Abingdon Theatre Company Virtual Festival of Short Plays
- Details
- Category: Theatre, Music
- Published on Thursday, 02 February 2023 08:20
- Written by A&E Contributing Editor
Abingdon Theatre Company (Chad Austin, Artistic Director) has announced casting for their 3rd annual Virtual Festival of Short Plays; a festival set to shed light on stories written by BIPOC playwrights via Abingdon's YouTube channel.
The selected plays that will be presented are Soup Kitchen Saintz by Cris Eli Blak, The Reverend Dr. Paul(i) Murray by Ada A., Miles to Go by Alexis Krysten Morgan, and Threat Assessment by Maximillian Gill. The festival is set to take place February 23-24, 2023 at 7PM EST via Abingdon's YouTube channel which can be found here.
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The cast for the 4 selected plays will feature Jaspal Binning (NBC's New Amsterdam), Almeria Campbell (Netflix's "Madam Secretary"), Charlotte Cohn (La Boheme), Florencia Cuenca (Desaparecidas) Jeffrey Grover (HBO's "Succession"), Joe Joseph (The Kite Runner), Jamil A.C. Mangan (CBS's "Blue Bloods"), Dave Tyrik, Kristin Watson, Rema Webb (The Music Man), and Curtis Wiley (Ain't Too Proud).
The festival will feature direction by Chari Arespacochaga, Alberto Bonilla, Deidre Goodwin, and Reva Stover.
It is Abingdon Theatre Company's mission to produce and develop brave, new American work by emerging and established artists. Abingdon's Virtual Festival of Short Plays is set to provide a platform for underrepresented voices across the country to submit their new works for development and outreach in the New York theatre community.
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Directly following the festival on February 23rd, Abingdon Theatre Company will be premiering the first look at their short dance film, It Cries Too Loudly. It Cries Too Loudly was conceived, directed, and choreographed by Lebanese American, Dolly Sfeir. After another tragedy befell her country of Lebanon, Sfeir investigates the split nature of her relationship to her home: an urge towards escapism and a passionate devotion to her people. This film was conceived and created in a week's time during the height of the Covid-19 Pandemic. It was shot safely within the span of 3 days.
The film was produced by Abingdon Virtual, with executive producer Chad Austin, and cinematography and editing by Abingdon Theatre Company's current Artist-in-Residence, Pierre Marais. Among top accolades, Abingdon Virtual's premiere film garnered the 1st Place Award at the Wild Dogs International Screendance Festival and Best Cinematography at the Eastern European Film Festival. It Cries Too Loudly features performances by the 2022 Princess Grace Foundation Honoree, Omar Roman de Jesus, as well as Ian Spring and Annalee Traylor.
View the trailer for It Cries Too Loudly here.
Abingdon Theatre Company was established over 30 years ago and has since collaborated with over 200 playwrights including Tony Award Winner, V (Formerly Eve Ensler), Philip Dawkins, David Greenspan, Anne Bogart, James Lecesne, Michael Weller, Dominique Fishback, Charles Mee, and many more.
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Most recently, Abingdon Theatre Company completed their critically acclaimed run of Queens Girl in the World that was nominated for Outstanding Solo Performance for the Vivian Robinson Audelco Recognition Awards for Excellence in Black Theatre. Other recent productions include the NYT Critics' Pick, Get on Your Knees, written and performed by Jacqueline Novak, nominated for a Drama Desk Award. Shedding a light on Just for Us, which was nominated for the Outer Critics Circle Award and Drama Desk Award, ATC produced Alex Edelman's one man play as part of their One Night Only Series.
