If you are looking for ways to support Black theatre from the comfort of your own home, then check out our friends at the Obsidian Theatre Festival (OTF) in Detroit. You can find their annual call for submissions announced on our blog, in addition to attending the semi-finalist readings, along with the #BMPFest Semi-Finalists. OTF is an annual Black theatre festival that takes place at the end of June in downtown Detroit. This year, the festival will be entering its 4th Season, running June 27 – 30th. Prior to the Festival, the week will begin with the GhostLight Arts Initiative‘s Inaugural Detroit IMPACT Arts Conference. More on that in the coming weeks!
The 4 finalists this season are: Aaron Mays with “Black Santa”, Prentiss Matthews III with “The Golden Loc” , Azure D. Osborne-Lee with “Crooked Parts” and Lori Roper with “The Sisters Grey”.
You can read more about those plays and playwrights here.
Before you make your way to the festival this summer in Detroit, you can stream plays, panels and additional content from the first 3 seasons for Free on the Obsidian Theatre Festival website! That’s right… one of the exciting things about the Obsidian Theatre Festival (and the Black Motherhood and Parenting New Play Festival), is that it is also an accessible play festival because of the streaming.
Visit the OTF website to join. OTF has 3 streaming options, and each month two featured pieces will be highlighted and shared on the festival’s website. Interested viewers can visit obsidianfest.org/watch and subscribe to any one of the three streaming packages: Slate, Noir and Black Pearl. Subscribers can enjoy Free access to all Featured and Educational Content with Slate. Noir is available for $1/ week with access to Featured and Educational Content plus a Free Gift. Noir+ is the annual version with a Discounted rate of $50/year. A Monthly subscription option is available with Black Pearl for $10/month. It includes advance invitations to Special Events and a Free Gift. Black Pearl+ is the Annual option at $100/year.
Watch an excerpt from “The Underground Color Wheel” by Cris Eli Blak which was part of Season 3 below!
ABOUT THE PLAY: In The Underground Color Wheel, we follow the twenty-year journey of painter Ivory Nichols. Despite coming from humble beginnings, Ivory doesn’t dream of being a good artist, he dreams of being a great artist. As his success grows and he begins to see his biggest dreams coming true, he finds the support of his “Ebony Mona Lisa,” Ashlyn, his best friend, Enzo, and his assistant, Lorelei. As time goes by and the pressures of success weigh heavier, the line between his art and his life begin to blur, putting everything on the line.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT: Cris Eli Blak’s work has been produced around the world. He is the winner of the Black Broadway Men Playwriting Initiative and is currently the artist in residence at the State University of New York – Oswego and the recipient of the Emerging Playwrights Fellowship from The Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre.
Blackboard Plays Founder and Detroit Native, Garlia Cornelia Jones and Blackboard Plays Associate AD, Amber D. Gray are both part of OTF. Amber is the Associate AD and General Manager for OTF, along with the Senior Producer for GhostLight Creative Productions. Garlia is also the Associate AD for OTF, as well as Senior Creative Producer. The collaborations work both ways! John Sloan III is the Senior Producer and Director of Film Production for the Black Motherhood and Parenting New Play Festival BMPFest. It’s all in the family, and we are thrilled to support each other.
