Kendra Augustin, Kim Brockington, Jahquale Mazyck & James Anthony Tyler Join The Fire This Time Festival New Works Lab

The Obie-Award winning The Fire This Time Festival has announced the four playwrights - Kendra Augustin, Kim Brockington, Jahquale Mazyck and James Anthony Tyler - who will be developing work in the 5th cycle of its New Works Lab program. The 5th cycle began in October 2022 and the playwrights meet monthly to share their work. The Lab will culminate in developmental readings that will be held in June 2023.

The New Works Lab was established by The Fire This Time in 2015 as the The Fire This Time Writers' Group with the mission to provide TFTT alumni and writers from the TFTT community the opportunity to develop new work in a safe, nurturing and supportive environment. The initiative was renamed the New Works Lab in 2017. From its inception to the present, the lab has been co-directed by educator and playwright Cynthia G. Robinson ("Freedom Summer," "What If?" "Dancing on Eggshells") and A.J. Muhammad, a producer with TFTT. Funding for the 5th cycle of the New Works Lab was made possible by generous support from The Black Seed Fund.

Past New Works Lab members include Antu Yacob, William Watkins, Shamar S. White, Maia Matsushita, Shawn Nabors, T.R. Riggins, Tyrell Bennett, Khalil Kain, Liz Morgan, Edgar Chisholm, Christine Jean Chambers, Danielle Davenport and Ngozi Anyanwu.

Kendra Augustin

is a Florida born and bred, New York based playwright. She has written several short plays including "Dying Is An Art" (InspiraTO Festival, 365 Women A Year), "Black Star" (LIC One Act Act Festival), "How Dare You!" (Affirmation Theatre Company, MadLab Theatre), "The Call of the Void" (New Perspectives Theatre Company Women's Short Play Lab), and "Stranger" which won best play, best lead actress (Ilana Walker) and best director (Daphnie Sicre) at the Stage Black Festival in 2014. In 2015, she and Patricia Cardona Roca co - produced The Leela NYC Theatre Festival: a two day play festival that featured seven 10 minute plays - including one by Mario Fratti - at Centro Español de Queens. Her anthology play, "Death in the Family," was co-produced by In Full Color and Dixon Place, at Dixon Place in 2021. She was the inaugural playwriting resident of The Bechdel Group's 2021/2022 "The Bechdel Test- it's a damn low bar" residency in which she further developed a full-length version of "Sisterhood in the Time of the Apocalypse." The short play version of "Sisterhood in the Time of the Apocalypse" (which premiered at The Fire This Time Festival in 2019) is a part of the anthology "25 Plays from The Fire This Time Festival: A Decade of Recognition, Resistance, Resilience, Rebirth, and Black Theater." She was also part of the writing team of the David Davila and Vanessa Rae Lerma created web series, "Most Likely To," which was a 2022 New York Latino Film Festival selection.

Kim Brockington

has been acting for over 30 years in TV, Film and Stage. Recently Kim added writer to her resume. Her writing credits include "Broken Pieces", a semifinalist at the Eugene O'Neill in 2020 and a semifinalist at the National Black Theater in 2022. "Broken Pieces" will be Workshopped in 2023 at NBT. Other plays include "First Daughter," "The Language of Poetry," "Honey and Daisy." Her Collection of poems "BlueGoddess Love Poems" is a five star Amazon Favorite. Her poetry was also featured in the Actors Journal for Durango Festival. She has written articles for Heart and Soul Magazine. Recently she created "The Lovely Breath Daily Meditations for Calm & Serenity" that will be featured on the Insight Timer App. in 2023! She is also thrilled to be a member of the Echoes Writers Group at Primary Stages 2022/2023. As an actress Kim recurs as Lillian Gaines in "Godfather of Harlem" and in "Power Book 3: Raising Kanan" as Dr Loretta West. Kim is a graduate of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She is committed to sharing works of art of women of color well over forty.

