The Frank Silvera Writers' Workshop will present Douglas Lyons's new family comedy Chicken & Biscuits Monday May 13th at 7pm; at The Billie Holiday Theatre. Chicken & Biscuits, written in residence at The Directors Company, has previously been selected and performed in the Front Porch Reading Series and Queen Theatre's 2019 New American Voices Reading Series.
Directed by Zhailon Levingston (Neptune), the cast includes Danny Johnson (Daredevil, Luke Cage, Gotham), Ryan Vona (Paramour) Pat Bowie (A Trip to Bountiful), C.Kelly Wright, Inga Ballard (Ragtime Tour), Akira Golz (Matilda), Josh Adam Ramos, and Alana Raquel Bowers (What to Send Up, When it Goes Down), with music by Josh A. Dawson.
Written by Lyons (Beautiful, The Book of Mormon), Chicken and Biscuits follows siblings Baneatta and Beverly as they attempt to put their sisterly differences aside to bury their father Bernard. But this is no easy task when it's revealed that Bernard had three daughters, not just two. All the tea is spilled, not too far from his casket, as this African-American family confronts their skeletons head on; naturally with lots of love, laughter, and shade along the way.
The reading is free and open to the public. The Billie Holiday Theatre is located at Restoration Plaza, 1368 Fulton Street in Brooklyn, New York
The Frank Silvera Writers' Workshop was founded in 1973 by playwright/director Garland Lee Thompson, along with Oscar winning actor 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 has built a considerable reputation as an internationally recognized playwrights' development opportunity for both upcoming and established artists to hone their work. Among the writers whose plays have benefitted from the workshop series are Ruby Dee, Ntozake Shange, Vinnette Carroll, Charles Fuller, Laurence Holder and Richard Wesley.
The AUDELCO and Obie Award-winning Billie Holiday Theatre is devoted to the discovery of world-class storytelling with a focus on stories for, by and about people of African descent. The Billie presents, promotes and sustains art that reflects the definitive issues of our time in and through all of its forms of expression. The Billie Holiday Theatre has been a significant platform for many Black theater artists, including Samuel L. Jackson, Ruby Dee, Omari Hardwick, Debbie Allen, Wendell Pierce, Roger Robinson, John Amos, Sonia Sanchez and more.
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