THEATER IN ASYLUM

Honoring Black Theater, Past and Present

2/24/2022

 
Dear Friends,
Happy February and happy Black History Month! We are continuing our research into The Federal Theatre Project, and this month discussed the Negro Theatre Unit's production of "Voodoo Macbeth". If you're unfamiliar, the Federal Theatre Project supported 17 "Negro Theatre Units" around the country to put Black performers back to work during the Great Depression. The Orson-Welles-directed production of Macbeth in 1936 was a sensation. Check out a short clip of the piece here.
Picture
Crowds gather outside the Lafayette Theatre on opening night of Macbeth, April 14, 1936. Photo via Library of Congress.
Our Cold Readings are also still going strong. We recently finished enjoying our way through the Jeremy O. Harris-curated Golden Collection. This play collection aimed to put important plays by prominent Black writers into libraries and schools and homes across the country.

The Golden Collection includes:
  • Slave Play by Jeremy O. Harris
  • Les Blancs by Lorraine Hansberry
  • The Colored Museum by George Costello Wolfe
  • An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs Jenkins
  • Sweat by Lynn Nottage
  • A Collection of Plays (Wedding Band and Trouble in Mind) by Alice Childress
  • Fucking A by Suzan-Lori Parks
  • We Are Proud to Present a Presentation by Jackie Sibblies Drury
  • The Mountaintop by Katori Hall
  • Is God Is by Aleshea Harris
  • Fires in the Mirror by Anna Deavere Smith
  • Funnyhouse of a Negro by Adrienne Kennedy
  • For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange
  • Bootycandy by Robert O’Hara
  • Dream on Monkey Mountain by Derek Walcott

With each play we explored, we also encouraged attendees to donate to The National Black Theatre, an organization dedicated to “theatre that enhances African American cultural identity by telling authentic, autonomous, multifaceted stories of the Black experience.”

However you celebrate Black history this month and every month, we hope you'll include the incredible theater by Black artists present and past.

Ps. The FTP Book Club is in Full Swing! Our Federal Theatre Project book club is about halfway through Susan Quinn’s Furious Improvisation and enjoying the great conversations our readings have inspired! Though we are coming to the end of this particular book, we have plenty of more readings and discussions planned for the rest of 2022. Want to get involved? Email info@theaterinasylum.com to learn more!
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    10 Years
    Black Lives Matter
    Cabarets
    Cold Readings
    Debates
    EOY Lists
    Friends
    Fundraising
    General Updates
    Giving Tuesday
    Hallie FTP
    Hephaestus
    Hiring / Casting
    Occupy Prescott
    Press
    The Brontës
    Transparency

    Archives

    March 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020

    RSS Feed


Home
About
Community
Productions
News

Theater in Asylum (TIA) is a New York-based theater company founded in 2010 to challenge and empower our community. TIA joyfully pursues a rigorous research and an ensemble-driven approach to theater-making. We create performances to investigate our past, interpret our present, and imagine our future. We prize space to process, space to question—asylum—for ourselves and our community.

DONATE
JOIN MAILING LIST
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
  • NEWS
  • PRODUCTIONS
    • The Nobodies Who Were Everybody
  • CABARETS
  • COLD READINGS
  • SUPPORT
  • MORE
    • MISSION
    • COMMUNITY
    • TRANSPARENCY
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
  • NEWS
  • PRODUCTIONS
    • The Nobodies Who Were Everybody
  • CABARETS
  • COLD READINGS
  • SUPPORT
  • MORE
    • MISSION
    • COMMUNITY
    • TRANSPARENCY