People power plays. Plays power progress.
Join us for free [virtual] readings of exciting NEW WORKS that are in keeping with our mission to bring you risky, adventurous plays that you won’t find anywhere else in Southern California.
2021 FESTIVAL PREVIEW
THURS, DEC 2, 7PM PT
Join us for a discussion with the B/C artistic staff about the four plays chosen for this year’s festival!
REGISTER
N*gga B*tch by June Carryl
SAT, DEC 4, 11AM PT
Directed by Dawn Monique Williams
Nambi keeps dying and coming back: as a captive African princess traded to the New World only to drown in the Atlantic; bludgeoned to death by her Suffragette lover; and as a Black Panther shot down by a policeman’s bullet leaving the scene of a failed bombing. After each incarnation she wakes to find a man in a white coat. Is he God or the devil? Or just the hospital orderly there to deliver her meds? A theatrical riff on existence, letting go, grief, and reinvention.
Jesus Plays Basketball on a Hot Night In Iraq by Tyler Rivenbark
SAT, DEC 4, 2PM PT
Directed by Emilie Pascale Beck
Navigating broken lawnmowers, a trip to Dollywood, and How-to-Grieve pamphlets, Mom and Dad struggle to move forward together after their Veteran son’s suicide. A story about coming together, coming apart, and finding your way home again.
How I Learned to Swim by Somebody Jones
SAT, DEC 11, 11AM PT
Directed by Amy K. Harmon
Jamie wants to learn to swim, which wouldn’t be so scary, except for the fact that she just turned 30. In an attempt to find closure after her brother’s disappearance, she decides to finally face her fear. This coming-of-adulthood story explores Black people’s relationship to water while finally answering the question: Are there really sharks in the deep end of the pool?
Monument: Or Four Sisters (A Sloth Play) by Sam Chanse
SAT, DEC 11, 2PM PT
Directed by Jessica Kubzansky
Four sisters, four sloths. Amy studies coral reefs, Constance writes for children’s television, Mac mysteriously left a job she loves, and Lina is M.I.A. Three sisters embark on intertwined journeys — through a remote coral reef, through a writers room, through community exile, through the absence of a fourth sister they hope to somehow save — and four cartoon sloths valiantly struggle to save the world from disaster. How do we keep going when something impossibly precious seems lost forever?
