The African American Playwrights Exchange Holds A Reading Of MRS. STREETER

The African American Playwrights Exchange (AAPEX) & Jaz Dorsey will present a reading of the 2008 AAPEX Award winner for "Best Family Drama," Mrs. Streeter, written by Merrill D. Jones, on Monday, February 8th at the Dramatist Guild. The reading, directed by Ward Nixon, will feature Terrance Epps (Hampton Cole), Larry Floyd (Jeffrey Streeter), Fulton Hodges (Charles Streeter), Kimberly JaJuan (Grace Streeter), RJ Kennedy (Narrator), Kimberlee Monroe (Irene Streeter), Malek O'Galvez (Tyler Anderson), Dee Spencer (Sarah Anderson) & Valarie Tekosky (Rita Harris). Mrs. Streeter was given a first reading at Pearl Studios in NYC, in 2008.

Mrs. Irene Streeter is a small, but dominant, African-American woman, who obsessively directs the lives of her three grown children. She is quick, sharp-tongued-even witty at times-but wholly unaware of the folly & gravity of her manipulations. Born in North Carolina in the early nineteen twenties, Mrs. Streeter keeps the pain of racial inequality at arms reach, never wishing to be white, but noting the difference in the quality of her life if she were whiter. For her, the difficulties of race & sex might have been endurable had she been more strongly rooted. But as she is unable to shake the pain of her father's abandonment & her mother's subsequent rejection, the hardships of race & sex become insurmountable & she uses her three children as a means of offsetting an unbearably inequitable existence. In the end, Irene, static & fixed, must deal with the most excruciating pain of all: the rejection of her children, as they move beyond the space where she cannot, for their own happiness.

Terrence Epps is a New York City based actor, with talents ranging from dramatic to comedic roles, on numerous film & TV shows, including "Law & Order," "Knights of Prosperity," Across the Universe & a host of others. He has studied with Brooke Bundy, Sheryl Baker-Fisher & Stephanie Pollenz, as well as his acting coach/teacher/mentor, Ward Nixon.

Larry Floyd was last seen in the multi-award winning Black Man Rising, at the (2007 & 2009) National Black Theatre Festival in Winston Salem, N.C, the ArcLight Theatre & Dr. Barbara Ann Teer's National Black Theatre, in NYC. Other credits include Take Wing And Soar Productions' King Lear with Trezana Beverley, Hamlet, Greener Grasses (TNC), Split Second with John McDonald (Cagle & Co.), Lord of Thunder (NBT), Two Gentlemen of Verona, Miss Evers Boys, Henry II, Henry IV-Parts 1 & 2, Henry V, King Lear with Avery Brooks (Yale Repertory), Jesus Christ Superstar, Purlie, You Can't Take it With You, A Streetcar Named Desire, In the Blood, Seven Guitars, On Striver's Row, The Colored Museum, Boys Next Door & A Soldier's Play.

Fulton C. Hodges is currently performing in the play The Task at the Castillo Theatre (until February 21st). He recently finished a 32 year tenure at the Black Spectrum Theatre, where he worked as an actor, director, playwright, production manager & teaching artist. He was last seen at Black Spectrum in The Magic Crown & during his tenure at Black Spectrum, performed in The Piano Lesson, Blues for an Alabama Sky, Oh, Oh Obesity & Kingfish, Amos & Andy. Hodges is a four time AUDELCO Award nominee & two time winner (1997 Outstanding Director of a Musical, A Trip to Nowhere & 1998 Best Supporting Actor for Our Husband Has Gone Mad, Again.

Kimberly JaJuan graduated from The Eastman School & The Juilliard School, where she received her Bachelor's & Master's Degrees, respectively. As a professional, she has performed on Broadway, Off-Broadway & National Tours of Smokey Joe's Café, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Music of the Night, King David, Running Man, The In-Gathering, Dreamgirls, Ragtime & Marie Christine, as well as Encores! One Touch of Venus & The Broadway Bash, celebrating City Center's 60th Anniversary. Her film & television credits include 2009 Tony Awards, "Law & Order," "Preaching to the Choir," The Life, Broadway Damage & Private Parts. She can be heard on the original cast albums of King David & Marie Christine & with Broadway Inspirational Voices.

