A brand new series featuring some of the most exciting new plays by Black playwrights! Every Monday from March 15 to April 5 at 5:30 PM PDT, join us online to hear an exciting new play by a Black playwright, directed by Black directors, and featuring diverse casts of actors. Stick around after each reading for a live online salon hosted by leading artists and scholars, offering an opportunity to converse about topics of race, class, gender, intersectionality and police brutality. Pay what you can at the price that feels right for you to open our hearts and minds, and to listen closely to these essential American voices.

Tickets are Pay What You Can with a suggested price of $20. You will only need to register for access once by clicking the "RSVP" button above. Once you have completed registering at the "RSVP" button above, every Monday you will receive an email the day of the reading with your link. Scroll down for dates, information, and descriptions of the four selected plays.

March 15
Polar Bears, Black Boys, and Prairie Fringed Orchids
By Vincent Terrell Durham
Directed by Rondrell McCormick                           

March 22
Baton
By Deneen Reynolds-Knott
Directed by Dexter Singleton     

March 29
Mud Row
By Dominique Morisseau
Directed by Patricia McGregor

April 5
The Great Khan
By Michael Gene Sullivan
Directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg

Play Descriptions

Polar Bears, Black Boys, and Prairie Fringed Orchids
By Vincent Terrell Durham

With a perfect blend of wit, irony, and humor, this play boldly explores race and redemption in today’s America. The story opens with a liberal white couple hosting a cocktail party at their renovated Harlem brownstone. The guests include a gay Black Lives Matter activist, his white partner, an author and businesswoman, and the mother of a slain 12-year-old black boy. As this precarious party mixes cocktails and conversation about underweight polar bears, Lana Turner, gentrification, racial identity, and protecting the lives of Black boys, the evening reveals the importance of collective action that comes from truth.


Baton
By Deneen Reynolds-Knott

This highly contemporary story tackles today’s headlines: police brutality, Black Lives Matter and the Me Too Movement through the complex lens of human relationships. The story introduces Ava and Tim, a black couple on a date that is interrupted by news of unrest in Baltimore after Freddie Gray’s funeral. Ava and Tim grapple with differing feelings about the case--which, much like George Floyd, included a black man who arrived at the police station unconscious and not breathing. When Ava reveals her past engagement to a White cop, it sparks a night of accusations, interrogations, and confessions.
 

Mud Row
By Dominique Morisseau

Two generations of sisters protect and defy the legacy of their foremothers in this surprisingly funny, heart-pounding, and ultimately hopeful play. Elsie hopes to move up in the world by marrying into “the talented tenth,” while her sister Frances joins the fight for Civil Rights. Decades later, estranged sisters Regine and Toshi are forced to reckon with their shared heritage, and each other, when Regine inherits Granny’s house. Tony Award nominee Dominique Morisseau deftly shifts between past and present to paint a living portrait of family legacy. 


The Great Khan
By Michael Gene Sullivan

In this entertaining piece centering on today’s Black youth, you will find a call to action to fight against the injustices of our modern society. Two Black teens, Jayden and Ant, are connected together through unforeseen circumstances. As they seek to define themselves and reclaim their identity, Genghis Khan shows up to challenge their ideas, as well as our own. We are left with question: WHO gets to tell the story that makes up our history?