Press Release: Playwright Jacqueline E. Lawton to Participate in Black Theatre Symposium at Georgetown University
On Friday, January 24, 2014 from 1:00pm to 5:30pm, Georgetown University's Department of Performance Arts hosts a one-day symposium, Playing with the Past, (W)righting the Future, exploring how black playwrights and artists remember the past in order to imagine the future.
"In conjunction with the production of Robert O’Hara’s Insurrection Holding History, a symposium, Playing with the Past, (W)righting the Future, will explore how black playwrights and artists remember the past in order to imagine the future." said Professor Soyica Diggs Colbert, who is curating the event.
"This symposium offers the rare and wonderful opportunity to celebrate the extraordinary writing of contemporary Black playwrights" said D.C playwright Jacqueline E. Lawton. "I'm honored to take part as facilitator of the performances. As a dramaturg, I'm interested in how each of these writers explores the intersection of race, class, gender, sexuality, and history in their work. We're fortunate to have this opportunity to engage in such a powerful, rich, and urgent discussion."
The symposium will feature two roundtable discussions. Confirmed speakers include poets, scholars, and playwrights including Lydia Diamond, Dominique Morisseau, Robert O'Hara, among others. Additionally, performances of scenes from Lydia Diamond's STICK FLY, Robert O'Hara's BOOTY CANDY, and Dominique Morisseau's DETROIT 67, as well as readings from Evie Schokley's THE NEW BLACK will be presented. Moderated by D.C. based playwright Jacqueline E. Lawton, this presentation will feature leading professional actors and dramaturgs alongside GU faculty, alumni, and students.
Playing with the Past, (W)righting the Future
Davis Performing Arts Center
Georgetown University
Led by Professor Soyica Diggs Colbert
Symposium: 1:00pm to 5:30pm
Reception: 5:30pm to 7:00pm
Click here for a full list of events.
Please RSVP here by January 10th, 2014.
Playing with the Past, (W)righting the Future is offered as part of the Georgetown University/Arena Stage/Ammerman Family Partnership, in conjunction with the April 4-12 GU Theater & Performance Studies Program production of Robert O'Hara's Insurrection: Holding History directed by Guest Artist Isaiah Matthew Wooden (COL '04) at the Davis Performing Arts Center.
"In conjunction with the production of Robert O’Hara’s Insurrection Holding History, a symposium, Playing with the Past, (W)righting the Future, will explore how black playwrights and artists remember the past in order to imagine the future." said Professor Soyica Diggs Colbert, who is curating the event.
"This symposium offers the rare and wonderful opportunity to celebrate the extraordinary writing of contemporary Black playwrights" said D.C playwright Jacqueline E. Lawton. "I'm honored to take part as facilitator of the performances. As a dramaturg, I'm interested in how each of these writers explores the intersection of race, class, gender, sexuality, and history in their work. We're fortunate to have this opportunity to engage in such a powerful, rich, and urgent discussion."
The symposium will feature two roundtable discussions. Confirmed speakers include poets, scholars, and playwrights including Lydia Diamond, Dominique Morisseau, Robert O'Hara, among others. Additionally, performances of scenes from Lydia Diamond's STICK FLY, Robert O'Hara's BOOTY CANDY, and Dominique Morisseau's DETROIT 67, as well as readings from Evie Schokley's THE NEW BLACK will be presented. Moderated by D.C. based playwright Jacqueline E. Lawton, this presentation will feature leading professional actors and dramaturgs alongside GU faculty, alumni, and students.
Playing with the Past, (W)righting the Future
Davis Performing Arts Center
Georgetown University
Led by Professor Soyica Diggs Colbert
Symposium: 1:00pm to 5:30pm
Reception: 5:30pm to 7:00pm
Click here for a full list of events.
Please RSVP here by January 10th, 2014.
Playing with the Past, (W)righting the Future is offered as part of the Georgetown University/Arena Stage/Ammerman Family Partnership, in conjunction with the April 4-12 GU Theater & Performance Studies Program production of Robert O'Hara's Insurrection: Holding History directed by Guest Artist Isaiah Matthew Wooden (COL '04) at the Davis Performing Arts Center.
Soyica Diggs Colbert is an Associate Professor of African American Studies and Theater and Performance Studies at Georgetown University. She is the author of The African American Theatrical Body: Reception, Performance and the Stage (Cambridge University Press, 2011) and editor of the Black Performance special issue of African American Review (2012). Colbert is currently working on a second book project entitled Black Movements: Performance, Politics, and Migration. She has published articles and reviews on James Baldwin, Alice Childress, August Wilson, Lynn Nottage, Katori Hall, and Suzan-Lori Parks in African American Review, Theater Journal, Boundary 2, South Atlantic Quarterly, and Theater Topics and in the collections Contemporary African American Women Playwrights: A Casebook and August Wilson: Completing the Cycle. Founder of the New England Black Scholars Collective and Co-Founder of RCDC, a mentoring, educational, and coaching services company, Colbert is the recipient of Woodrow Wilson Foundation Career Enhancement Fellowship (2010-2011), Stanford Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship (2006-2007), Mellon Summer Research Grant (2005), and the Robert W. Woodruff Library Fellowship (2005). Her areas of expertise are Literature and Cultural Studies, Visual and Performing Arts, and Black Studies. Her research interests span the 19th-21st centuries, from William Wells Brown to Beyoncé, and from poetics to performance.
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 Playwrights' Arena and the Dramatist Guild of America, Ms. Lawton currently resides in Washington, D.C.