UTA Theatre Arts and Dance Black Theatre Society Will Present Concert Reading of Three New Plays

The University of Texas at Arlington Department of Theatre Arts and Dance will present the Black Theatre Society's inaugural new works reading event April 19, 20, and 21 at the University of Texas at Arlington Fine Arts Building in Studio 143. The weekend features script-in-hand readings: The Bridge by Dallas playwright Erin Malone Turner; Eat the World, Baby by Wren Latham; and Ama & Coltrane: Beware, Beware! by Raven Monroe. Latham and Monroe are Charlotte, NC based playwrights. Directors are Jori Jackson, Wren Latham, and Les Gray. The cast includes UTA Theatre students. A design presentation by BFA Costume Design student Kiera Powers follows the reading of Latham's Eat the World, Baby.

UTA Theatre major and scenic designer Gabrielle Marlbrough cofounded the Black Theatre Society to "create a platform for emerging and established BIPOC playwrights to showcase their original works and engage with the community," and "for UTA students and professional theatre artists to work together on Black plays in fun and meaningful ways."

The Bridge author Erin Malone Turner is a New Orleans born, Dallas-based playwright and UTA College of Liberal Arts alum. Her featured plays across DFW include: ingrained and GRAY (Bishop Arts Theatre Co), through a glass darkly (Amphibian Stage), and how to catch a ghost (Kitchen Dog Theater). Her TACA Grant-funded commissioned play what fits inside a human heart had its world premiere with Soul Repertory Theatre in 2023, and was nominated for an Irma P. Hall Black Theatre Award for Best Play. the secret keepers will have its world premiere with Echo Theatre this fall.

Wren Aubrey Latham is a queer Black playwright, songwriter, digital painter, and teacher with a passion for bringing magic to the everyday. His love of video games is often apparent in his work; many plays feature sci-fi elements such as ghosts or the apocalypse. After graduating from The University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2019, Wren has been featured on the front page of the New Play Exchange for his ten-minute play Bitter Pill, and was published in Prompt Journal and Jeopardy Literary Magazine.

Raven Monroe is an actor and playwright from Charlotte, NC. She is a proud graduate of UNC Charlotte (BA '16) and NYU Tisch School of the Arts (MFA '19) Her works include Love & Justice and Other Fairy Tales, Fireflies, and the upcoming musical Threads about the 1929 Loray Mill Strike in Gastonia, NC. She served as the new works coordinator for Queen City New Play Initiative's new works festival in 2023 and continues to support the reading and staging of new works. Raven teaches theatre performance and theory at UNC Charlotte.

Friday, April 19: 6pm, The Bridge by Erin Malone Turner. A talkback with the playwright follows. Saturday, April 20, 2pm, Ama & Coltrane: Beware, Beware! by Raven Monroe, directed by Les Gray & The Bridge by Erin Malone Turner; 6pm, Eat the World, Baby by Wren Latham. A design presentation with Kiera Powers follows. Sunday, April 21, 2pm. The Bridge by Erin Malone Turner. A talkback with the playwright follows.

Tickets are free, but space is limited. You can reserve tickets at utatickets.com.

This play deals frankly with sensitive contemporary issues. We do not recommend these readings for audiences under 16.

The Department of Theatre Arts and Dance in the College of Liberal Arts at UTA provides comprehensive undergraduate education through theory, research, and practice in the performing arts, theatrical design, and dance. Theatre Arts and Dance's educational environment is characterized by shared values, unity of purpose, diversity of opinion, mutual respect, and a commitment to lifelong learning.

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