Company Of Angels And Black Boyle Heights Announce A New Partnership Project

Company of Angels, LA's oldest non-profit theater company and Black Boyle Heights announce the launch of their multi-year partnership to bring the stories of Black Boyle Heights residents to the stage. Company of Angels and Black Boyle Heights will develop and present for the stage an original play that highlights African Americans from Boyle Heights through shared stories, visuals, and history.

Through this multi-year partnership, Company of Angels and Black Boyle Heights will gather with current and former residents of Boyle Heights and get first-hand or close-at-hand stories, anecdotes, memories that reflect this experience. "We are thrilled to be collaborating with Black Boyle Heights to tell the story of the contributions of African-Americans in Boyle Heights. We're excited to begin the process of unearthing the many hidden stories from generations of Black Boyle Heights. Community participation will be helpful in the development of this play. Company of Angels is honored to learn more about Black Boyle Heights, as CoA begins to tell a story not many people know about." said Armando Molina artistic director.

Company of Angels commissioned playwright Kimba Henderson who will develop and present for the stage an original play in the fall of 2023.

Black Boyle Heights - We Were There, whose mission "seeks to research, develop and present a historical perspective documenting the early arrivals and the continuous influx of our elders."

Over the course of the year Ms Henderson and Black Boyle Heights will gather with current and former residents of Boyle Heights who will be a community source for this project. Ms Henderson will listen to first-hand or close-at-hand stories, anecdotes, memories that reflect this experience. Community participation will be helpful in the development of this play. We are honored to learn more about Black Boyle Heights, as CoA begins to tell a story not many people know about.

About Black Boyle Heights (BBH) is a community-based group that is dedicated to raising awareness by documenting the African-American history in the Heights.

About Kimba Henderson, Kimba was born in Detroit, but the cold weather led to constant crying, forcing a move to sunny San Diego. Called to write at a young age, Kimba put on bizarre productions in her home, forcing friends and family to play roles, and her love for storytelling was born. After earning a degree in History, she studied Dramatic Writing at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and won an Academy of Television Arts and Sciences summer fellowship her junior year. She started her career writing for docuseries and true crime shows: IT TAKES A KILLER on Oxygen, as well as ORIGINS and CORRUPT CRIMES, which streamed on Netflix. Ms. Henderson is also an accomplished playwright. Her one-woman show, WOMEN ON THE VERGE won "Best Dramatic Script" at New York's United Solo Festival, and THE RECKONING won an NAACP Theater Award for "Best Production." She also has experience penning audio adventure narratives and wrote seasons 1-4 of the award-winning series, THE ADVENTUM. In 2020, she was tapped to write the independent feature, FLACCID, and her international crime thriller was optioned. Most recently, Kimba was a finalist for the highly competitive Universal Screenwriters Lab and Walt Disney TV Writing Program as well as wrote the book and author introductions for the groundbreaking photography book, BLACK HOLLYWOOD: REIMAGING ICONIC MOVIE MOMENTS. When she's not writing or enjoying weekday brunch in her home (a habit she picked up during the pandemic), Kimba works with the alumni group, Tisch Represents, which fosters career development for underrepresented writers, actors, and directors through collaboration between emerging, mid-career, and established alumni.

About Company of Angels (CoA) is Los Angeles' oldest non-profit theater company, founded in 1959 by actors Richard Chamberlain, Leonard Nimoy, Vic Morrow and legendary entertainment attorney Bert Fields. Company of Angels is dedicated to depicting stories relevant to a diverse Los Angeles audience. CoA develops emerging artists and re-envisions theater to entertain new audiences by producing new work that reflects and responds to the richness, diversity and complexity that is the City of Angels. The Company aspires to share and give voice to the many stories that exist in our communities. For more information visit www.companyofangels.org

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