Crossroads Theatre Company Presents The Genesis Festival of New Plays and Voices, 5/27-5/29

The Tony Award® winning Crossroads Theatre Company presents the annual Genesis Festival of New Plays and Voices May 27-29, 2011. The festival creates a haven for the audience, actors, director and playwright to share in the experience of the creative process, offering audience members an insider's view of the development of new work for the stage. Professional readings take place in the intimate setting of the fourth-floor studio of the Crossroads Theatre, followed by a lively discussion among artists and audience members. A wine and cheese reception afterward provides an additional opportunity to chat with the artists.

Friday, May 27th at 8pm : Swordplay by Benjamin Bettenbender centers on an aspiring young swordsman who seeks a master in feudal Korea. A desperate businessman looks to a loan shark to save his suburban New Jersey business. These two stories interweave to unravel the details of a family mystery. Playwright Benjamin Bettenbender wrote this play with Crossroads in mind.

Saturday May 28th at 3pm: Ndebele Funeral by Zoey Martinson is set in modern South Africa, where three people from different backgrounds are tied to a shack in Soweto. A dying woman in exile builds herself a coffin but her plans are interrupted by a surprise visit from her best friend. The play is based on playwright and actress Zoey Martinson's actual encounter with a refugee in South Africa. She says, "He told me a story about his best friend that would stay with me for the rest of my life, and change my perspective on right and wrong." Martinson performed earlier this season in Crossroads' production of Sibusiso Mamba's South African play Train to 2010.

Saturday May 28th at 8pm: Absolution by Geoff Newton: Two jail cells side by side. Two men. Each strapped to a gurney. They don't know what they've done. They don't know why their interrogators keep torturing them with water-themed songs from the 1960s. Absolution is directed by Sibusiso Mamba, author of and actor in Train to 2010, featured on the Crossroads' stage earlier this season.

Sunday May 29th at 3pm: Inside Outside by Gena Bardwell is a poignant "dramedy" that examines a mother's fight to regain her life after a sudden tragedy in which the fragments of a loving family give rise to guilt, forgiveness and uncertainty. Bardwell said, "Inside Outside gives us a glimpse at how a family's authentic connection to the world beyond can slowly linger and deeply impact a painful and uncertain but wonderfully bright future all at once."

Among the plays that have found their way from the Genesis Festival to the world's stages were George C. Wolfe's Spunk, Anna Deveare Smith's Dream, Linda Nieves-Powell's Yo Soy Latina and original works by Ntozoke Shange, Ruby Dee and the late Ossie Davis.
Crossroads Theatre Company was founded in 1978 by Ricardo Khan and L. Kenneth Richardson with the vision that African-American theater is intended for a broad-based, diverse audience. As a major force in the development of new ideas and the introduction of formerly marginalized writers, Crossroads produces works that enrich and diversify the representation of African American culture on the American stage. Crossroads has produced more than 40 world premieres and received the Tony Award® in 1999 for Outstanding Regional Theatre in the United States.

 

 

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