Arena Stage Presents BLACK VOICES, Readings of Works in Progress by Leading Black American Playwrights

The Arena Stage American Voices New Play Institute (AVNPI) in partnership with Georgetown University's Theater and Performance Studies Program presents Black Voices: Stories We're Planning to Tell a public presentation followinga private, two-day convening of 30 of the nation's leading black playwrights and artisticleaders. The private convening will address the following questions: what stories are black playwrights allowed to tell in American theater today; what are the issues presented in their works; and what are the challenges facing development of new plays by black playwrights? The public presentation will share discussion points from the convening and will feature Lydia R. Diamond, Marcus Gardley, Paul A. Notice II, Rha Goddess, Daniel Beaty and others personally reading selections from their own works-in-progress.

Following the readings, the convening's participating playwrights will be available to answer questions from the audience about the playwrights' experience in the field and their approach to creating new plays.

The participants of Black Voices: Stories We're Planning to Tell include: Christina Anderson (Good Gods) Neil Barclay (CEO, National Black Arts Festival) Daniel Beaty (Resurrection, Emergence-SEE!) Pearl Cleage (Blues for an Alabama Sky) Kia Corthron (Light Raise the Roof) Lydia R. Diamond (Stick Fly, The Bluest Eye) Karen Evans (We Miss You, Executive Director Black Women Playwrights' Group) Kamilah Forbes (Hip Hop Theater Festival Artistic Director) Farrell Foreman (Playwright, Poet and Dir. of Bear Arts Foundation) Marcus Gardley (Every Tongue Must Confess) Sandra Gibson (President & CEO, Association of Performing Arts Presenters) Rha Goddess (performance artist, LOW: Meditations Trilogy Part 1) Danai Gurira (Eclipsed and co-author of In the Continuum) Katori Hall (The Mountaintop) Paul Carter Harrison (The Drama of Nommo) Jacqueline Lawton (Blood-bound and Tongue-tied) Jennifer Nelson (African Continuum Theater Founding Artistic Director)Paul A. Notice II (Nicole & Anthony) Lynn Nottage (Pultizer Prize-winner of Ruined) Robert O'Hara (Antebellum, dir. of world premiere of Brother/Sister Plays) Psalmayene 24 (Zomo the Rabbit-A Hip-Hop Creation Myth) Nikkole Salter (co-author of In the Continuum) Regina Taylor (Crowns) Dominic Taylor (Personal History, Associate Artistic Director Penumbra Theatre) David Emerson Toney (Kingdom) Shay Wafer (VP of Programming, August Wilson Center for African American Culture) Talvin Wilks (An American Triptych, 2009 coordinator for the Black Theater Initiative) Tracey Scott Wilson (The Good Negro) Black Voices: Stories We're Planning To Tell is the second symposium held as part of theAVNPI, following December's Defining Diversity convening.

More information from that event and AVNPI can be found on the institute's New Play Blog website: http://npdp.arenastage.org. The next symposium as part of the AVNPI is Theater Outside the Box: Devised Work, February 19 & 20, 2010.

This conversation addresses the unique challenges of championing, supporting and sharing devised, ensemble and interdisciplinary work. The convening will also culminate inan artist-driven event, where the public is invited to participate in a lecture-demo of ensemble and devised performance techniques.The Arena Stage American Voices New Play Institute is made possible through support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The Arena Stage-Georgetown partnership is made possible thanks to the generosity of Andrew R. Ammerman and the Family of H. Max and Josephine F. Ammerman. The Georgetown Theater & Performance Studies Program integrates creative and criticalinquiry, emphasizing artistic excellence, interdisciplinary learning, socially-engaged performanceand the spirit of collaboration. Now offering a dynamic major in Theater & Performance Studies,the Program features a nationally recognized faculty, including a number of the field's leading scholar/artists and many of the region's leading professional theater practitioners. One of the country's only undergraduate programs in Theater and Performance Studies, the fast-growing program has rapidly attracted significant national attention for its distinctive curriculum, reflecting the political and international character of Georgetown, as well as for its commitment to social justice and its high-quality, cutting-edge student production seasons. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Molly Smith and Managing Director Edgar Dobie,Washington, D.C.-based Arena Stage has become the largest theater in the country dedicated toAmerican plays and playwrights. Founded in1950 by Zelda Fichandler, Thomas Fichandler and Edward Mangum, Arena Stage was one of the nation's original resident theaters and has adistinguished record of leadership and innovation in the field. With the opening of the new MeadCenter for American Theater in 2010, Arena Stage will be a leading center for the production, presentation, development and study of American theater. Now in its sixth decade, Arena Stageserves a diverse annual audience of more than 200,000. For more information please visit www.arenastage.org

The free public event will be presented at the Gonda Theatre in the Davis Performing Arts Center, Georgetown University, Sunday, January 17, 2010 at 7:30 p.m. Reservations can be made by calling the Arena Stage Sales Office at (202)488-3300. The public event will also be webcasted live here:http://www.arenastage.org/about/news/black-voices.shtml. 

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