Bowie State University and AccokeekCreek Theatreco announce ShortStack v3!

ShortStack v3:

The Body Washer by Rosemary Frisino Toohey
The Constellation by Gwydion Suilebhan
Luck Ain't Got Nothin' To Do With It by Glenn Alan
Madrigal in Black and White by Patricia Montley
Mayor 4 Life by John Muller
Pier by Joe Dennison
Plan B by Christine Hirrel

ShortStack @ The Kennedy Center’s Page-to-Stage Festival this Labor Day Weekend (Sunday, 9/2 at 2:00 PM in the North Atrium Foyer). ShortStack @ BSU's Thurgood Marshall Library (Thursday and Friday, September 13 and 14, 7:30 PM)

There are always and only two trains running. There is life and there is death. Each of us rides them both. To live life with dignity, to celebrate and accept responsibility for your presence in the world is all that can be asked of anyone. —August Wilson

BSU Theatre and the Department of Fine and Performing Arts presents

TWO TRAINS RUNNING by August Wilson

1969. Pittsburgh. Urban unrest and the Black Power Movement. A diner in the once prosperous Hill District.

April 18, 19, 20, 21 @ 8:00 PM
April 19, 20 @ 10:00 AM
April 22 @ 3:00 PM
in the Samuel Myers Auditorium
on the campus of Bowie State University

$10 general admission
$5 students
$3 high school students

seating is limited | tix 301.860.3717

directed by Bob Bartlett

http://bsutheatre.blogspot.com/

Bowie State University and AccokeekCreek Theatreco announce a CALL FOR PLAYS for ShortStack v3!

Playwrights from Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia are invited to submit their short works to Bowie State University’s annual new play festival. We enjoy plays that experiment with structure and language and address race, class, and power in America.

Submission Guidelines

ShortStack v3 is sponsored by Bowie State University and the Department of Fine and Performing Arts with AccokeekCreek Theatreco. Short Stack 2.0 featured plays by Audrey Cefaly, D.W. Gregory, Steve LaRocque, Michael Leicht, Mark Scharf, and Steven Schutzman.

August Wilson's 20th Century, staged readings of the late playwright's ten-play cycle chronicling the African-American experience decade by decade, will highlight a theatre season at the Kennedy Center that also includes Disney's The Lion King, the West End production of My Fair Lady and Barbara Cook as singer and curator of a cabaret series. (www.kennedy-center.org).

Join BSU Theatre for our annual dance concert on Friday and Saturday, March 9 & 10 @ 8:00 pm. Performances by Bowie State students, Deeply Intense Dance Company, Kinetic Dance Theatre, AATC Dance Company, Eruption and more.

TWO TRAINS RUNNING

Cast List (in order of appearance)

Memphis		Jared Shamberger
Wolf		Nicholas Barnes (u/s Marquis Eure)
Risa		Deborah White (u/s Nicole Carter)
Holloway		Gabriel (Tsion) Bennett
Sterling		David Hooker (u/s Marquis Eure)
Hambone		Marquis Eure (u/s Tony Dennis)
West		Elton Pittman (u/s Tony Dennis)

Thanks so much to all who auditioned. Check here throughout the semester for audition and training opportunities on campus and throughout the area.

In Recognition to Black History Month Serenity Players, Inc. presents

Waiting To Be Invited

By S. M. Shephard-Massat
Directed by Cody Jones

FEATURING BSU's Professor Renee' Charlow!!

March 2, 2007 11:00 AM** & 7:30 PM
March 3, 2007 1:00 PM & 7:30 PM

THEARC Theatre
1901 Mississippi Ave., SE
Washington, DC

Ticket Information Contact: Doris A.M.Thomas 202-575-4248 or Gertrude Saleh 202-583-3128

Admission Price:
$10.00 senior citizens 60+/students under 18 years old
$15.00 general admission
$5.00 students from school-sponsored programs for the Friday, March 2, 11:00 am multi-generational matinee performance only

Reservations recommended from schools and group sponsored programs. Persons with permanent disabilities and their companion are offered half-price tickets. Two weeks notice required for the sign-interpreted matinee performance.

