William Watkins, Shamar S. White and Antu Yacob Selected For The Fire This Time Festival New Works Lab

The Obie Award-winning The Fire This Time Festival (TFTT) is excited to announce the three dramatists who have been selected to participate in the fourth cycle of their New Works Lab Program: William Watkins, Shamar S. White, and Antu Yacob. The playwrights will meet monthly beginning in October 2021 to share their work in development and the Lab will culminate in staged readings of the work that are scheduled to be held in June 2022.

The New Works Lab is co-directed by educator and playwright Cynthia G. Robinson (Freedom Summer, Dancing On Eggshells) and TFTT producer A.J. Muhammad and it was first established in 2015 as TFTT Writer's Group with the mission of giving Black playwrights from TFTT community and network of artists the opportunity to incubate and develop new work in a safe, nurturing and supportive environment. Previous New Works Lab members include Ngozi Anyanwu, Liz Morgan, Khalil Kain, Shawn Nabors, Christine Jean Chambers, Edgar Chisholm, Maia Matsushita, T.R. Riggins, Danielle Davenport, and Tyrell Bennett. The fourth cycle of the lab is the recipient of generous support from the Black Seed Fund.

William Oliver Watkins is an actor and playwright based in New York City. His writing credits include Attempted Burglary (nominated for best short film at the Cincinnati Film Festival, feature presentations at the Martha's Vineyard African American, Big Apple and Asheville Film Festivals); Black, White and Blue at the 9th annual The Fire This Time Festival Ten-Minute Play Program (2018), Hero Complex; The Personal Question (short film); Cover Up (web based micro-series); The Adam Quagmire; The Adam Reprimand; D.O.L.L.; Debriefing; Unplanned; and Gun Play. An as actor Watkins has been seen on the stage and screen in Perseverance (Portland Stage); Jordan (Northern Stage), Thirst (CATF); Sweat, Ruined, Jackie & Me, One Night in Miami, As You Like It (Denver Center); Snakeskin Suit, Nodding Off (Ensemble Studio Theatre); Othello, Twelfth Night (Cincinnati Shakes); Antigone, Camp Logan (Nat'l Black Theatre); The Christians, Merchant of Venice (Gulfshore Playhouse); Great Expectations (Syracuse Stage); Lombardi (Cleveland Playhouse); Moss Hart Story (Good Theater); Nursery Rhymes at the 99, Duck Sauce (AND); I Knew King When He Was Nobody (Abingdon); A Raisin in the Sun (Studio Arena), 40-Year Old Version (Sundance Best Direction Award Winner); "Bull"; "Wu-Tang's American Saga"; "L&O"; "SVU"; "Blindspot"; "The Blacklist"; "The Blacklist: Redemption"; "Madam Secretary"; "Forever"; Nasty Baby; "Nurse Jackie"; "Rescue Me"; "NY 22"; "Canterbury's Law". Watkins has a BFA-Webster Conservatory and is originally from Cincinnati, OH.

Shamar S. White is a dramatic writer hailing from Chicago, Illinois. She was a Staff Writer for the CW Network's drama series, Valor. Her Ten-Minute Play Detained was produced during the 8th annual The Fire this Time Festival Ten-Minute Play Program (2017) in New York City and she is a two-time Semi-Finalist for the Eugene O'Neill National Playwright's Conference. Her feature, Summer K.A.O.S., was a winner at the 2017 Fusion Film Festival and recently a Finalist for Adam Driver's Arts in the Armed Forces 2021 Bridge Award. Shamar is a decorated Army Combat Veteran, having served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Much of her writing reflects her time served. She holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Along with her writing, Shamar serves her community working at a homeless shelter for The Salvation Army. She is a proud member of the Dramatist Guild and Writers Guild of America West.

Antu Yacob is a playwright and actor who was born in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia and raised in California and Minnesota. Her film Love in Submission was part of the Full Spectrum Features' collection: Our Right to Gaze: Black Film Identities. Independently the film screened in various festivals including New York African Film Festival, Women of the Lens (UK) and Black Muslim Girl Fly Festival (Honorable Mention). Antu served as a producer for Adrian Luke Sinclair's film Conjure (Hip Hop Film Festival Vanguard Award). As an actor, her screen acting credits include Night Comes On, The Other Two, Daredevil, Gypsy, Law & Order: SVU, Brooklyn Park, Adieu Lacan and Signs of Aging. Her solo show In The Gray was featured in the United Solo Theatre Festival and the Symposium on African Global Migration. Her plays have premiered at Kampala International Theatre Festival (Uganda), Project Y Theatre, Theatre167 (NYC) and Mile Square Theatre (NJ) and Tiny Barn Festival (VT). Her stage credits include work with The Fire This Time Festival, American Slavery Project, Primary Stages, Crossroads Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Luna Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse, Philadelphia Theatre Co, Mixed Blood Theatre, Pangea World Theatre and Pillsbury House Theatre. Yacob has an MFA in Acting from Rutgers University.

The Fire This Time Festival was founded in 2009 by 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 produced and developed the work of more than 90 playwrights including Katori Hall, Dominique Morisseau, Marcus Gardley, 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. The Fire This Time Festival recently 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 during 2021.

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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