Actors’/Writers’ GYM

2012

Calling playwrights, screenwriters,

actors, comics and directors

The Actors’/Writers’ GYM is a new studio space designed to support emerging

writers’ and directors’ and trained actors’ growth, explore the collaborative

process and foster partnerships to develop new works.

Facilitated by

Kim Weston-Moran

·        

Saturdays, April 28th, 5:00 – 7:00pm

Special Guests:

Lorna Littleway – Co-Founder and Producing Director, Juneteenth Legacy Theatre ·   Lydia Forte – Director

A conversation with a seasoned Producing Director and an emerging Director.

These two women will share their process, genre of works they are interested in,

problems they have encountered and how they have solved them,

and how they market themselves as artists.

§        

Q & A and Constructive Feedback on your work.

[Bios below]

A.R.T./New York  - South Oxford Space

138 South Oxford Street – Studio B

Brooklyn NY 11217

[“C” to Lafayette Ave - 10 mins. from Manhattan]

$10 Contribution**

Claim your space 

**all funds collected cover cost of space and guest professionals

about our Guest Artists……………..

Lorna Littleway

Lorna Littleway is Co-founding producing of Juneteenth Legacy Theatre. Lorna is a director, playwright, actress, and educator. She is a member of the Society of Directors and Choreographers (SDC), where she serves on the Calloway Committee, and the Dramatists Guild. She is a Drama League alum, a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, and served as President of Black Theatre Network (BTN.). In addition to the plays she has staged for Juneteenth Legacy, Lorna has directed extensively on the regional theatre circuit and at colleges and universities. Some of her credits include: Willie and Esther, featuring Ella Joyce, Black Spectrum (Queens) & National Black Theatre Festival (Winston-Salem, N.C.); In the Continuum, National Black Theatre Festival and St. Louis Black Rep; Radio Golf, Robert Johnson Trick the Devil, 7 Guitars, Home, Kingdom of Earth, Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery, and Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, St. Louis Black Rep; Miss Evers Boys, The Grandmama Tree: a folkfable, Stamford Theatre Works; Honey, Hush! An Uprising Over Some Green, Horizon Theatre (Atlanta); Your Obituary Is a Dance, Actors Theatre; Spunk, New Rep (Boston); Fences, Fleetwood Stage and South Jersey Regional; A Member of the Wedding, TNT (Pa.); Photographs: Lovers in Motion, InterAct (Philadelphia); Mister Bluesman, 5th Biennial National Black Theatre Festival and International Fringe Festival (NYC); A Raisin in the Sun, with Irma Hall , Little Theatre (Dallas) and Lehigh University; for colored girls who've considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf, Queens College; The Grapes of Wrath, Iowa State University; Twilight Los Angeles, 1992, The Homecoming, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Trouble in Mind and Funnyhouse of a Negro, University of Louisville. Lorna was a Minskoff Fellow at Lehigh University.Lorna is a 2002 Dramatist Guild Fellow, a recipient of the 2002 Sallie Bingham Award from the Kentucky Foundation for Women, and the 2009 Tower Award for Women Leaders in Arts & Communication from Presentation Academy. She has received new play development grants and fellowships from the Drama League, Stage Directors Foundation, Kentucky Arts Council and Kentucky Foundation for Women. Lorna's plays, Bang! Bang! Bang! Again and Again, Bang! Bang! Bang!, Young Sistas, Motion and Location, A Lil Chat With God, If You Love Me, A Collective Piss and the Devil's Beating His Wife, Fin'ly Free, Billy, Lena and The Duke: A Night of Ellington Music!, Juneteenth Blues Cabaret, and Kindler Genter Nation; and adaptations, Tall Tales and Short Sayings, August Wilson’s Women have been produced in New York City for “Field Day” at Abrons Art Center, Ensemble Studio, Vital Theatre Company, Black Spectrum Theater, Nuyorican Poets Café, Midtown International Theatre Festival, and FringeNYC [Click here for link to press page]; and regionally:  Luna Sea (San Francisco), Little Theatre (Dallas), Chocolate Church (Bath, Maine); colleges: Iowa State University (Ames) and Purdue University.  Onstage, Lorna has performed in the company's cabaret production . . . A Night of Ellington Music! as "Billy", in the chamber theatre production, The Last Dust Track, assuming the persona of Harlem Renaissance writer, Zora Neale Hurston, and in several Jamboree plays, Junetenth Blues Cabaret, Till, Passing Ceremonies and Diva Daughters DuPree as "Grandma". Lorna, also, was featured lecturer/performer for Women's History Month, 2004, at Central Florida University in Orlando, where she presented Bang! Bang! Bang! and The Last Dust Track.  Lorna has taught acting, directing, voice, movement and African-American dramatic literature and history at Queens College, University of Louisville, where she designed the African American Theatre minor degree program and served as Co-Director of the AATP ('94- '99), and Iowa State University-Ames, where she was Artistic Director of Minority Theatre Workshop ('93.)

