Alicia Foxworth's GHOST WRITER To Close 2019 Season Of Frank Silvera Writer's Workshop

Alicia Foxworth's period drama Ghost Writer will bring the curtain down on the 2018 -19 season of the Frank Silvera Writer's Workshop monthly play reading series in partnership with The Billie Holiday Theatre.

The Frank Silvera Writer's Workshop runs from September through June with play readings once per month as part of the workshop's residency at RestorationART at The Billie Holiday Theatre.

The staged reading of Ghost Writer will take place at The Billie on Monday June 17 at 7pm and will be directed by Ward Nixon.

Set during the anti slavery movement of the 1800s, Ghost Writer follows the story of the Roberts family as they embark on a book tour with their daughter Adele- a renowned best-selling author - to the fictional town of Kellington, New York, just days before the Independence Day celebrations of 1833. The family's visit to the town brings them into direct conflict with an illegal slave trade operation. The dramatic events that follow will ultimately threaten the fabric of a very lucrative business.

Ghost Writer was among the semi-finalists at the 2019 National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in Waterford Connecticut, and has also been presented in the Garland Thompson Sr. Readers' Theatre at the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

The cast for the staged reading includes Natasha Yannacanedo as Adele Roberts, Laurie Bannister Colon as her maidservant Sandra Gayle, Michael Vincent Ianuzzi as her father George, Ben Rowe as George's assistant Auguste Henry and Linda Miller as Mama Deah, a New Yorker famous for her 'Mama Deah Peach Pies.' Also appearing in the cast are Brocton Pierce, Stan Buturla, Jared Reinmuth, Jarvis Smith and Eddie Havoc.

Playwright, producer and actress Alicia Foxworth is a Brooklyn born native of Bed Stuy who studied media communications at Fordham University and who has appeared on stage, film and television. She has produced and hosted productions on Rehoboth For You TV as well as the Brownstone Short Play Festival. Her work as a playwright has been accepted into the New York Theater Festival and has been presented annually in the 'Medley of Words' produced by the Uptown Playwrights Workshop for several years. Ghost Writer emerged from her passion for telling stories from another era.

"I enjoy period pieces and the travel through time that Ghost Writer allowed in my own education of American history, as well as the inspiration I derived from all that we as a people have overcome," she says.

The Frank Silvera Writer's Workshop (FSWW) was founded in 1973 by playwright/director Garland Lee Thompson Sr., Oscar-winner Morgan Freeman, director/actress Billie Allen Henderson and journalist Clayton Riley, as a living memorial to the late actor, director, teacher and producer, Frank Silvera. The workshop, an Obie award winning company, has built a considerable reputation as an internationally recognized opportunity for both upcoming and established literary artists to hone their work. The workshop series has previously hosted works from Ruby Dee, Ntozake Shange, Vinnette Carroll, Charles Fuller, Laurence Holder, Richard Wesley, Micki Grant and August Wilson.

An audience talkback between the audience and the artists will take place after the reading, to be followed by a post show reception catered by Chef Jackson and featuring 'Mama Deah's Peach Pie.'

The Billie Holiday Theatre at RestorationART is located at 1368 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, New York, 11216.

Admission to the reading is free.

PHOTO- Alicia Foxworth

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