Zakiyyah Alexander's SWEET MALADIES Wins ACT New Play Award, Readings 6/6,7

Playwright Zakiyyah Alexander has been named ACT's 2009 New Play Award winner for her play Sweet Maladies. Two FREE staged readings will be presented by The Hansberry Project in ACT's Falls Theatre on June 6 at 7:30 p.m. and June 7 at 2:00 p.m. Each reading will be followed immediately by post-play discussions with the playwright and the director, Valerie Curtis-Newton. A special reception will be held following the June 7 presentation.

Sweet Maladies is a riveting new play about four girls (three black and one white) who must come to terms with their new circumstances in the Reconstruction-era South. Set two years after slavery has been abolished, the girls learn to assert themselves in the world that they have inherited and the society they must rebuild. Sharply written and surprisingly funny, Sweet Maladies is a timely investigation into what happens to identity when old shackles are broken and anything seems possible - a question as relevant today as it was during Reconstruction.

Now in its fourth year, the ACT New Play Award is sponsored by Gian-Carlo and Eulalie Scandiuzzi. Their generous support provides for a national call for submissions and a highly-competitive review process. The winner receives $2,500 and the opportunity to workshop their play at ACT.

This year represents the first time The Hansberry Project at ACT, a professional Black theatre company dedicated to producing new and classic works by African American artists, supervised the New Play Award at ACT selection process, marking another milestone for The Hansberry Project/ACT collaboration.

"Since The Hansberry Project's inception in 2004, Vivian Phillips and I set out to make a home for artists interested in bringing to life the American stories told by Black playwrights," said Curtis-Newton. "It is not incidental that more than 80% of our work - mainstage productions, readings, and workshops - has been new plays. We have always been committed to new and emerging voices. Curating the ACT New Play Award provided a wonderful chance to take our deep commitment to the next level."

Past ACT New Play Award recipients include Yussef El Guindi's Language Rooms in 2008 which has plans for an East Coast world premiere in 2010 at the Wilma Theater, and has been also been featured in the Ojai Playwrights Conference and selected for inclusion in the Playwright Foundation's In The Rough new play development series; The K of D in 2006 by Laura Schellhardt which moved on to the Woolly Mammoth, Balagan, and Magic Theatres; and Mitzi's Abortion in 2005 by Elizabeth Heffron which was later produced as part of ACT's own 2006 mainstage season.

The Sweet Maladies workshop will be directed by Valerie Curtis-Newton and will feature Lisa Strum, Felicia Loud, Adilia Scott , and Jane May.

FREE Special Events (open to the public; reservations encouraged through the Ticket Office):

June 6 & June 7: Post-play discussions immediately following each performance.

June 7: Champagne toast for New Play Award sponsors Gian-Carlo and Eulalie Scandiuzzi! Join playwright Zakiyyah Alexander, director Valerie Curtis-Newton, and the cast of Sweet Maladies following the June 7, 2:00 p.m. performance as ACT honors Gian-Carlo and Lalie Scandiuzzi.

June 7: Following the champagne toast, the festivities continue with a special reception honoring playwright Zakiyyah Alexander. Learn more about the process of writing Sweet Maladies with a special presentation by the playwright.

Zakiyyah Alexander is a writer and actor. She is the author of Sick (Summer Play Festival), The Etymology of Bird (Hip Hop Theater Festival/Providence Black Repertory Theatre), Blurring Shine (Market Theater of Johannesburg), something new and (900). A production of her new play 10 Things To Do Before I Die opens in May 2009 at NY's Second Stage Theatre. Her work has been seen and/or developed at: Bristol Riverside Theater, The Humana Festival, Penumbra Theater, The Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Rattlestick Theater, Hartford Stage, 24/7 Theater Company, Vineyard Theater, the Women's Project, and La Mama Theatre.

Alexander is an award-winning playwright who has been the recipient of the Lorraine Hansberry Prize, Stellar Network Award, Theodore Ward Prize, and Jackson Phelan Award. Her work is included in the current edition of New Monologues for Women by Women, featured in the book of essays, Girls who like Boys who like Boys, and Game on: The Humana Festival '08 Anthology. A resident member of New Dramatists; past residencies and fellowships include: EST's Youngblood, the Women's Project Writer's Lab, the Women's Work Project, and the Drama League. She has received commissions from: The Philadelphia Theater Company and the Children's Theater of Minneapolis. Alexander is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama (MFA in playwriting); currently on faculty at Bard College where she teaches undergraduate playwriting. She is a native New Yorker and was raised in Queens and Brooklyn.

 

To post a comment, you must register and login.