Tickets are also sold at the door on the day of the performance by cash, check or credit card.

On-line: www.serenityplayers.org. Go to the TicketLeap link.

“A poignant [funny] play… underscores the goodness of ordinary people at their best” ---Christian Science Monitor

“Considered strictly as theater, it would be well worth seeing in the context of Black History Month, this show is essential viewing.” ---KDHX Theatre Review

Waiting to be Invited

Drama/Comedy by S. M. Shephard-Massat

It is the summer of 1964 in Atlanta, GA. Four middle-aged black women, co-workers from a local doll factory, travel by city bus to a “whites only” eating establishment inside a downtown Atlanta department store. Their purpose is to “test” their newly acquired civil rights handed down by the Supreme Court ruling outlawing racial segregation in eating establishments. This funny, touching play received the Kennedy Center Roger L. Stevens Award for New Playwrights and the Adrienne Kennedy Award for Most Promising Young Dramatist.

WASHINGTON, DC
Non-Equity Open Call

WHAT: An open call audition for non-equity and EMC actors in the Washington, DC area.

WHEN: Saturday 3/10 and Sunday 3/11, 2007 from 9:45 a.m. to 8 p.m. Deadline to reserve an audition slot: 9 a.m. Monday, 3/5.

WHERE: Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, 641 D St NW, Washington, DC 20004.

WHO: Non-equity and EMC actors only.

Auditors include:
• Didactic Theatre Company
• Forum Theatre & Dance
• The Hatchery Festival 2007
• Journeymen Theatre
• Longacre Lea
• Rorschach Theatre
• Solas Nua
• Theatre Alliance
• DC-based freelance directors
• AND MORE!

What to prepare:
• A 90-second monologue OR a 3-minute scene with a partner.
• If you choose to present a scene, please let dcauditions@gmail.com know when you reserve your slot. We will consider this scene an audition for both you and for your scene partner and will double the time accordingly.
• Please make sure that your scene/monologue does not run longer than the requested times. We will stop you if you run over allotted time.
• You will have 5 minutes with the auditors if you prepare a 90-second monologue. You and your partner will have 10 minutes with the auditors if you prepare a 3-minute scene
• Each 5 or 10 minute slot will run as follows:
• Present monologue/scene.
• 30-second adjustment from one of the auditors.
• Re-present adjusted monologue/scene.

To reserve a slot
• Email dcauditions@gmail.com.
• Please make the subject of the email your first and last name.
• In the body of the email:
• Let us know your top two time slots on either 3/10 or 3/11. FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED.
• The time slots are as follows:
9:45-11:30 a.m.
11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.
1:30 - 3 p.m.
3 - 5 p.m.
6 - 8 p.m.

You will be scheduled in an one-hour block within one of your requested time slots.

DEADLINE TO RESERVE YOUR AUDITION SLOT: 9 a.m. Monday 3/5.

On the day of the audition, arrive when requested; bring 15 copies of your headshot and resume, attached; and sign in with the front desk, in the front lobby at Woolly.

INTERESTED IN VOLUNTEERING TO HELP WITH THE EVENT?
Email dcauditions@gmail.com with the subject line VOLUNTEER and let us know when you would be available to help!

QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? WANT TO AUDIT?
Contact dcauditions@gmail.com

Join us this Friday and Saturday evenings on the campus of Bowie State University for our bi-annual BLACK RENAISSANCE BISTRO, featuring the vocal talents of Tahra Carson, Elliott Moffitt, Elton Pittman, Shawneka Ponder, Mary-Frances Roes, Kadejah Smith (Special Guest Appearance), Veda Whisnant, and Deborah White. Directed by Professor Elliott Moffitt with musical direction by Professor Gilbert Pryor.

