
Black Nativity Special GALA Event December 13

Playwrights! Anacostia Playhouse is seeking new and non-produced 10-minute and one-act plays for the 2018 New Works Festival: Visions/Revisions. Selected playwrights will have the opportunity to work with a professional director and actors to prepare for the final staged reading or performance.
Play submissions should address the themes of deterioration and renovation, both physically and socially, over the course of Anacostia’s long history. Consider the many physical and social changes Anacostia has survived; from the time of the Nacochtank Native American settlement along the Anacostia River, to the founding of Union Town, to today. Your submission should address the impact of revisionist history on Anacostia and its residents.
This New Works Festival will be held November 15 – 19 at the Anacostia Playhouse located in historic Anacostia in Washington DC. The festival, featuring both ten-minute staged readings and one-act productions, is an opportunity to introduce new playwrights to Washington’s theater community and establish relationships between writers, producers and directors. All plays will be read by the Anacostia Playhouse. 10-minute plays will receive a staged reading and one-act plays will receive a full production.
Please note that, due to the high volume of submissions we receive, we are unable to respond individually to each submission or to offer feedback. You will hear from us by September 21, 2018 if your work has been accepted into the festival.
The Rules:
Submissions will be accepted June 5 – September 15. Submissions and payment must be submitted through the Anacostia Playhouse website using the form and payment button below. Please submit only new non-produced works. All plays must utilize a maximum of four actors (actors can play multiple parts).
Submission/Reading Fee:
One-Act plays: $20.
Ten-minute plays: $10.
There is no submission fee for high school students. If the submission fee causes a financial hardship please contact Adele Robey at arobey@fusemail.com for financial aid.
Happy Ending
By Douglas Turner Ward
“This ‘Happy Ending’ is fresh, funny, and bursting with song-and-dance pizzazz. Yes, song and dance! It’s hard to imagine ‘Happy Ending’ ever ending with more upbeat joy” – DC Metro Theater Arts Review by John Stoltenberg.
A long-running Off-Broadway hit, Happy Ending was written by Douglas Turner Ward, founder of The Negro Ensemble Company.
It tells of two sisters, Ellie and Vi, who work as maid and laundress for the wealthy Harrisons. As the play begins they are sitting at the kitchen table in a tenement apartment in Harlem, lamenting the end of their good times. Mr. Harrison has discovered his wife in an act of infidelity.
The sisters fear that if the marriage breaks up they will be both out of a job. Their nephew, Junie, chides them for their sentiments at a time when Blacks are on the march towards liberation.
But what Vi and Ellie really fear is that the divorce threatens a cutoff in the household graft the sisters have engaged in and which has brought considerable luxury to their lives.
Happy Ending is directed by Ella Davis Artistic Director of All About the Drama Theater Group and Board Chair, Anacostia Playhouse.
About the playwright:
Douglas Turner Ward, dramatist, actor, director, and producer was born in 1930. Guided by a burning desire to continue the legacy of W. E. B. Du Bois, Ward was determined to create theater that was primarily written by, performed for, and representative of African American people. In his plays, Ward examines a mixed bag of attitudes and stereotypes that permeate our environment both within and outside the African American community. He uses various comic conventions such as satire, farce, absurdism, and irony to attack widely divergent cultural philosophies, politics, and ethics as well as social, moral, and racial biases. Since the 1960s, the African American dramatic literature and aesthetic philosophy of Douglas Turner Ward have been highly influential.
For more information on the Negro Ensemble Company click here.
Happy Ending Performance dates and times:
Previews
August 9th, 2018 -August 10th, 2018 8PM
Shows
August 11th, 2018-August 25th, 2018
Thurs-Sat at 8PM, Sat and Sun at 3PM
For tickets, click below:
Review from DC Theatre Scene: https://dctheatrescene.com/2018/08/14/review-douglas-turner-wards-happy-ending-at-anacostia-playhouse/
Review from DC Metro Theater Arts: https://dcmetrotheaterarts.com/2018/08/12/review-happy-ending-at-anacostia-playhouse/
One of the most active partners of the DC Jazz Festival, East River JazzFest, founded by Vernard Gray will be playing at Anacostia Playhouse this June! This year, their performances will explore “social change” themes in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of social activist Frederick Douglass and the 50th anniversary of the death of social activist Dr. Martin Luther King. And it’s making the point that D.C. is a major jazz community, going back to Duke Ellington and even before: [pioneering 1920s bandleader] Fletcher Henderson and those people all did things here in D.C. and they were internationally renowned as well. Same with Marc, Kush, and Corcoran: They spent the last month performing in France with different ensembles. There’s clearly something in the water in D.C.!
Come join us for 2 nights of celebration with East River JazzFest!
June 12th, 2018 @ 7:30 PM Anacostia Playhouse Admission: $20/advance Ron Sutton…..New Music · Ron Sutton, Jr., tenor saxophone · Alan Jay Palmer, piano · Vaughn Bratcher, bass · Aaron Walker, drums This performance will explore new compositions by saxophonist Ron Sutton, Jr.
