Facing Our Truth: Short Plays on Trayvon, Race, and Privilege
Facing Our Truth is a production of six ten-minute plays about race and privilege, all written in the wake of George Zimmerman’s acquittal for killing Trayvon Martin. A different playwright wrote each piece and, although connected by common themes, each piece is distinct.
Maxamoo was fortunate to be invited to the world premiere. It was a traditional staged reading with performers in basic black street clothes, holding scripts, and standing at music stands. The performances were deep and affecting, at times sad, sometimes funny, and always mindful of the underlying tragedy that prompted the gathering.
The playwrights and artists involved, Dominique Morisseau, Winter Miller, Dan O’Brien and Quetzal Flores, Marcus Gardley, Mona Mansour and Tala Manassah, and A. Rey Pamatmat, are an exceptional and already decorated group but we expect to see their names in brighter lights and on bigger marquees in the coming years.
Following the world premiere, theater companies across the U.S. will perform the plays, including the Center Theatre Group (Los Angeles), Alliance Theater (Atlanta), National Black Theatre (New York City), Woolly Mammoth (D.C.), Hansberry Project (Seattle), and Lookingglass Theatre (Chicago).
If Facing Our Truth is coming to a town near you, we urge you to see this production. The theater is a unique venue for exploring difficult subjects and few are as difficult to address as race and privilege in the U.S. With this performance as a backdrop we hope it will spark a forthright discussion or, at least, some personal reflection on the issues so eloquently examined within the plays.
Facing Our Truth is an initiative of The New Black Fest and its artistic director Keith Josef Adkins. The Martin E Segal Theatre Center in New York City hosted the world premiere on December 5, 2013.
Tickets are on sale now for performances February 5-9, 2014 at the National Black Theatre in New York City.
LOCATION
National Black Theatre
2031 5th Avenue
New York, NY 10035
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TICKETS
$25.00 (Click to purchase tickets from OvationTix, the official online ticket seller for Facing Our Truth at the National Black Theatre)
DATE
February 5 – 10, 2014
NEWS
American Theatre
The Trayvon Factor
Los Angeles Times
Plays inspired by Trayvon Martin case coming to Mark Taper Forum
New York Times
Festival of Short Plays Inspired by Trayvon Martin Case
CAST & CREW
(partial list)
Directed by Ebony Golden & Axel Avin Jr.
Written by Dominique Morisseau, Winter Miller, Dan O’Brien with Grammy Award-Winner Quetzal Flores, Marcus Gardley, Mona Mansour and Tala Manassah, and A. Rey Pamatmat