Sept. 11, 2010 - PRLog -- There was once a time when taking into account the contemporary African-American playwright, names like August Wilson, James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry and Charles Fuller rolled easily off of the tongue. As the current urban theater landscape is dominated by the enormous presence of Tyler Perry and his many clones, theater goers are gaining less exposure to more traditional theater work by not only those pioneers but more recent scribes such as Lynn Nottage and Lydia Diamond. Also fighting to find an avenue for their collective voices to be heard is a new breed of up and coming talent who have chosen to stay true to the more organic form of storytelling and to resist pursuing the more popular "chitlin circuit" world of big budget tours with resounding gospel musical numbers and six figure sets. Fortunately, through a local grass roots effort in Philadelphia, doors are opening.
On September 20, 2010 the inaugural Philly Urban Theater Festival (PUTF) descends upon Philadelphia. Thirteen African American playwrights will take a step into history. The Philly Urban Theater Festival is the concept of GoKash Productions’ Kash Goins and will present fourteen different productions over twenty one days on two stages for a total of forty two shows. Goins, a two- time NYC Downtown Urban Theater Festival award winning playwright, saw a need to help cultivate a "fertile ground for this underserved and grossly unrepresented, yet talented group of artists." There will be various styles of stage presentation during the PUTF, including a choreo-poem inspired by Ntozake Shange’s “For Colored Girls…”, spoken word, traditional drama and satire to name just a few. Topics ranging from HIV/AIDS, redemption, betrayal, abortion, education, politics, LGBT relationships, and Diabetes will be amongst the vast array of presentations. Per Goins, “The idea behind the selection of works to be presented is that there are many different voices that speak to the current African American experience and those experiences vary all the same”. Goins’ own companion pieces, the Award Winning productions “VI Degrees” which sheds a highly entertaining yet sobering light on the disproportionate prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the African American community and it’s sequel “VII Deadly Sins”, which is rich in Diabetes awareness and the importance of reporting the crime of date rape will each have week-long featured presentations.
The PUTF will kick off on September 20, 2010 with a happy hour “meet and greet” reception at Warmdaddy’s Restaurant that’s free to the festival participants and the public. Shows will begin on the evening of September 21st and conclude on October 10th at the Adrienne Theatre, 2030 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103. The featured voices in the festival are: Kash Goins, Tiffany Joyner, Race Brown, Briana Cannon, Donja R. Love, Shenille Melton, Cheril N. Clarke, Jamila Capitman, Heather Thomas, Kareem Rogers, Lee Colston, Karen Waller- Martin(Director),Tiffany Wilson, and Andre N. Jones.
To learn more about Philly Urban Theater Festival, including ticket information and the full, detailed schedule of plays (with synopsis), please visit:
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