Nine evenings of heart-warming, dramatic, funny, heart-breaking, and provocative short plays and monologues by 12 emerging Black playwrights.
Performances by various directors, including Stephanie Hickling Beckman, take place April 6-22 at 7:30 p.m. at the Wortham Center for the Performing arts, 18 Biltmore Avenue in Asheville.
Join the Different Strokes Performing Arts Collective for a mix of 15 intriguing pieces, including the work of Cooper Bates, award-winning writer of Black When I Was A Boy. Cooper will be premiering Soul’d Out, the sequel to Black When I Was a Boy.
Ask Me, a monologue written by Debra Cole
Friday, April 14 and Saturday, April 22
A retired teacher is still guiding the questions. Featuring Alexandra McPherson.
Black When I Was A Boy, a play written by and starring Cooper Bates
Thursdays April 6, 13, and 20
Black When I Was A Boy is an honest, moving, and even humorous look at a complex, fascinating, and powerful coming of age story. It’s Cooper Bates’ autobiographical recollection of the extraordinary inner life of his younger self – Frankie Bates. Growing up as a black child in a small caucasian community in Kansas (population 1,500), Bates never saw himself as black until he was cast as Jim in the school production of Huckleberry Finn in 6th grade.
Black’d Out, a play written by and starring Cooper Bates
Thursdays April 6, 13, and 20
Black’d Out explores Frankie’s journey through young adulthood as his pursues his dream of becoming an actor in a world which prioritizes his blackness as something to be stereotyped and tokenized. This play contains descriptions of rape culture and violence.
BuT yOuR eNgLiSh Is So GoOd! A play written by Paloma Sierra directed by Kristi DeVille
Friday, April 14 and Friday, April 21
A choreopoem inspired by the phrase “But your english is so good!” Featuring Alex McDonald Villareal, with Daniel Henry, Kirby Gibson, Lauren Otis and Alexandra McPherson.
You Are Going To Do Amazing Things, a monologue…
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