Press Release: Our Man Beverly Snow by Jacqueline E. Lawton Receives Reading at Active Cultures Diving Board Reading Series
On Saturday, December 8th at 8:00pm, Active Cultures Theatre will present a staged reading of Jacqueline E. Lawton's new play, Our Man Beverly Snow as part of their annual Diving Board Festival.
Presented for four years running, Diving Board Festival is part of Active Cultures’ ongoing effort to be a truly local theatre. The festival will take place on Friday, December 7th and Saturday, December 8th and will present the work of 5 D.C. area playwrights.
“Our work is energized by the world directly around us, the world we can see and touch,” says Artistic Director Mary Resing. “With Diving Board, we want to get to know what local artists are thinking about.”
Sponsored by the College Park Arts Exchange
Active Cultures, an ascendant young company dedicated to creating fresh, smart work that reflects the world directly around us.
Presented for four years running, Diving Board Festival is part of Active Cultures’ ongoing effort to be a truly local theatre. The festival will take place on Friday, December 7th and Saturday, December 8th and will present the work of 5 D.C. area playwrights.
“Our work is energized by the world directly around us, the world we can see and touch,” says Artistic Director Mary Resing. “With Diving Board, we want to get to know what local artists are thinking about.”
Sponsored by the College Park Arts Exchange
Active Cultures, an ascendant young company dedicated to creating fresh, smart work that reflects the world directly around us.
Calendar Information
WHAT
Our Man Beverly Snow a staged reading presented by Active Cultures as part of the annual Diving Board Festival. WHO Produced by Active Cultures Written by Jacqueline E. Lawton Directed by Colin Grube Dramaturgy by Otis Ramsey-Zoe Featuring Maryam Foye, Eric Humphries, James J. Johnson, Julian Elijah Martinez, Dane Petersen, Colin Smith, Dawn Ursula and David Lamont Wilson WHERE Old Parish House 4711 Knox Road College Park, MD Metro Station: College Park Metro (Green) Click here for directions and parking information. |
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PLAY SYNOPSIS
With a Parisian flare and a taste for elegance, Beverly Snow, owner of the popular Epicurean Eating House, dished out a healthy dose of wit, a decent pour of ale, and such delicacies as green turtle soup, fried oysters and West Indian jellies to Washington’s high society and political elite. All was going well for this hard-working free man of color until one fateful night in the fall of 1835. A young slave entered his owner’s bedroom wielding an ax and a surging wave of violence and destruction makes its way to the Epicurean Eating House. Suddenly, Snow finds himself embroiled in racial, political and social upheaval in this mid-19th century drama. Our Man Beverly Snow chronicles the events surrounding a race riot that cripples the nation’s capitol and sheds a light on how freedom of speech, the abolitionist movement and the determination of a people in bondage shaped the nation.
ARTIST BIOS
The Playwright
JACQUELINE E. LAWTON was named one of 30 of the nation's leading black playwrights by Arena Stage’s American Voices New Play Institute. Her plays include: Anna K; Blood-bound and Tongue-tied; Deep Belly Beautiful;The Devil’s Sweet Water; The Hampton Years; Ira Aldridge: the African Roscius; Lions of Industry, Mothers of Invention; Love Brothers Serenade (2013 semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference), Mad Breed, and Our Man Beverly Snow. Ms. Lawton’s work has been developed and presented at the following venues: Active Cultures, Classical Theater of Harlem, Folger Shakespeare Library, theHegira, Howard University, Kennedy Center’s Page to Stage Festival, Rorschach Theater Company, Savannah Black Heritage Festival (Armstrong Atlantic State University), Shakespeare Theatre Company, Source Theatre Festival, Theater J, and Woolly Mammoth Theater Company. She is published in Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic: Art, Activism, Academia, and the Austin Project (University of Texas Press). Ms. Lawton received her MFA in Playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin, where she was a James A. Michener Fellow. She participated in the Kennedy Center’s Playwrights’ Intensive (2002) and World Interplay (2003). She is a 2012 TCG Young Leaders of Color award recipient and a National New Play Network (NNPN) Playwright Alumna. She has been recognized as a semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference and the Playwright's Center PlayLabs, and as a SheWrites Festival finalist. A member of Arena Stage's Playwright's Arena and the Dramatist Guild of America, Ms. Lawton currently resides in Washington, D.C.
The Director
Colin Grube is an actor/director in the DC Metro area. He has received training in Pittsburgh, PA, San Francisco, CA and Greensboro, NC. Recent work includes acting and directing with Flying V, on camera work with Investigation Discovery and the upcoming Netflix series HOUSE OF CARDS. In addition, he makes ends meet doing technical work throughout the region. He has worked at Adventure Theatre, Roundhouse Theatre and Olney theatre. Most of the time, he spends with his wife and son.
The Dramaturg
OTIS CORTEZ RAMSEY-ZOE is a Lecturer of Theatre Arts at Howard University, Future Classics Program Coordinator at The Classical Theatre of Harlem, Series Editor for NoPassport Press’s Dreaming the Americas Series, a freelance dramaturg, and a Company Member of banished? productions. He has developed new works with such organizations as The Sundance Institute, Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Centerstage and Black Women Playwrights’ Group and by such writers as Colman Domingo, Tarell McCraney, Noah Haidle, Kirsten Greenidge and Tim Acito. He has directed readings including Jacqueline E. Lawton’s The Hampton Years and Blood-bound and Tongue-tied, James Webb’s The Contract and David Emerson Toney’s Kingdom. Previously, he was Literary Manager and First Look Coordinator at Centerstage and an Allen Lee Hughes Dramaturgy and Literary Senior Fellow at Arena Stage. Mr. Ramsey-Zöe holds degrees from New York University and the University of Notre Dame.