June 13th, 2018 @ 7:30 PM Admission: $20/advance Music from liberation struggles: USA, South Africa, Palestine Liberation Project · Harry Appelman, piano · Todd Marcus, bass clarinet · Jeff Reed, bass · Eric Kennedy, drums The quartet will play jazz interpretations of music associated with several struggles of liberation: 1. USA civil rights struggle 2. South Africa anti-apartheid movement The ongoing struggle of the Palestinian people for freedom and human rights. |
Don’t miss this important exhibit on display now at our friend & neighbor’s Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum!
Developed and created by Chief curator Dr. Samir Meghelli, Smithsonian’s New Exhibit A Right to the City gives us the opportunity to reflect and to gain an insight on the evolution of our nation’s capital, Washington DC. The exhibit introduces us the stories of six Washington neighborhoods (Adams Morgan, Anacostia, Brookland, Chinatown, Shaw, and Southwest) and helps us to see how the Washingtonians have shaped our rapidly growing neighborhoods in myriad of ways and how Washington DC evolved into the neighborhood we have today.
Smithsonian Anacostia Community Mueseum:
1901 Fort Place SE
Washington DC 20020
Hours:
open daily 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
Closed December 25
ADMISSION FREE
We have partnered with CulturalDC to help promote the Mobile Art Gallery for Anacostia Community Museum! It’s a great opportunity to meet new people and artists in the community. It’s also a great way to enjoy your relaxing Saturday with friends and family with free food and performances!
Amanda Burnham has transformed the Mobile Art Gallery for Anacostia Community Museum! Composed of gestural acrylic paintings, “Block Watch” weaves together imagery culled from archival photographs as well as the present physical landscape of Anacostia to create a playful, abstracted representation of the community, its history, and its future. Visitors will be invited to embed their own words and images related to their personal experiences of the community into the work’s three dimensional, collaged layers of drawings, creating a tapestry of voices in vignettes throughout the bold, broad structural lines of the piece.
Anacostia Playhouse and the high-energy youth acting company the Laugh ‘n’ Learn Players present Pop-Up Books! A wonderful play bringing to life four fabulous tale by the young authors of Reach, Incorporated and Shout Mouse Press. We’re partnering with Reach, whose missions is to develop grade-level readers and capable leaders by preparing teens to serve as tutors and role models for younger students, resulting in improving literacy outcomes for both. Reach’s teen authors contribute to creation of more diverse children’s literature by writing stories that are engaging and relevant to the young readers they serve. This fun filled show is directed by the DMV’s own Thembi Duncan!
Don’t Miss it!
Running from Thursday, April 19th at 7:30 pm to Sunday, April 22nd at 2 pm!
Adults:$10 Kids:$5
by Adele Robey
Anacostia Playhouse announces auditions for young actors for our spring youth production!
We are excited to announce this year we will be partnering with REACH Incorporated, a program of professionally-led teen tutors who have published 21 books through their own publishing arm, Shout Mouse Press. Our young actors will be bringing their young authors’ works to life adapting 4-5 of these short stories for the stage. Our director this year is Thembi Duncan, a long-time friend of the Playhouse who directed Yellowman for us in our 2016 summer season. She was also lead teaching artist at Ford’s Theatre, and Creative Programs Director at Young Playwrights’ Theater, with tons of experience bringing young people and their stories to the stage. Thembi is an actor, writer, performing artist and teaching artist and we are super excited to have her on board.
Audition info:
Saturday, February 24
Noon-4pm
Anacostia Playhouse
2020 Shannon Place, SE
Washington, DC 20020
Ages 6-14
No special preparation necessary
Five performances April 19-22
If interested, please email Adele Robey at arobey@fusemail.com. We are seeing actors on first-come first-served basis. No appointment necessary.
by Adele Robey
Kay Kendall and Jack Davies present a final opportunity for you to see Restoration Stage’s Helen Hayes Awards Recommended new musical, “The Very Last Days of the First Colored Circus.” Steven A. Butler, Jr.’s redemptive story of love, loss, and family set against the backdrop of the 1927 Charles County Fair features Miles Folley and Ayana Reed. With new songs by director Courtney Baker-Oliver and Christopher Burnett and musical directed by Broadway veteran Wilkie Ferguson, it’s a story you’ll never forget.
For additional information on The Very Last Days of the First Colored Circus and Restoration Stage, Inc. please contact 202-714-0646 or visit www.restorationstage.org
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Words cannot express how truly grateful and humbled we are by the sheer volume of support and care we have received over the past few days. When we returned to the Playhouse the day after Christmas to discover we had been burgled, it was a blow. Not only did we have to process the physical shock of being victims of a crime, we were faced with the harsh realities that come with a break-in. As with all nonprofits, resources are limited, and the financial and tangible losses were significant.
We have spent over five amazing years Anacostia. It is both our work and home. And it has been an overwhelmingly positive experience and the best community we could wish for with our Ward 8 neighbors being partners and friends. In no way will this incident will disrupt our ability to bring quality arts programming to the community. We will continue to be a home for performers, theater companies and all artists to showcase their craft.
We are so honored that so many amazing people thought enough of us to give so generously of their time and money. Please know that every cent of the funds raised will be used thoughtfully and responsibly. Your gift will not only replace everything was stolen but will allow us to make security improvements, install new doors and come back better than ever.
So from the entire Anacostia Playhouse family—everyone who performs, designs, works, and volunteers—thank you. Thanks to you, the show will go on!
Adele Robey