Kimberlee Monroe is a graduate of American Academy of Dramatic Arts & has performed with the Classical Theatre of Harlem in Melvin Van Peebles Aint Supposed to Die A Natural Death, Hadley Players production of Know Thy Enemy, Amen Sister & Nobody Knew Where They Were. She also has performed in the LDTG production of Doll Confession, directed by Trezana Beverley & The Billie Holiday Theatre production of Steal Away, in which she received an AUDELCO nomination for Best Ensemble. She has also performed at the St. Louis Black Repertory Theatre.

Malek O'Galdez is a 13 year old eighth grader who attends Allen Christian School. He is also a student in the Black Spectrum Children's Theater Institute & has been active in many of their productions. His most recent stage production was 'Twas the Night Before Kwanzaa. Malek's many talents include singing, playing the trumpet, traps, djembe & Garifuna drums.

Dee Spencer was first cast as Sister Helen in Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? In Houston, she worked at Theatre Suburbia, The Company Onstage, Encore Theatre & Ensemble Theatre. In New York, she appeared Off-Broadway in Lady ChardonnEy, in the Broadway touring production of Theatreworks USA's Freedom Train, My Life as an Island at the Nuyorican Poet's Café & Whitehorse Theatre Company's Off-Broadway production of Sam Shepherd's States of Shock, at the Abdingdon Theatre Arts Complex. She is best known for her performance of Aunt Freda in You Shouldn't Have Told at the Crossroads Theatre in New Brunswick, NJ, as well as Nurse Evers in African Globe Theatreworks production at Newark Symphony Hall of Miss Evers Boys, the Obie Award winning Rev. Billy and The Stop Shopping Gospel Choir as the show - stopping Choir Conductor & filmed a TV pilot of "Rev. Billy's Revival Show" as well as the film documentary of the show, which premiered in Houston.

Valarie Tekosky is a veteran stage actor, with NY credits including The HADLEY Players, The Billie Holiday Theatre & Black Spectrum Theatre. Her Chicago credits include The Black Ensemble Theatre, Laboratory Theatre, ETA, Northlight Theatre, Organic Theatre & Pegasus Players. She has her own Production Company & is looking for one act plays to produce.

Ms. Merrill D. Jones lives in Washington, D.C. She studied at Howard University & completed her graduate studies at Lincoln University, in Lincoln, Pennsylvania. She is a member of AAPEX & the Black Women Playwrights Group. Mrs. Streeter, her first play, won the D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities Larry Neal Award in 2006 & the APEX Award in 2007. Additionally, in 2007, her first screenplay, Fertile Ground, was honored with a D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities Larry Neal Award, once again. Mrs. Streeter, has had an additional reading at the Studio Theater in Washington, D.C. & a full production at the Berkley Black Repertory Theatre in California.

Ward Nixon is delighted to be directing the reading of Mrs. Streeter, once again. His career spans over twenty years as a director, actor, acting teacher, acting coach & commercial print model. He is currently directing the musical Willy Wonka, Jr., the drama, Love Hurts & a reading of a new play, One Drop," all in New York with winter & spring 2010, performances. Over the years he has directed HollerLula!, Honra Nan, Happy Ending, Precious, Curacao, Neil Simon's Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Lady of Fadima, Lone Star, Sisters & North of Providence. Ward currently teaches acting & directs at The Sledge Project Studio, From Stage to Screen & at his acting studio, TCA Acting Studios in New York City, where he resides.

Dramaturg Jaz Dorsey founded The African American Playwrights Exchange in 2007. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee. The African American Playwrights Exchange (AAPEX) operates under the 501(c)3 non-profilt umbrella of TheatreSouth Atlanta, Herman LaVerne Jones, Artistic Director.

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