Third Annual Black Theatre Symposium at Clarice Smith, Apr 2 at 9am

Third Annual Black Theatre Symposium at Clarice Smith, Apr 2 at 9am

Third Annual Black Theatre Symposium
Embracing Inclusion and Diversity in American Theatre
Saturday, April 2, 2016 at 9AM

Venue: Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Gildenhorn Recital Hall, General Admission.

Featuring keynote speaker Johnetta Boone. Starting as an aspiringart student at the Duke Ellington School Of The Performing Arts and continuing her studies at FIT, Johnetta Boone has served as a stylist and designer for still photography, television, commercial and feature film arenas for more than two decades. Her images have been featured in Essence, German Vogue, Entertainment Weekly and Us Magazines. As a costume designer she has worked on such notable films as Cadillac Records featuring Beyoncé, The Jane Austen Book Club, The Notebook, Runaway Bride and Beloved. Most recently Ms. Boone has become a collaborator with Tyler Perry on films and TV Shows including Temptation, The Haves and the Have Nots, For Better or For Worse and Love Thy Neighbor.

Sponsored by the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies, the 2016 Black Theatre Symposium (BTS) continues to champion efforts towards inclusion and diversity in American theatre.

In its third year, the BTS symposium will address the overriding theme: “Black Aesthetics: Past, Present, and Future.” Through panel discussions, workshops, and performances, BTS will explore the following:

What is a “Black Theatre Aesthetic”? Which institutions are successfully cultivating black theatre scholars and artists? How do we facilitate inclusion and diversity in the technical and design aspects of the field? Racial Battle Fatigue — How can theatre positively impact the current cultural climate and racial tensions?

Theatre professionals, scholars, and students will convene to discuss and take action around these questions in order to influence and expand practices of inclusion in the field of theatre.

Regular: $30 if purchased on or before March 2, 2016, $40 if purchased on or after March 3, 2016, Students: Free with valid university ID (registration required).

I Hate Hamlet at Laurel Mill Playhouse, Apr 1-17

I Hate Hamlet at Laurel Mill Playhouse, Apr 1 – 17

I Hate Hamlet
by Paul Rudnick
Directed by Ilene Chalmers
Produced by Maureen Rogers

Friday April 1, 2016 through Sunday April 17, 2016

Location: Laurel Mill Playhouse

A young and successful television actor relocates to New York, where he rents a marvelous, gothic apartment. With his television career in limbo, the actor is offered the opportunity to play Hamlet onstage, but there’s one problem: He hates Hamlet. His dilemma deepens with the entrance of John Barrymore’s ghost, who arrives intoxicated and in full costume to the apartment that once was his. The contrast between the two actors, the towering, dissipated Barrymore whose Hamlet was the greatest of his time, and Andrew Rally, hot young television star, leads to a wildly funny duel over women, art, success, duty, television, and yes, the apartment.

Performances run weekends from Friday April 1, 2016 through Sunday April 17, 2016 with Friday and Saturday evening performances at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20 for general admission. Admission for students (12 and under), active duty military and seniors (65 and over) is $15. Tickets can be purchased by clicking the link below. For further information, please call 301-617-9906 and press 2, or contact Maureen Rogers at maureencrogers@gmail.com or 301-452-2557.

Ghetto Symphony at Clarice Smith, Apr 1-3

Ghetto Symphony at Clarice Smith, Apr 1-3

Ghetto Symphony

Fri, Apr 1, 2016 . 7:30PM
Sat, Apr 2, 2016 . 7:30PM
Sun, Apr 3, 2016 . 3:00PM

Venue: Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Dance Theatre, General Admission.

There’s something beautiful about being Black in America. This country where we are stripped of basic human rights, a sense of identity, and the freedom of individuality is what makes us the resilient people we are.

Too often are our stories ignored and too often does society dictate what we think. Now it’s time we tell our own story in our own words.

Free, tickets required. Get tickets here.

American Moor at Clarice Smith, Mar 29, 5p

American Moor at Clarice Smith, Mar 29, 5pm

American Moor
Written and performed by Keith Hamilton Cobb

Tue, Mar 29, 2016 . 5:00PM

Venue: Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Kogod Theatre, General Admission.

American Moor is a 90-minute solo play written and performed by Keith Hamilton Cobb, examining the experience and perspective of black men in America through the metaphor of William Shakespeare’s character, Othello. American Moor is not an “angry black man play.” Rather the diverse audiences that have experienced it echo the piece’s awareness that we see only what we want to see of one another, and that we all long to be wholly noticed and wholly embraced. It is a play about race in America, but it is also about the American theatre, about actors and acting, and about the nature of unadulterated love. It is an often funny, often heartbreaking examination of the pall of privileged perspective that is ultimately so injurious to us all.

Keith Hamilton Cobb is an actor who has spent the majority of his working life on stage and is readily recognized on the streets of New York for several unique character portrayals in television. American Moor is not Mr. Cobb’s first play, but it is the one that is most timely, most truthful, and the one for which he is most suited to perform, for it is a vision of race in America with the entertainment industry as microcosm. And he is now able to reflect upon a lifetime in that industry where no one who was anything like him ever wrote the rules. American Moor is his song to the unheard, unseen other.

Free, tickets required. Tickets do not guarantee admission. To minimize empty seats, we are issuing more tickets than available seats. Arrive early to claim your seat.

Get tickets here.

Theater Skills Workshop at the Huntington Community Center, Mar 25-May 13

Theater Skills Workshop at the Huntington Community Center, Mar 25-May 13

M-NCPPC Theater Skills Workshop for ages 10-15

Fridays, March 25 to May 13, 2016, 7pm to 9pm

Location: Huntington Community Center, 13022 8th Street, Bowie MD.

Learn how to stage a play, including acting, stage design, stage presence, and costume design. Present it to family and friends at the end of the camp session.

Ages 10 yrs. – 15 yrs.

No fee: free course.

To sign up click here.