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Posts tagged as “Playwright”

Playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney to Adapt and Direct ‘Antony and Cleopatra’

By goodblacknews on November 12, 2012

Tarell Alvin McCraney in 2009.Tarell Alvin McCraney (“The Brothers Size”) will direct and adapt a new production of Shakespeare’s “Antony and Cleopatra” as part of a collaboration among the Public Theater, GableStage in Miami and the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Public announced on Monday. The play will have its premiere at the Stratford-Upon-Avon home of the Royal Shakespeare Company, where Mr. McCraney is an artistic associate, in November 2013, before being staged in Miami in January 2014 and later that month at the Public.

In addition to directing the production, Mr. McCraney edited the text, reordered the scene structure and relocated the play to “the late 1700s against the backdrop of Saint-Domingue, on the eve of the Haitian Revolution against the French,” according to a news release. Casting will take place in London, New York and Miami, Mr. McCraney’s hometown.

A 2007 graduate of Yale, Mr. McCraney has also written the trilogy “The Brother/Sister Plays,” “Wig Out” and other plays, including “Head of Passes,” which will have its premiere in Chicago next year.

The production will be the latest collaboration between the Royal Shakespeare Company and a New York stage. In 2011 the company had a residency at the Park Avenue Armory as part of the Lincoln Center Festival. In March 2013 its production of “Matilda the Musical,” based on the Roald Dahl children’s book and now running in London, is to begin performances on Broadway.

article by Erik Piepenburg via nytimes.com

“Walking Dead” Actress Danai Gurira Wins Whiting Writing Award

By goodblacknews on October 24, 2012
Danai Gurira, best known for her role of Michonne on AMC’s The Walking Dead, has been awarded the Whiting Writers Award.

For those who may not be familiar, Danai Gurira, who made her Broadway debut in 2010 in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone by August Wilson, is an accomplished playwright in her own right.  She co-wrote In the Continuum with Nikkole Salter which received the Obie Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for writing.  Gurira also received a Helen Hayes Award for her performance in In The Contiuum.  Other work written by Gurira includes Eclipsed and The Convert.

Another woman of color honored was Sharifa Rhodes-Pitt a non-fiction writer.  She graduated from Harvard and was a Fulbright Scholar. 

HBO And Oprah Developing Drama On Wealthy Black College President

By goodblacknews on October 24, 2012

HBO and Oprah Winfrey are teaming up to produce an original drama series that will center on “a wealthy academic who has become the first black president of a prestigious liberal arts college. He and his family are thrust into national headlines, forcing them to present an idyllic public façade, all while engaging in agonizing personal battles and struggling with dark obsessions,” says THR.  The series will be penned by playwright Thomas Bradshaw, who will also co-executive produce with Winfrey and Harpo Studios’ Kate Forte.  This is part of a long-term deal Harpo has with HBO to develop miniseries, films, documentaries and scripted series for the network.

article by Tambay A. Obenson via blogs.indiewire.com

GBN Quote Of The Day

By goodblacknews on July 21, 2012

“Life is just a short walk from the cradle to the grave – and it sure behooves us to be kind to one another along the way.” — playwright and author Alice Childress