Lydia Fort

Lydia Fort has directed and developed work at several theatres including The Public Theater, Ensemble Studio Theater, Ma-Yi, Classical Theatre of Harlem, Soho Think Tank, New Federal Theatre, New Professional Theatre, the Ethnic Culture Theatre in Seattle and Southern Rep in New Orleans. She was a New York Theatre Workshop Directing Fellow, Drama League Directing Fellow and a TCG New Generations Future Leaders Grantee. She received an MFA in Directing and a Certificate in Arts Management for the Performing Arts from the University of Washington. Ms. Fort is an Assistant Professor at The City College of New York where she teaches Directing, Suzuki/Viewpoints Actor Training and Non-Western Drama.

March 30th

Talvin Wilks

TALVIN WILKS is a playwright, director and dramaturg. His plays include Tod, the boy, Tod, The Trial of Uncle S&M, Bread of Heaven, and An American Triptych.  Directorial projects include the world premiere productions of UDU by Sekou Sundiata (651Arts/BAM), The Love Space Demands by Ntozake Shange (Crossroads), No Black Male Show/Pagan Operetta by Carl Hancock Rux (Joe’s Pub/The Kitchen), Banana Beer Bath by Lynn Nottage, (Going to the River Festival), the Obie Award/AUDELCO Award winning The Shaneequa Chronicles by Stephanie Berry (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Relativity by Cassandra Medley (Ensemble Studio Theatre – AUDELCO nomination for Best Director 2006), On the Way to Timbuktu by Petronia Paley (Ensemble Studio Theatre – AUDELCO nomination for Best Director 2008), and Anne and Emmett by Janet Langhart-Cohen (Atlas Theatre). He has served as co-writer/dramaturg for ten productions in Ping Chong’s ongoing series of Undesirable Elements, and dramaturg for five collaborations with the Bebe Miller Company, Going to the Wall, the Bessie Award winning, Verge, Landing/Place for which he received a 2006 Bessie Award, Necessary Beauty and the upcoming History. Recent dramaturgical collaborations also include work with Camille Brown and Dancers (Mr. TOL E. RaNcE), Carmen DeLavallade (My Life in Dance and Theatre and Legends I Met Along the Way) and Ping Chong (The Civil War Project). He is currently writing a book on black theatre, Testament: 40 Years of Black Theatre History in the Making, 1964-2004, and recently curated The Aunt Ester Cycle, a theatre festival at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture in Pittsburgh, PA.

Petronia Paley

PETRONIA PALEY, Actor, Director, Playwright and Teacher.  Ms. Paley recently reprised her awarding role of Dr. Selene Slater-Bernaud in ON THE WAY TO TIMBUKTU at the Turtle Shell Theatre, New York City. Originally premiering at Ensemble Studio Theatre, her critically acclaimed one-person play was nominated for three Audelco Awards and two Innovative Theatre Awards. Acting credits: 2 DAYS IN NEW YORK NEW YORK, STRAY Dr. Tanya Baker in Cherry Lane Theatre; FX’s DAMAGES; Linda death of a salesman at Oberlin College; ELECTRA, Clytemnestra in the Classical Theatre of Harlem’s (Audelco Award); Gertrude HAMLET, Take Wings and Soar Production; Dr. Iris Preston in EST’s RELATIVITY (Audelco Award nomination); Gratiana, The Revenger’s Tragedy Red Bull Theatre;Madame Ranevskya CHERRY ORCHARD (Audelco nomination), The Classical Theatre of Harlem; Jocasta/Eurydice THE OEDIPUS PLAYS Shakespeare Theatre; Regan, KING LEAR Yale Repertory; Hecuba Trojan Women Shakespeare Theatre (Helen Haynes Nomination); Prosecutor THE TRIALNew Federal Theatre (Audelco Award ). She is a veteran of daytime creating long running characters on GUIDING LIGHT and ANOTHER WORLD. Directing credits: MUNCHED Sugarvalley Threaticals,; ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA Take Wing and Soar Productions; MEDEA, Wing and Soar Productions; TRUTH BE TOLD, Ensemble Studio Theatre; Daughter, Ensemble Studio; The I the Actor Showcases; Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre’s Raul Julia Showcases HOW MANY GOOD BYES MUST WE SAY? Julia de Burgos; CAN WE DANCE Riverside Church; SPIC CHIC Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Repertorio Espangol and The Chelsea Playhouse; ASCENSION Cherry Lane Theatre, National Black theatre Festival. Writing Credits: ON THE WAY TO TIMBUKTU, THE EMPTY-HAND TRAVELER SET NO LIMIT TO HER DESIRES, THE PSYCHO-GENESIS OF SEXUALITY IN A WOMAN; and a children’s book. Teaching credits: Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center, The Puerto Rican Traveling, and the New Federal Theatre. She is the founder and executive director of I the Actor Acting Workshops. Member of the Actors Studio and Ensemble Studio Theatre.

