2021/2022 Catapult Artists & Nord Family Foundation Playwright Fellows Announced At CPT

Cleveland Public Theatre (CPT)'s Executive Artistic Director Raymond Bobgan has announced Siaara Freeman and Jeanne Madison as the 2021/2022 Nord Family Foundation Playwright Fellows.

Inside of CPT's commitment to cultivating new voices and providing new work development platforms for both experienced and emerging local artists, the theatre has initiated a series of special programs that focus on the individual artist. Fellowships include mentorship by CPT's Executive Artistic Director and a financial award.

Through the Catapult Program, Siaara Freeman and Jeanne Madison will develop their individual plays. Siarra's piece, Don't Start no Séance, Won't be no Séance, explores the legacy and lineage of Black Girl magic in its real form, as opposed to the concept it has been commercialized as. Jeanne's piece, Black Bougie, focuses on an affluent African American family who, on the eve of their daughter's cotillion, see their plans for the perfect debutante ball collide with a Black Lives Matter Protest over the murder of another Black teenager by the police.