NOW AFRICA: Playwrights Festival is a reading series conceptualized by playwright Mfoniso Udofia and developed/produced with Chinyere Anyanwu, Ngozi Anyanwu, Erin Cherry, and Bashir Solebo. This team will reintroduce New York City to the masters of African Dramatic Literature, which include Ama Ata Aidoo, Tawfiq al Hakim, Wole Soyinka, and Ngugi wa Thiong’o. This festival will also introduce New York City to the incoming classes of contemporary African playwrights.
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This inaugural event will be hosted by the Center for Art & Public Policy and the Institute of Performing Arts at NYU Tisch School of the Arts and Anna Deavere Smith’s Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue.
Credit: Axel Avin Photography courtesy of 1st Generation Project
Schedule of Events
Day 1 of the festival, Saturday, September 26, 2015, will be located at 20 Cooper Square, 5th Floor, Room 503, New York, NY 10003. This day will feature a performative reading of Binyavanga Wainaina’s incendiary and satirical piece “How to Write About Africa.”
Afterward, there will be facilitated discussion on the implication of Wainaina’s piece and the radical movements currently occurring within contemporary African dramatic arts. A showcase of excerpts from African playwrights will close this day.
Credit: Axel Avin Photography courtesy of 1st Generation Project
Day 2 of the festival, Sunday, September 27, will be located in the black-box theatre of the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program on 715 Broadway, NY, NY (2nd floor). This evening will include a reading of African playwright Mfoniso Udofia’s full-length play “Run Boy Run” and a talk back.
Credit: Axel Avin Photography courtesy of 1st Generation Project
Day 3 is the final day of the festival, Monday, September 28, 2015. It will be located in the Reise Lounge at the Tisch School of the Arts on 721 Broadway, N.Y., N.Y.. Excerpts of plays (precolonial-postcolonial) will be juxtaposed with their contemporary counterparts in order to assess/contemplate how African narratives are changing over time.
Tickets are free for all events, please RSVP at: nowafricafest@gmail.com.
If you would like to support NOW AFRICA: Playwrights Festival, please consider donating through Fractured Atlas. All donations are tax deductible.
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