BPF's Upcoming Readings Highlight African-American History

On February 28, as Black History month comes to a close, the Baltimore Playwrights Festival will dramatize two critical elements of the African-American experience, ranging from the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King to the struggle for equal opportunity by African-American professionals.

These presentations are part of Play Development Workshop Readings staged by the BPF, now in its 34th year. In these readings, brand new plays that have never been produced anywhere will be read, allowing the playwrights to hear their words come to life, an invaluable experience for the authors. Each reading is followed by a discussion with the playwright(s) and director, and the actors and audience are invited to join the discussion. Some of these plays may be chosen by local theaters for full production this summer.

BPF public readings are open to the public with no admission fee. The readings will be held at Fells Point Corner Theatre, 251 South Ann Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21231

The plays to be presented February 28th are:

11:00 AM: Staff Attorney by Nicholas Cartier
Directed by Daniel Douek

An insider portrait of the world of a big law law that grapples with vexing questions of race, merit and diversity, Staff Attorney is the David and Goliath story of a legal battle between a young black woman and one of the country's oldest and most powerful law firms. When recent Harvard Law grad Deanna Williams joins forces with her former professor to sue the white-shoe law firm of Foster & Carlyle, accusing it of hiring African-Americans in dead-end legal jobs to create a facade of diversity. Apparently the firm will stop at nothing to protect its reputation - even if it means destroying Deanna's in the process. A legal drama of constantly shifting perspective, Staff Attorney explores the wounds inflicted on a young woman who may be both victim and opportunist and the lengths to which she'll go to seek not only justice but revenge.

1:00 PM: To Kill A King by Joshua Ford
Directed by Kwame Bey

This the true story of the Memphis Sanitation Workers' strike of 1968 that led to the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Mayor Henry Loeb, a staunch conservative and recent Episcopalian convert, refuses to negotiate, despite the black community's support of the strikers. As a planned march approaches, an energetic black union steward, a Jewish rep and a local preacher try to resolve things with the Mayor, unaware of the tragedy that awaits.

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