BOARDWALK EMPIRE's Johnnie Mae Joins Staged Reading Of THE TALK

Award winning actress Johnnie Mae, who played the role of housekeeper Louann Pratt in season one of the Martin Scorsese produced Boardwalk Empire on HBO, has joined the cast of the staged reading of Janice Liddell's drama The Talk, an installment in the Frank Silvera Writers Workshop monthly reading series in partnership with The Billie Holiday Theatre.

The reading will take place at The Billie on Monday January 14 at 7pm and will be directed by veteran theater artist Byron C Saunders.

The Frank Silvera Writers 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 cast for the reading also includes David Roberts, Denise Du'Maine, Odysseus Bailer, Lauren Bryant, Guy Whitlock and Sharon Hope. A talk back with the playwright and cast will follow.

Set in Atlanta Georgia in 2016 on the eve of the Black Lives Matter march, The Talk takes place at a reunion of the African American Fuqua family. As four generations unite under one roof, and contemplate the controversial participation of their youngest family members in the upcoming march, the Fuquas begin to share stories of their family's past, some of which reveal issues directly related to the march that is about to unfold.

As they examine their own history as an African American family, they are forced to confront the traumatic events in their past and assess the responsibility they have, both individually and collectively, to make a difference in the future to come.

Johnnie Mae will play the role of 'Big Mama' Bess Fuqua, grandmother to the youngest generation, whose revelation of one of the families' darkest hours proves to be a turning point in the lives of her young grandchildren as well as in the story itself.

In a stage and screen career spanning over thirty years, Johnnie Mae has earned critical plaudits in such diverse theatrical productions as Blues About Mad Women Uprising (The Public Theater), Native Son (Classical Theatre of Harlem), and Romeo and Juliet (New Perspectives Theatre). She is a two time AUDELCO Award winner for Excellence in Black Theater, winning Best Actress for August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom as well as for Best Supporting Actress in Yvette Heyliger's What Would Jesus Do?

In addition to her best known role on Boardwalk Empire, her film and television credits also include Scorsese's Wolf of Wall Street, Patterson, The Son of No One, Law and Order SVU, Bluebloods and The Leftovers.

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

Admission to the reading is Free.

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