GREENWAY ARTS ALLIANCE Announces 2018-2019 Season

Greenway Arts Alliance (Whitney Weston and Pierson Blaetz, Co-Founders and Co-Artistic Directors) announces its 2018-2019 Season, which includes the Tony Award-winning musical The Color Purple, the Rolling World Premiere play Herland and the 3rd Annual L.A. Get Down Festival, A Celebration of Hip Hop and Spoken Word. The season productions and festival will be presented at Greenway Court Theatre (544 N. Fairfax Avenue, Los Angeles).

"The Color Purple is story of redemption and empowerment and particularly relevant in today's political climate," said Whitney Weston, Greenway Arts Alliance Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director. "We feel fortunate that Los Angeles theatre veteran, Jeffrey Polk, is on board to bring this powerful story to life on our stage."

Pierson Blaetz, Greenway Arts Alliance Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director added, "We're very excited to be collaborating once again with the National New Play Network and to be presenting the Rolling World Premiere of Grace McLeod's Herland. We had a great experience producing the award-winning Rolling World Premiere of Ripe Frenzy by Jennifer Barclay this past May. It's a great opportunity for a playwrights to develop a piece with a variety of creative teams, and our next Rolling World Premiere will be directed by Greenway Court Theatre Producing Director Tiffany Moon, whose directorial and literary experience in theater brings a strong connection to the material."

"We are also thrilled to presenting the 3rd Annual L.A. Get Down Festival with our producing partners Da Poetry Lounge with Shihan Van Clief serving as Festival Director. Each year, the Festival showcases the best talent in hip hop and spoken world," said Whitney Weston.

Tickets for Greenway Arts Alliance's 2018-2019 Season will be available at a later date to be announced. For more information about the season, visitwww.GreenwayCourtTheatre.org or call 323-673-0544.

The Color Purple

Book by Marsha Norman

Music and Lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray

Directed and Choreographed by Jeffrey Polk

November 9 - December 9, 2018

The Color Purple is an inspiring family saga that tells the unforgettable story of a woman who, through love, finds the strength to triumph over adversity and discover her unique voice in the world.

This musical adaptation of Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel (and the popular 1985 Steven Spielberg film) spotlights Celie, a downtrodden young woman whose personal awakening over the course of 40 years forms the arc of this epic story.

With a joyous score featuring jazz, ragtime, gospel, African music and blues, The Color Purple is a story of hope, a testament to the healing power of love and a celebration of life. With a book by Marsha Norman and music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray, The Color Purple premiered at The ALLIANCE THEATRE Company in Atlanta, Georgia and opened on Broadway on November 1, 2005. It was nominated for eleven 2006 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Original Score. The London off-West End production opened on Broadway in 2015, winning the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical.

Director and choreographer Jeffrey Polk is a native Californian and is very honored and blessed to direct Greenway Court Theatre's The Color Purple. His credits include: associate director for Blues in the Night at the Wallis Annenberg (Dir. Sheldon Epps); choreographer for Kiss Me, Kate starring Wayne Brady at Pasadena Playhouse (Dir. Sheldon Epps); choreographer for Dreamgirls at Theatre Under the Stars in Houston (Dir. Sheldon Epps). He is a Guest Director with The Young Americans Music Outreach World Tours. Jeffrey directed and choreographed Smokey Joe's Cafe at Pasadena Playhouse, for which he received an NAACP Theatre Award for "Best Director of a Musical." He has written/ directed shows for Hillcrest Country Club along with producers Berry Gordy, Hal David and Walter Grauman. Jeffrey also performed on Broadway, National Broadway Tours and around the world.

The creative team and casting for The Color Purple will be announced at a later date.

Herland

By Grace McLeod

Directed by Tiffany Moon

May 31 - June 23, 2019

A National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere, Herland, tells the story of Jean who is in her seventies, recently divorced, and not moving into a retirement home. She recruits her two best friends since forever and an intern, a college-bound girl from down the street, to design a utopian alternative for the next chapter of their lives. They plot the future together inside Jean's garage, where relics of her ex-husband (and his locally famous Bruce Springsteen cover band) still linger. Herland is a play about women growing up, growing old, and rocking out to the beat of their own drums.

Grace McLeod is a Chicago-based playwright and screenwriter. She has developed her full-length plays with Chicago's Greenhouse Theater Center, First Floor Theater, The New Colony, and Commission Theatre, and has had the pleasure of writing short plays for Chimera Ensemble, American Blues Theater, and the Victory Gardens College Night series. Grace was a 2017-2018 playwright-in-residence at the Greenhouse Theater Center as part of the Trellis Residency Initiative, where she developed her play Herland, which will have its Rolling World Premiere in 2018-2019. Her debut short film Under the Table premiered at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival and her films have screened at venues and festivals nationwide. Grace is currently a writing and research assistant to playwright Young Jean Lee. She is a recent graduate of the University of Chicago.

Tiffany Moon is Greenway Court Theatre's Producing Director, and Literary Manager for Ojai Playwrights Conference. Past directing credits include workshops/readings of Bleed Rail and Big Death & Little Death by Mickey Birnbaum; Venus in Orange by Paula Cizmar and Laura Shamas (2nd Company); and T.L.C. by Robert Moulthrop (AD/ NYC Fringe). Dramaturg credits include 53% Of by Steph Del Rosso; Marabella by Boni Alvarez; Evanston Salt Costs Climbing by Will Arbery, and Realness by Larry Powell. Producing credits at Greenway include Ripe Frenzy, The House on Mango Street, and The LA Get Down Festival. Tiffany is a graduate of Chapman University and Circle in the Square Theatre School.

The creative team and casting for Herland will be announced at a later date.

The 3rd Annual L.A. Get Down Festival

A Celebration of Hip Hop and Spoken Word

Festival Director Shihan Van Clief

Produced in association with Da Poetry Lounge

April 2019

The L.A. Get Down Festival is a celebration of hip hop and spoken word. Da Poetry Lounge Co-Fonder Shihan Van Clief serves as the Festival Director.

The Festival lineup and schedule will be announced at a later date.

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