Thompson's Single Black Female Runs Off-Bway, 6/15-6/25

New Professional Theatre -- the New York-based company that is home to minority playwrights and theatre artists -- will present the premiere of Dr. Lisa Thompson's Single Black Female, a comedy "about single black women and their search for love, dignity and clothes." Previews begin June 15 prior to an official press opening of June 17 at Peter Jay Sharp Theatre (416 West 42nd Street) in Manhattan. The play will run through June 25.

"Single Black Female is Lisa Thompson's comedy about the pleasures and perils of being a single middle class black woman who's got everything she wants and needs except more R-E-S-P-E-C-T -- and a man! The play mines topics such as dating (on the Internet and the old-fashioned way!), gynecology, family gatherings, shopping, racial bias, white folks and, poignantly, the odd sense of loss a black woman feels when she does find a man and leaves her single sisters behind," state press notes.

Directed by Colman Domingo, the cast of Single Black Female features Soara-Joye Ross (who has appeared Off-Broadway Dessa Rose and on Broadway in Dance of the Vampires) and Riddick Marie (who starred in the international tour of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night under the direction of Niky Wolcz, and in the 2005 Metropolitan Opera production of Faust). Domingo, recently in the cast of Well on Broadway, has directed productions at Geva Theatre and the Tony Award-winning Berkeley Rep.

Thompson is an English professor at the State University of New York at Albany where she teaches courses on African American literature and culture. Dr. Thompson is the author of Single Black Female (Nominee for 2005 LA Weekly Theatre Award for best comedy); Monroe; and Dreadtime Stories: One Sista's Hair. She is currently finishing her latest play Underground.

"New Professional Theatre (NPT) was founded by Sheila K. Davis to empower, sustain and advance the careers of minority playwrights and theatre artists. This institution is unique and as such must continue to fulfill its core mission to empower and sustain minority theater writers so that people of all races can benefit from a truly diverse theatre. NPT strives to be the internationally acknowledged, foremost incubator for and producer of minority playwrights and other theatre professionals." Past productions presented by NPT include Coming Apart Together and the musical The In Gathering.

Single Black Female plays Thursdays through Saturdays at 8:00pm and Sundays at 3:00pm except the first performance on Thursday, June 15 when the show begins at 7:00pm. Tickets are $15 and can be reserved by calling TicketCentral 212-279-4200 or online at TicketCentral.com.