AUGUST WILSON'S TWO TRAINS RUNNING
Auditions: February 19 & 21 @ 3:00 PM in Myers Auditorium

Casting: six African-American men and one woman, college-aged and up
cold readings from the script

Performances: April 18 - 21 @ 8:00 PM, 19, 20 @ 10:00 AM, and 21 @ 3:00 PM

directed by Professor Bob Bartlett (bbartlett@bowiestate.edu for more info)

Synopsis: Set in Memphis Lee's Restaurant in 1969 Pittsburgh where a turbulent world and changing community are viewed through the lives of a group of diner regulars. Like many other buildings in the community, the popular restaurant is scheduled to be torn down as part of the city's renovation project. Amidst it all, community residents struggle to cope, fight back when they can and keep their spirits high with humor, compassion, loud voices and big hearts.

Photo caption from left to right: BSU Theatre major David Hooker, AEA Member Kevin Jiggets, Professor Elliott Moffitt, Q. Terah Jackson, Lawrence K. Boyd, and BSU Theatre major David Hooker Jared Shamberger in a cutting of A SOLDIER'S PLAY by Charles Fuller. (directed by Bob Bartlett for The Studio Theatre's directing workshop, January 2007)

BSU THEATRE presents ten short plays 365 PLAYS/365 DAYS
by Susan-Lori Parks

February 5 - 11, 2007
in performances across campus
and in the unlikeliest of places

and see the ten plays performed together on
February 8 and 9, 2007 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm in the Myers Auditorium

The 1st Constant (Remember Who You Are)
The 2nd Constant (Action in Inaction)
The 3rd Constant (Inaction in Action)
(5th) Fail and Farewell
(6th) Worms
(7th) The Lake Shore Limited
(8th) Orange
(9th) The Original Motherfucker
(9th again) Sometimes God is a Soprano
(10th) Father Comes Home from the Wars (Part 2)
(11th) The River Through Elizabethtown, New Jersey

directed by Professors Bob Bartlett & Jennifer Dorsey, and theatre majors Jared Shamberger & Frances Burnett

BSU Theatre | School of Arts and Sciences | Department of Fine and Performing Arts

We're WEEK 13!!

Auditions: Susan-Lori Parks' 365 PLAYS/365 DAYS

BSU Theatre invites the campus community to be a part of this unique theatrical experience as we celebrate
African-American History Month

• no experience necessary
• speaking & non-speaking roles
• these short plays will be performed across campus during the week of Feb 5 –11

interest meeting and audition on January 30 and February 1 in the Myers Auditorium at 4:00 pm

email bbartlett@bowiestate.edu
for more information

Welcome back!

If you find yourself in the Silver Spring area tonight, stop by Round House Theatre for another Extreme Exchange, an evening of new short works including my play “four actors waiting in a bread line” with a cast of Tina Renay Fulp, Erika Imhoof, Cassie Lee, and Juliette Kelsey-Chagnon.


Extreme Exchange Presents
Dreams and Nightmares for America: The Halloween Edition

October 30th 7:30pm at
Round House Theatre Silver Spring

This event is free & open to the public

Extreme Exchange (“XX”) brings theatre artists together from across the DC area to tackle national issues that are on our minds but not our stages. Join us for an evening of freshly written scenes & short plays, followed by what’s sure to be a lively talkback. Our goal is to foster a free and open debate that speaks to multiple sides of any given issue, so bring your opinions as well as an open mind.

Started in NYC during the Republican Convention in 2004, XX came to DC in 2005 and has featured work by artists from Rorschach Theater, Charter Theater, Theater J, ACTCo, Theatre Alliance, Quotidian Theater Company, AccokeekCreek Theatreco and others. Now in its third DC edition, XX brings you this special event a week before one of the most important mid-term elections our nation has ever held.

For more information email extremeexchange@gmail.com.

WASHINGTON AREA THEATERS JOIN NATIONWIDE PREMIERE OF SUZAN-LORI PARKS’ 365 DAYS/365 PLAYS

Part of Year-Long National Festival in 14 Cities and Communities

Terrific news!! Studio Theatre has accepted our Project 365 proposal. BSU will produce seven days of 365 Days / 365 Plays by Suzan-Lori from February 5 - 11, 2007 at a variety of locations across campus.

