Renee Flemings' AUGUSTA! to be Presented at WP Theater as Part of Ancestral Voices Solo Festival

Acclaimed actor / award-winning playwright Renee Flemings will celebrate the life, art and victories of Harlem Renaissance-era sculptor, activist and arts educator Augusta Savage, in her solo performance piece, “Augusta!” where attendees will discover the beauty of Savage's dreams made into reality. Part of the New Federal Theater's Ancestral Voices Solo Festival, performances will take place at the WP Theater, in Manhattan, Thursday, February 13, Friday, February 14 and Saturday, February 15 at 7:00PM & Sunday, February 16@3:00PM. Advance $12.00 early bird seats are available through January 31 (regular price: $18.00, plus fees) can now be secured at:  Augusta! /  www.newfederaltheatre.com/   or contact: (929) 458-0636.It can be reached by taking the #1, #2 or #3 subway to 72nd Street in NYC.

A Florida-born visual artist, Savage (1892–1962), graduated from Cooper Union in New York City and was the only Black woman commissioned to create a sculpture for the 1939 World Fair in New York City. Savage lived in Harlem where she advocated for Black artists and students, and opened the first gallery dedicated to the exhibition and sale of what was then called "Negro art" in the U.S.

Flemings hails from Louisville, Kentucky. Her play “Strange Weather” was selected as a 2004 Eugene O’Neill Conference finalist. She has also served as an educator working with a number of arts education programs in New York while performing in and producing plays at venues including The Triad and Henry Street Settlement (NYC), and The National Black Theatre Festival and The Women’s International Theater Festival (Philadelphia, PA). She has also written several short plays with The Bechdel Group and was thrilled to be a participant of 2018’s 48 HOURS, in Harlem. Flemings’ plays have been produced by Metropolitan Playhouse, The Drilling Company, Spotlight On and Blue Diamond Productions, as well as internationally. She is also a recent recipient of an A.G.E. Legacy Award and a Houses on the Moon Theater Company Architect Fellowship.

As an actor, Flemings has appeared in soap operas, commercials and music videos, as well as Law & Order: SVU; Time Out of Mind and Boardwalk Empire. Theatre credits include Hamlet, Macbeth and Monsters, among others. As an author Flemings’ work has been published in Linear Manhattan, and she is also the author of It Started with a Kiss. A member of the Dramatist Guild, Honor Roll, SAG-AFTRA and NPX, the multitalented Flemings is also the lead vocalist and a songwriter for then NYC-based blues band Alias Smith and Jones.

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