Jahquale Mazyck

(he/they) is a Black queer creative from Brooklyn, NY. They starred in the Off-Broadway production of Chisa Hutchinson's "Surely Goodness" and Mercy (Keen Company) as well as Michelle Tyrene Johnson's radio play "Buried Roots." A reading of their first full length play, "MAD," was included in the 2019 season of Corkscrew Theater Festival and they were one of the seven playwrights awarded a commission in the 11th season of the Obie Award-winning Fire This Time Festival. Their short play, "If Men Were Flowers" premiered on the streaming platform ALL ARTS in 2020. Their short play "Dude" premiered at the 2020 Frigid Queerly Festival and The Reparations Show produced by Kevin R. Free. Their play 'Grieved' won the 46th Samuel French OOB Short play contest. Mazyck is an alum of the prestigious Royal Court Theaters Writers Group in London and is currently a BTU Rise Fellow in partnership with Black Theatre United and Williamstown Theater Festival as well as a 2021-2022 SoulCenter Fellow.

James Anthony Tyler

is the recipient of the 3rd Annual Horton Foote Playwriting Award, an inaugural playwright to receive a commission from Audible, and a 2016 Theatre Masters Visionary Playwrights Award recipient. His plays include "Some Old Black Man" (Berkshire Playwrights Lab at St. James Place and 59E59 Theaters, and a University Musical Society filmed production), "All We Need Is Us" (Keen Company, currently streaming on all podcast platforms) "hop thA A" (Currently streaming on Audible), "Artney Jackson" (World Premiere at Williamstown Theatre Festival, 2018 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award), and "Dolphins and Sharks" (LAByrinth Theater Company and Finborough Theatre in London). He's a 2021/2018 MacDowell Fellow, a 2021 Hermitage Artist Resident, a 2018 Djerassi Fellow, 2018-2019 Amoralists Wright Club Playwright, 2017-2018 Nashville Rep Ingram New Works Playwright, 2016-2017 Ars Nova Play Group Resident, 2016 Working Farm Playwrights Group Resident at SPACE on Ryder Farm, 2015-2016 Playwrights' Center's Many Voices Fellow, 2014-2015 Dramatists Guild Fellow, and he was a member of Harlem's Emerging Black Playwrights Group. He has a MFA in Film from Howard University and a MFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University. He is also a graduate of The Juilliard School's Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program, and he was the Staff Writer for the OWN Network show "Cherish the Day" created by Ava DuVernay. Currently he is in the writers room for a new Apple + Drama Series starring an Academy Award winning actress.

The Fire This Time Festival

was founded in 2009 by playwright and producer Kelley Girod to provide a platform for playwrights of African and African-American descent to write and produce evocative material for diverse audiences. Since the debut of the first 10-minute play program in 2010, presented in collaboration with FRIGID New York, The Fire This Time Festival has has produced and developed the work of more than 80 playwrights including Katori Hall, Dominique Morisseau, Radha Blank, Antoinette Nwandu, Jocelyn Bioh, korde arrington tuttle, Stacey Rose, Aziza Barnes, C.A. Johnson, Kevin R. Free, Charly Evon Simpson, Angelica Cheri, James Anthony Tyler, Jordan Cooper and Nathan Yungerberg.

In 2020 The Fire This Time Festival collaborated with Center Theatre Group and Watts Village Theater Company to launch the initiative "It's Not A Moment, But A Movement" to amplify Black artists through three virtual events that pair playwrights, visual artists and musicians. The initiative recently included a new play commission for six Black women and non-binary playwrights, among them are TFTT alumni Cynthia G. Robinson, Aziza Barnes, and Roger Q. Mason.

The Fire This Time's first anthology, "25 Plays from The Fire This Time Festival: A Decade of Recognition, Resistance, Rebirth, and Black Theater" edited by Kelley Girod was released by Bloomsbury Publishing in February 2022. www.firethistimefestival.com

FRIGID New York's mission is to provide both emerging and established artists the opportunity to create and produce original work without limit to content, form, or style, and to amplify their diverse voices. We do this by presenting an array of monthly programming, mainstage productions, an artist residency, and seven annual theater festivals that create an environment of collaboration, resourcefulness, and innovation. Founded in 1998, the aim was and is to form a structure, allowing multiple artists to focus on creating and staging new work and providing affordable rental space to scores of independent artists. Now in our third decade we have produced a massive quantity of stimulating downtown theater. www.frigid.nyc

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