She holds a proclamation from the city of Trenton, New Jersey and a Key to the City from Indianapolis, Indiana.

Future Classics Reading | April 15, 2009 at 7pm

PRODIGAL BLOOD
By Jaymes Jorsling
Directed by J. Kyle Manzay

The Schomburg Center - 515 Malcolm X Boulevard at 135th Street (2 or 3 train to 135th St.)
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The son/father relationship is extremely complex. Pride, shame, hope and reflection, reverberate, especially if absenteeism has separated that father and son. At ten years old Mau Mau “Moe” Booster witnessed the FBI's Covert Action Programs Against American Citizens (COINTELPRO) gun down his mother. His father Mason (a leader in the Black Panther movement) fled into exile after murderously retaliating against the police and their informant. Having seen Panther fearlessness and rebellion, in addition to rampant drug abuse, recklessness and adultery, Moe has grown into a whirling dervish of anger and confusion. Baggage and secrets that have wreaked havoc on this family come to a combustible head as Mason Booster returns from 20 years of exile to confront his former comrades.

Jaymes Jorsling (playwright) is a native New Yorker with a Bachelors degree (magna cum laude) from CUNY- City College of New York. His screenplays, Bequeathals and Color Blues, have been Sundance Finalists; won at the San Francisco Black Film Festival, and have currently generated interest from several major film production companies. His plays include How Does It Taste, Fake Awakenings, Am I My Brother’s Keeper, Crisis, Trippin’ Over Roots (Classical Theater of Harlem’s 2006/2007 reading series) and Prodigal Blood (Eugene O’Neill 2008 National Playwright’s Conference finalist). As an actor Jaymes has done many voice-overs; and recent performance credits include Law & Order, The Wire, Ty Jones’ Emancipation (Classical Theater of Harlem) and Danny Hoch’s Till the Break of Dawn (Culture Project).

Future Classics Reading | MARCH 18, 2009 at 7pm

THE MASTER SHEPHERD(S) OF HOOKYJOOK
By Yusef Miller
Directed by Lydia Fort

The Schomburg Center - 515 Malcolm X Boulevard at 135th Street (2 or 3 train to 135th St.)
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The Master Shepherd(s) of Hookyjook is a comedic allegory. Literally, the setting is post 9/11 in the fictitious world of Hookyjook. Hookyjook nears destruction as its melodic clock winds down. Cashyabuk, the Master Shepherd, has devised a plan using his well-taught Black sheep. Fearful his brother Doboy, once Master Shepherd, might destroy his plans, Cashyabuk relegates Doboy to standing watch at their gate. But Doboy yearns for a greater purpose. Cashyabuk and Doboy’s quests collide. Will the Mama Black Sheep return in time to save them and Hookyjook? This play serves to pit intuition against reason; leaving the audience to question the functionality of its separate purposes in today’s complex world.

Yusef Miller (playwright) is a Lila Acheson Wallace Playwright Fellow at Juilliard. He is the recipient of the LeComte Du Nouy Prize for excellence in playwrighting. He is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc. Currently, Yusef is attempting to publish his memoir Fight and produce his plays. Theatre/Dance credits include, Off-Broadway: The Blacks: A Clown Show, The Classic Stage Company; Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death, The Classical Theatre of Harlem; The Suitcase Trilogy, Ma-Yi Theater Company; Blue, Cincinnati Playhouse/Geva Theatre; Polk County, Arena Stage; New York Theatre Workshop Playreading Retreat, Director’s Lab 2001, 20002, 2008 Lincoln Center Theater; Thoroughly Modern Millie, LaJolla Playhouse; Boesman and Lena (written/directed Athol Fugard), The Colored Museum, Twelfth Night, Polaroid Stories, Galbraith Theatre (UCSD); Livin’ in the Garden, A Christmas Carol, Oo-Bla-Dee, Ti Jean and His Brothers, Let’s Talk About AIDS and A Woman Called Truth, Alliance Theatre Company. Television credit include, The Education of Max Bickford. Education: BA, English, Morehouse College; Certificate of Acting, Alliance Theater Professional Acting Intern Company; MFA, Theatre and Dance, University of California, San Diego. Memberships: The Actors’ Fund, The Schomburg Society, AEA, SAG.

Future Classics Reading | Feb 18, 2009 at 7pm

JUILUS X
By Al Letson, Jr.
Directed by Tracy Jack

The Schomburg Center - 515 Malcolm X Boulevard at 135th Street (2 or 3 train to 135th St.)
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A swift and enthralling political thriller, Julius X portrays a life-and-death struggle for power in 1960s Harlem. Inspired by Shakespeare’s tragedy of Julius Caesar, Julius X is set in Harlem in 1965, and amalgamates the lives of Julius Caesar and slain civil rights leader Malcolm X. Playwright/performance poet Al Letson, Jr. weaves the text of Shakespeare with bits of African mythology, the history of the Civil Rights movement, slam poetry, and hip-hop beats into something completely new. The poetry ranges from Shakespearean soliloquies to slam poems utilizing the entire cast. Alive with hip hop dance, performance poetry and stunning actions, Julius X investigates the intoxicating effects of power and the danger of pride.