WHAT IS 365 DAYS/365 PLAYS?
365 Days/365 Plays started in November 2002 when Suzan-Lori Parks committed to writing a play a day for the next 365 days. From Nov 13, 2006– Nov 12, 2007 the 365 Days/365 Plays National Festival will present the work simultaneously across the country, creating the largest collaboration in the history of American theater.

Run of the Mill Theater in Baltimore, dedicated to new and experimental plays, presents a South African Play Festival at Theatre Project from November 16 - December 31. The Festival includes two mainstage productions, several staged readings and a South African dance company. The two mainstage productions include "Sizwe Banzi is Dead" and "Statements after an Arrest Under the Immorality Act," both written by Fugard as part of a trilogy.

Character descriptions: Sizwe Banzi: two African or African-American male actors, one in twenties, one in thirties or early forties; the cast is made up of only two actors, and both create a world onstage through costume changes and physicality | Statements after an Arrest: one African or African-American male actor in late twenties, early thirties; the cast is made up of only three actors, and this character is driving the piece; complexity and intensity needed; movement based piece | although nudity is requested in the script, actors will be clothed in this piece

I saw a final dress rehearsal of Crestfall at The Studio Theatre on Tuesday night ... haunting, beautiful, grotesque, Irish, three women, three monologues, 85 wonderful minutes. See it if you get the chance.

BSU Children's Theatre presents

MOTHER GOOSE ON THE LOOSE
October 26 @ 10:00 AM, October 27 @ 12:00 noon and October 28 @ 1:00 PM (these are revised performance times) in the Myers Auditorium

directed by Professor Renee’ Charlow

OPEN CASTING CALL - UNION AND NON-UNION ACTORS WANTED FOR INDUSTRIAL FILM FOR CAMPUS CRUSADE

Looking for college age to senior citizens; working class to white collar; male and female across Hispanic, white, Asian and African American ethnicities actors. Actors do not need to be Christians. Shooting will take place in DC during selected dates from October 30 - November 20. Bring headshot and resume. Cold readings.

Auditions:
Friday, October 20 - 6:00pm - 10:00pm
Saturday, October 21 - 1:00pm - 6:00pm

Crystal Gateway Marriott
1700 Jefferson Davis Highway
(right off the Crystal City Metro stop)

LOCAL AUDITION

ANTON IN SHOW BUSINESS by Jane Martin, presented by Port City Playhouse, Alexandria, VA

directed by Chuck Dluhy; produced by Dick Schwab | Three actresses are cast in a regional production of Anon Chekhov’s The Three Sisters and find themselves caught up in a wonderland of power politics and ego conflicts. A multi-character and multi-faceted comedy, Anton in Show Business explores the question of why the show must go on and answers that question in ways that are as perceptive as they are funny.

Casting 7 females including 1 African-American female. Strong comedic skills are required for all roles. Some roles require playing both sexes and/or the use of one or more dialects including New York City, Texas, Russian, Polish, British and Jamaican. Auditions are open call & will consist of cold readings from the script.

Auditions: November 6 & 7 at 7:00PM at the Lee Center, Alexandria, VA
Callbacks: November 9 at 7:00PM
Performances: January 19 – February 3

Detailed character information and audition readings can be found at the PCP website: www.portcityplayhouse.com

Theatre Alliance opens Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye this week. I'll check on group rates. The play runs through November 5. Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye is brought to the stage with rich language and bold theatrical vision! Ohio. 1940. Pecola Breedlove wants nothing more than to be loved by her family and schoolmates. Blaming her dark skin for her nothingness, she prays for blue eyes, sure that they will have the power to change her world.

The Department of Fine and Performing Arts announces the winners of ShortStack v2:

Festival Winner: Sakina by Michael Leicht
First Runner Up: Why We Invented God by D.W. Gregory
Second Runner Up (tie): The Bank by Stephen Schutzman and Chess Game by Stephen LaRoqcue
Audience Favorite: Sakina by Michael Leicht

Please look for submission information soon for ShortStack v3. Winning playwrights receive a monetary prize. A panel of BSU theatre faculty and students determine awards based on readings of the script and not production.