Stephanie Berry

March 10th

Daniel Carlton

DANIEL CARLTON is an actor, writer, and professional storyteller. Recent theater credits include : The Meeting (Malcolm X), Scribbling at The Automat (James Baldwin), Dreaming In Tongues (Labyrinth Theater Company(The Dreamer) and Chasing Heaven (NYC Fringe Festival). As a storyteller he has toured extensively with his “The Eagle In Harlem And Other Tales” and is currently on the roster of Summerstage NYC artists as a storyteller. Older projects include “The Children Of War Theatre Project (Dir. Larry Sacharow), which tells the stories of war refugees; It has been performed in Moscow, Sarajevo, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Cambodia, and The Asia Society (NYC) More recently: “Timeless Journeys” a series of seven fictional monologues based on the actual history of free African Americans in Brooklyn, NY was commissioned by The Weeksville Heritage Society for both onsite performances and theatrical performances to highlight the story of this National Landmark; it was also presented by New Perspectives Theater Co. The Schomberg Center has presented his play “The Dream Inn, based on the poetry of Langston Hughes, and frequently uses him to conduct workshops around the poet’s work. Co-author of "A Whistle in Mississippi: Lynching of Emmett Till", currently touring (Shades Of Truth Theater Company) . During the summer of 2002 he helped to create a theatre lab at the WindyBrow Theatre in Johannesburg, South Africa. Daniel is the primary playwright of “Shelter; Refugees of The American Dream”, which was produced by Blackberry Productions . Creation? His multi –character solo show has been seen both locally and nationally.” Pig foot Mary Says Goodbye to The Harlem Renaissance “, a verse play was produced by The Metropolitan Playhouse (January 2011). He is currently writing, "When Smalls Had It All," a solo verse play with live music commissioned by Jazz Mobile and The City Parks Foundation for both the Summer of 2012's Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, and Spring 2012 performances in Harlem.  He is the Artistic Director of Committed Artists Of Color.

Larry Floyd

LARRY FLOYD is a New York based Artist and Co-Founder/CVO of Obsidian Media Group who has written several plays. As an actor he was last seen in Samm- Art William's "The Waiting Room" at the Billie Holiday Theatre. Other performances: TWAS’s “King Lear” with Trezana Beverly, "Jump Jim Crow” (Best Supporting Actor), Man #2 in the Award Winning “Black Man Rising” at the Players Theatre and at the National Black Theatre in NYC (4 “The VIV” AUDELCO Awards including “Dramatic Performance"), “Second” with John McDonald (Cagle & Co.), “SANGO, Lord of Thunder” (National Black Theatre), “Two Gentlemen of Verona” (Manhattan Rep), Jesus Christ Superstar, Purlie, You Can't Take it With You, A Streetcar Named Desire, In The Blood, Natasha, Seven Guitars, “Henry II”, “Henry IV” - Parts 1 & 2, “Henry V” and “King Lear” with Avery Brooks (Yale Repertory). He is a proud member of AEA, AFTRA. Larry is also casting five (5) Projects this year (2 film, 3 theatre), and recommends actors to bring headshots and resumes and he will forward them to the Casting Director.

March 3rd:

Judyie Al-Bilali

For over thirty years Judyie Al-Bilali has been an innovator in performing arts and arts education and has worked in off-Broadway, regional, community and educational theatre. She was a Fulbright Scholar in South Africa and is currently a Fulbright Senior Specialist. Having taught at universities and colleges in the US, she is faculty in Educational Theatre at NYU. Al-Bilali received a BA in African American Performing Arts and a MFA in Directing from the University of Massachusetts. She is the recipient of a Jacob Javits Fellowship in Arts and Humanities, along with grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts and National Endowment for the Arts. As an arts administrator she worked at Crossroads Theatre Company, New York State Council on the Arts, Actors Theatre of Louisville and served on the Kentucky Arts Council. Al-Bilali just released a memoir about her work in South Africa entitled For the Feeling: Love & Transformation from New York to Cape Town available on www.amazon.com