Liberation Theatre Company Selects Four Early Career Playwrights For Their 2019-2020 Writing Residency Program

From a large and competitive pool of submissions, Liberation Theatre Company (LTC) has selected four promising playwrights to participate in the third year of their Writing Residency Program for 2019-2020.

The Harlem-based theatre company is a home for emerging Black playwrights and launched the Writing Residency Program in 2017. The objective is to provide dramaturgical and career support to early-career writers over a ten-month period, during which time they will be required to complete the first draft of a new original full-length play. The plays will receive a public reading in the Spring of 2020. Financial support for the program has been provided by grants from the New York State Council on the Arts and the Left Tilt Fund.

"Now in our third year, we are pleased by the growth and increasing awareness of the Writing Residency Program," said Sandra A. Daley-Sharif, Producing Artistic Director of LTC. "From year one to year two, we saw a considerable increase in the number of applicants. Numbers remained high this year, but there was also a noticeable improvement in the quality of submissions. We're seeing more MFA graduates and other playwrights who have written but never been produced. That tells me that the support we provide is important and necessary for serious writers."

"We have selected four playwrights who have all demonstrated strong writing capability, but need assistance in clarifying how to say what they want to say," Daley-Sharif continued. "We don't impose our viewpoint on their subject matter. It is not what you choose to write about, but are you able to get your point across to an audience. It is about helping them find their artistic voice."

Beginning in May, residents will meet monthly to share work in progress and receive constructive criticism. They will also have access to theatre events around New York, dialogue with more advanced playwrights, attend a writers retreat, and collaborate with a director and professional actors for both a table read and the public reading that concludes the residency. Each writer will receive an honorarium upon successful completion of the program.

Participants in the Liberation Theatre Company Writing Residency Program for 2019-2020:

Jessica Charles earned a Bachelors degree with honors from UC Berkeley, and Masters Degrees from Humboldt State University and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. As a black queer woman, she's worked in theatres around the world yet still seeks her space. Jessica's work creates space for people who haven't been represented in theater. She writes for herself and subsequently all of us.

Camille Darby is an award-winning playwright from Jamaica whose stories explore the complexities of human existence through the lens of black characters. Plays include The White Peacock, Lords Resistance, Language of the Screamers, Exodus, and Queen Nanny. She holds a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College, and an M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.

Johnny G. Lloyd is a New York-based writer and producer. As a playwright, his work has been seen and developed at The Corkscrew Festival, 59E59, Dixon Place, The Tank, Judson Memorial Church, Theatre Lab at Florida Atlantic University, Fringe NYC and more. Johnny was a semi-finalist for the 2018 Open-Application Commission at Clubbed Thumb and the 2017-2018 Shubert Fellow for Playwriting at Columbia University. He is the producing director of InVersion Theatre. MFA Candidate in Playwriting at Columbia University.

Jeremy O'Brian is a Mississippi-born, Brooklyn-based playwright whose work has been produced/ developed with Tectonic Theatre Company, Lambda Literary, Athena Theatre Co., and The New School for Drama where he currently studies Playwriting. Jeremy holds a Masters in African Diaspora Studies from UT-Austin and a BA from Tougaloo College.

Liberation Theatre Company was established in 2009 with the mission to create a home for emerging Black playwrights to develop their work and express themselves artistically in a supportive and focused environment. Directly and indirectly, LTC has helped to develop or provide exposure to more than 100 writers through various programs.

In 2010, LTC initiated Harlem9, a successful collaboration of Black theatre producers in Harlem, which began producing the annual 48Hours in...™ Harlem 10-minute play festival in August 2011. 48Hours in...™ Harlem received an Obie Award in 2014, and three anthologies of plays written for the festival have been published and made available to drama schools, libraries and the general public. 48Hours in...™ El Bronx has been presented three times, in collaboration with Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater and provided opportunities for Latin theatre artists.

LTC is managed by Sandra A. Daley-Sharif, co-founder and Producing Artistic Director, Spencer Scott Barros, co-founder and Associate Artistic Director, andBernard J. Tarver, Associate Producing Director.