In partnership with the Los Angeles Black Creators Collective, we present five new and dynamic works by five of LA’s finest Black writers for the inaugural Playwrights Festival.
This program is brought to you by a generous donation from The Black Seed Fund.
April 1 | 8:00 PM PT
Bridging the Gap by LaDarrion Williams exploring cultural appropriation through the lens of Tik-Tok.
When a White content creator steals the content of Black creatives, three friends from small-town Alabaster, Alabama, fight for their place on an app that constantly erases them. But when a famous filmmaker decides to document their journey, the trio’s bond has to survive jealousy and down-home secrets before the spotlight costs them their friendship. A play on whitewashing, social media, and Black erasure.
April 2 | 2:00 PM PT
The Night in Question by Johnathon Jackson unpacking the series of events that led to the murder of Trayvon Martin.
Trayvon Martin’s murder was no accident. A series of events led to this tragic event that will make you question if it was meant to be or not. This story follows those events as an objective eye to answer the questions, “how we got here” and “what happened”. It takes all the information out there and pieces it together to try and place them in chronological order to give the audience a clearer view into the night in question.
April 2 | 7:00 PM PT
Mine for the Taking by Noro Otitigbe highlighting the generational afflictions that ignite a daughter’s quest for familial healing.
Fourteen-year-old Pisonia has lived in nine different foster homes. Her schizophrenic mother believes an ancestral spirit haunts her. Determined to break what feels like a matrilineal curse, Pisonia seeks refuge in her father, a vagabond musician. But, after a candid encounter with her dad, Pisonia discovers a dark truth that leaves her more lost and alone than ever before.
April 3 | 2:00 PM PT
The Flight of Emina & Zubaida by Aja Houston revealing how twin sisters defend their legacy from an evil entity.
After the brutal murder of the Golden Queen and King, their twin daughters, Emina and Zubaida, are prisoners in their own home, at the mercy of a sinister magical entity known as “The Dark One”. Cursed to be seen as demonic creatures to the outside world, one princely sir knight must break it within 66 days to save the sisters’ lives and their family legacy. Due to the ineptitude of the parading Sirs, Emina, with her gift for logic, and Zubaida, with her gift for language, must find their own way to break free of their death curse.
April 3 | 7:00 PM PT
Kingwood Heights by David Crawford showcasing the ever moving tide to grab hold of the American Dream.
Cecil Waters, a twenty-eight-year-old Vietnam war veteran, purchased a home in the Black middle-class neighborhood of Kingwood Heights, Anytown, USA, with his strong-willed and spry twenty-two-year-old wife of two weeks, Olivia Waters. Cecil strives for his version of the American dream: a legacy built with his own hands, complete with a home for his new wife and future family. But Olivia is the breadwinner and is more than willing to take the reins. Aggravated and unemployed, Cecil is tormented by a secret that threatens to sabotage the very legacy he’s working towards. As if this wasn’t enough, Cecil and Oliva must navigate this new chapter of their lives as an interracial couple in the 1960s.
Each reading is approximately 90 minutes, and will be followed by an audience talk, in conversation with the writer and an LA culture maker.