Good news! BSU will host The Annapolis Film Festival during the weekend of November 10 in CLT 102. Tickets will be available to the public and students will be admitted free!! The festival is co-sponsored by the Department of Fine and Performing Arts and BSU's SGA. I'm co-coordinating the event with Professor Tewodross Melchishua. Check back for more information. The Festival includes animation, documentary, urban, world cinema, etc.

um ... wow.

from theatremania: KENNEDY CENTER TO PRESENT AUGUST WILSON'S "PITTSBURGH CYCLE" IN SPRING 2008 By: Michael Portantiere

In Spring 2008, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. will present the late Pulitzer Prize-winner August Wilson's complete "Pittsburgh Cycle" of 10 plays dealing with the African-American experience in the 20th century. Each play will be given three staged readings with costumes, lighting, and scenery in the center's Terrace Theater. Kenny Leon will serve as the month-long festival's artistic director and will direct several of the plays; two other directors will be named at a later date.

Nine out of 10 of the plays are set in Pittsburgh, and the action of each unfolds during a different decade of the 1900s. At the Kennedy Center, the plays will be presented under the umbrella title August Wilson's 20th Century. The 10 works that make up the cycle are Gem of the Ocean, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars, Fences, Two Trains Running, Jitney, King Hedley II, and Radio Golf. Wilson died of liver cancer on October 2, 2005.

Leon was represented on Broadway by Gem of the Ocean and the 2004 revival of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. He also directed a touring production of Radio Golf that is now playing at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston and is expected to reach Broadway in April 2007. Currently, he is directing The Public Theater's production of Daniel Beaty's solo show Emergence-See!, which will begin performances on October 10.

Free tickets for tomorrow night's production of MacBird at American Century Theatre in Arlington. Who's interested? Email me @ bbartlett@bowiestate.edu if you want to join me.

I saw Journeymen's Spinning Into Butter last week. Terrific production. They're seeking interns, so hit their link and contact artistic director Deborah Kirby. I also saw Charter Theatre's Short Order Stories. It's great to see a company dedicated to new plays.

Journeymen Theatre (Artistic Director Deborah Kirby) is currently running Rebecca Gilman's play Spinning into Butter at the Clark Street Playhouse in Arlington. Wednesday nights are "pay-what-you-can" so I suggest we get a group of students and faculty together to see the production. The play is directed by Jeff Kennan. "When one of the few African American students at liberal Belmont College begins receiving hate mail, the campus erupts, first with shock, then with mutual recrimination as faculty and students alike try to prove their own tolerance by condemning one another." Post a comment if you would like to join us. Read a review of the production at DC Theatre Reviews. And check out Journeymen's mission ... they're a faith-based theatre company.

BSU Theatre and AccokeekCreek Theatreco teamed up to present ShortStack v2: A New Play Festival at the Kennedy Center’s Page-to-Stage Festival over Labor Day weekend. Last spring the Department of Fine and Performing Arts put out a call for new plays from playwrights living in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC. Short plays by Audrey Cefaly, DW Gregory, Stephen LaRocque, Michael Leicht, Mark Scharf, and Steven Schutzman were selected for the reading. Check out DC Theatre Reviews for some nice comments about ShortStack. The cast consisted of BSU theatre majors and members of AccokeekCreek Theatreco. Join us in the Myers Auditorium on September 14 and 15 @ 7:30 PM to see the plays up on their feet. ShortStack v2 is directed by Professors Bob Bartlett and Renee' Charlow.

BSU Theatre announces its AY 2006/07 season.

And a cast photo with stage manager Jared Shamberger and student director Charlene Johnson.

BSU's spring 2006 production of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues, directed by Charlene Johnson with a cast including Shawneka Ponder, Brittaney Woods, Deborah White, Dominique Colding, and Mary “Justice” Roes.

BSU's fall 2005 production of Romulus Linney's adaptation of Earnest Gainses's novel A Lesson Before Dying, directed by Bob Bartlett (Aaron Moss as Jefferson, lighting and scenic design by Bob Bartlett)

Welcome to BSU Theatre, the blog for all things theatre at Bowie State University and in the Baltimore/Washington region.