Al Letson (playwright) established himself as a heavyweight in the Poetry Slam Movement early in his career and has performed on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, CBS’s Final Four PreGame Show (2004) and commercial projects for Sony, the Florida Times Union, Adobe Software and the Doorpost Film Project. Drawing on his background as a performance poet, Letson weaves spoken word into the fabric of his theatre work. Griot: He who Speaks the Sweet Word (2004), a genre mixing choreopoem was commissioned by the Baltimore Theatre Project. Letson’s teen drama Chalk (2004), features young actors and explores the reality of teenage aggression.  With Chalk, Letson created a new genre of theatre he calls "The Poetical." The format of a Poetical is similar to a Musical but instead of the dialogue leading into musical numbers, characters engage in performance poetry. Letson gives audiences a genuine glimpse inside the world of abject poverty with his solo show, Summer in Sanctuary (2008). Employing storytelling, poetry and multimedia, he chronicles his eye-opening experience working at a summer camp for disadvantaged children.  In 2007 Letson was one of the three finalists out of 1,400 applicants to win the Public Radio Talent Quest.  The Talent Quest is an effort by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to find new hosts and shows.  The pilot State of the Re:Union created from the contest is to be presented to The Corporation for Public Broadcasting for possible funding. Letson continues to tour with his shows and push the boundaries of performance art, never accepting his craft as a static medium. Audiences can look forward to significant themes seamlessly blended with innovative methods in his future projects.  

Future Classics Reading | JANUARY 21, 2009 at 7pm

seed
By Radha Blank
Directed by Niegel Smith

The Schomburg Center - 515 Malcolm X Boulevard at 135th Street (2 or 3 train to 135th St.)

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Burnt-out social worker Anne Simpson wants to retire on a high note, when a gifted nine-year-old, Chee-Chee, from the last “projects” in Anne’s gentrified Harlem neighborhood, collides into her life and forces her to confront the shadows of her past. Much to his mother Latonya’s chagrin, Chee-Chee and Anne develop an unconventional friendship, leading to an explosive encounter that threatens Chee-Chee’s future. This compelling new play asks us to confront the class and cultural divides in New York’s most prominent black community.

Radha Blank (playwright) finds inspiration in the voice and rhythm of today’s youth. In Kenya, Radha’s award-winning one-woman "dramedy," a teenaged b-ball phenom confronts womanhood, misogyny and loss through conversations with her dead mother.  The Village Voice called the Hip Hop infused play, ". . . riveting . . .immediately alive." After successful runs at the Womankind Festival, Dixon Place and The Hip Hop Theater Festival, Kenya garnered The New Professional Theatre’s Annual Writers Award for Best Script, The NY Foundation For the Arts Artists Fellowship and Nickelodeon’s 2000 Writers Fellowship.  Radha, a NY Native, has since written for hit Nick Jr. T.V. shows Little Bill and popular musical series, The Backyardigans.  In 2007, Nickelodeon premiered When I Look In The Mirror . . . a series of live action/animated shorts Radha wrote and conceived in celebration of Black History Month. Her latest theatrical project is seed, a “Hip-Hopera” that explores the relationship between a burnt-out social worker, a child genius and his young mother as they converge in a gentrified Harlem. Radha debuted a monologue from seed during Act Now Productions MonoRail Monologue festival where she received standing ovations each night. seed most recently garnered Radha membership in The Public Theater's inaugural Emerging Playwrights Group. Of the more than 700 submissions, twelve writers were chosen to develop new work under the auspices of the renowned and cutting-edge theater. Seeing writing as a path to self-discovery and self-empowerment, Radha has instructed NYC youth in Hip Hop, poetry and playwriting for over twelve years.  She is a student of every child she meets and aims to use her writing to give greater voice to today’s youth.

Niegel Smith (director) is a performance artist, theater director and the Artistic Leadership Associate at The Public Theater in New York City. Whether in the median of a busy highway or on the stage of a conventional theater, Niegel uses performance to explore the boundaries between spectator and participant in communal experiences. With Todd Shalom, Niegel co-conceived and staged THIS WAS THE ONLY PLACE I KNEW TO GO, DECEMBER 31, PROCESSIONAL and FALLOUT, mass rituals in public settings. His New York directing credits include RAINY DAYS & MONDAYS, MAUD – THE MADNESS, ONE FOR THE ROAD, and LIMBS: A PAGEANT. He is Associate Director to Bill T. Jones on the new musical FELA! and has assisted directors Jo Bonney, James Lapine, Kristin Marting, Richard Nelson and George C. Wolfe. Niegel grew up in the North Carolina Piedmont, fishing with his dad, shopping with his mom and inventing tall-tale fantasies with his two younger brothers.