YOU WILL NEVA ENTER OUR HIGH HOLY LAND OF BLACKNESS-HIYA! Will Get a Staged Reading in August

Concord Thearicals & Samuel French OOB Festival Presents the staged reading of Cece Suazo's play You Will Neva Enter Our High Holy Land of Blackness-HIYA!

Ms.Suazo is the first openly trans woman of color to be included in the Samuel French off-off broadway festival in it's 46th year history.

Cece Suazo is the recipient of the 2018 The Advocate Magazine Legacy Award for her contributions in the LGBTQ ballroom community & performing arts. Ms. Suazo is also co-founder of Translab along with MJ Kaufman & Kit Yang, and the creator of Black Trans Stories Matter for the TMI Project. She's appeared in numerous off-broadway productions at Rattlestick Theater, LaMama, Arcon Theater, Signature Theater, New York Theater Workshop, Woolly Mammoth Theater, New York Times Critic's Pick production of Street Children directed by Jenna Worsham at New Ohio Theater and the San Francisco premier of Chisa Hutchinson's play Dead & Breathing. Ms.Suazo had a developmental playwriting residency within Translab in partnership with New York's Public Theater & The WP Theater. Her first play Shattered Reflections directed by Orion S. Johnstone had its premiere in December 2018 at the WP Theater. In August 2020 she was commissioned by Tony-award winning Long Wharf Theater and Black Trans Women at the Center for her play You Will Neva Enter Our High Holy Land of Blackness-HIYA! Directed by two-time Helen Hayes nominee Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi . Her third play titled The Deep Play directed by Obie award recipient Yvette Ganier had its premier on World Aids Day in December 2020 produced by Write it Out playwrights lab facilitated by playwright Donja R. Love. Cece's one-woman tour de force play Things That Were Said To Me directed by Jenna Worsham starring Jojo Brown was produced by Homebound Theater Project part of the No Kid Hungry Campaign. She was part of actors who write at Rattlestick Theater and created For The Gurls at rattlestick aiming towards black trans women. In 2022 she was recommended by Elena Chang(Director of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at TCG) to take part in Theater Communications Group Advocacy Board helmed by Laurie Baskin. As an activist she's been fighting for equal rights within the arts for trans artists of color.

The staged reading will be directed by NBC's SMASH star and Anthem Award recipient Jaime Cepero.

Mr. Cepero is an Afro-Latinx Queer non-binary actor best known for his role as Ellis Boyd on the NBC hit television series SMASH. Other credits include Connecting on NBC, Mess (Here/Amazon TV) Film: Daddy, The Game Plan, Dating My Mother, Jess & I am Michael. Tours: 75th Anniversary national tour of Porgy & Bess. Regional: Hair (Dallas Theater Center), Godspell (ACT) Jesus Christ Superstar (Alliance Theater) Choir Boy (Geffen Playhouse). Off-Broadway: Night of the Living Dead: The Musical. As a composer Mr. Cepero's musical Francois & The Rebels (A punk rock telling of the 1971 haitian revolution) was part of Musical Theater Factory's 4x15 workshop, Joe's Pub new musicals concert program & the new works choreography at New York Theater Barn. Jaime also originated the role of Marco Polo in Ms. Suazo's play You Will Neva at Long Wharf Theater.

Casting for You Will Neva Enter Our High Holy Land will be announced at a later date.

Performance: Tuesday August 16th, 2022 at 8p.m.

Playwright's Horizons (Peter Jay Sharp Theater)

416 West.42nd street, New York 10036.

Tickets go on sale June 22, 2022

For ticketing info: https://oobfestival.com/

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