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MacDowell Colony Names Mashuq Mushtaq Deen as the Arch and Bruce Brown Fellow for 2016

Mushtaq DeenThe foundation extends congratulations to playwright/performer Mashuq Deen, of Brooklyn, N.Y., who has been selected by the MacDowell Colony as the 2016 recipient of the Arch and Bruce Brown Fellowship. While in residence at MacDowell, Deen completed a draft of a book, Draw the Circle and Other Writings, which details an Indian-American family’s struggle to come to terms with their transgender son. The book includes Deen’s full-length play Draw the Circle as well as two short plays and other short pieces.

For more about Deen and his theatrical work, visit his website, here.

The Arch and Bruce Brown Fellowship, funded by a grant from the foundation and administered by MacDowell, provides support to a MacDowell resident creating LGBT-themed, history-based, performing-arts or related works.

WORD BECOMES FLESH by Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Directed by Psalmayene 24

Through spoken word, dance, and visual imagery, an ensemble of performers delivers a series of letters from a single father to his unborn son, documenting the range of his emotions, fears, and expectations. Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s Word Becomes Flesh, directed by Psalmayene 24, critically, lyrically, and choreographically examines masculinity and responsibility within the constructs of hip-hop culture.

Watch the video on the Kennedy Center website here.

Free general admission tickets will be distributed in the States Gallery starting at approximately 5:30 p.m., up to two tickets per person.

PURE to debut the powerful poem-turned-play Citizen: An American Lyric during Piccolo

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Based on Claudia Rankine’s 2014 award-winning book of poetry of the same name, the stage version was adapted by Stephen Sachs, and it combines performance and audience participation, all under the guise of creating a discussion about race and racism. Challenging stuff for sure, but absolutely necessary, especially for Charleston, where two high-profiled racially sensitive incidents not only tore at the heart and soul of this town but received national attention.
The stage adaptation of Citizen debuted last year in Los Angeles, with director Shirley Jo Finney at the helm. Finney will also direct PURE’s production, while Sachs himself will be on hand for the Charleston debut on June 3.

Read the full article from the Charleston City Paper here.

Sure, ‘Hamilton’ Is a Game-Changer, But Whose Game?

hamilton2-1940x1293Lamentably, however, much of the acclaim that has and will accrue to Hamilton brands it as one of the first pieces of theatre to successfully incorporate hip-hop elements and sensibilities. That’s like someone thinking they’ve discovered rap music after hearing Eminem’s song “Stan” (coincidentally, and arguably, another white narrative). This is unfortunate; it not only ignores the 20-plus year legacy of hip-hop theatre in the U.S.—Idris Goodwin, Eisa Davis, Psalmayne 24, Hip-Hop Theatre Junction, Teo Castellanos, Will Power, Universes, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, etc. It also, more disturbingly, ignores LMM’s own In The Heights, a hip-hop-infused musical with a contemporary story about Latinos in a changing neighborhood that ran on Broadway for 3 years, won 4 Tonys and recouped its money after just 10 months. Yet we’re still in a cultural landscape where In The Heights and other hip-hop generation stories will never be celebrated to the extent that Hamilton will be, simply by virtue of who the show is about.

-April 23, 2015 – Excerpt from a piece by Danny Hoch for American Theatre.  Read it all here.