#duaf

Triggered by viral videos of young black people dying, a boy genius and his best pals embark on a journey to discover the Fountain of Youth.

by Chloe Rabinowitz 

Jun. 6, 2022  

New musical "Forever and a Day" will make its NYC premiere with one night only performance at Theatre Row.

"Forever and a Day," a new musical by Marcus Scott and Steven Silverstein, will be part of the Downtown Urban Arts Festival's 20th Anniversary season, running June 1-June 25 at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street). "Forever and a Day" will be performed Thursday, June 9th at 8 PM.

Triggered by viral videos of young black people dying, a boy genius and his best pals embark on a journey to discover the Fountain of Youth. By creating the cure for eternal youth and immortality, they believe they could circumvent and combat the rampant violence brought on against young black people. Originally written and performed over Zoom in 2020, this timely musical now makes its NYC premiere.

"Forever and a Day" is directed by Justin Schwartz, with Eugene Gwozdz as musical director and Becca Fox as choreography consultant. The cast stars Ifedayo Gatling, LaDonna Burns, KristalMarie Anderson, Prince Parker, and Heeya Kim.

Tickets are $20. All audience members must show proof of vaccination for all in-person attendance. For Theatre Row's COVID protocols visit here: https://bfany.org/theatre-row/covid-19-information/.

The festival, which has previously presented new works by Dominique Morisseau, Martyna Majok, and more, will take the stage at Off-Broadway's Theatre Row.

BY LEAH PUTNAM

MAY 04, 2022

Downtown Urban Arts Festival will celebrate its 20th Anniversary at Theatre Row with a series of new works June 1–25, including four full-length plays and 12 one acts in addition to an extended engagement of James Earl Hardy’s B-Boy Blues The Play.

Based on Hardy's novel series telling a gay hip-hop love story, B-Boy Blues The Play will be directed by Stanley Bennett Clay and is set to run June 3–25.

The line-up also includes Phantasmagoria by Alethea Harnish June 8, which follows a young woman as she forsakes home, family, and faith during a university-sanctioned quarantine; Alano P. Baez's Soul Survivor June 15, a play about a imprisoned man contemplating his life, Sam Cooke, and the history of Black oppression in America while awaiting execution; For Colored Boyz on the verge of a nervous breakdown/ when freedom aint enuff by Bryan-Keyth Wilson June 18, exploring a Black man's perspective; and The Pride by Joy June 25, which looks in on the Baker family and their home where God is first and women are kings.

One acts announced for the first half of the festival include Marcus Harmon's 20th Anniversary, about two firefighters 20 years after 9/11, and Cris Eli Blak's The Hard Knock Lyfe, about a rapper diagnosed with AIDS, to be presented June 1; Socky Tells All by Rollin Jewett, following young mental institution patient Andy, and The Palmist by Sheila Duane, which asks if fortune tellers can see the dark corners of a person's mind, set for June 2; and Marcus Scott's Forever and a Day, following a young boy genius trying to combat violence against young Black people, and Jennifer Cendana Armas' The Love Not Together, following the struggle to make love work, to be performed June 9.

Following in the second half of the month, one act performances will include Run by Elle, a contemporary opera about a woman awakening post-revelation, and Adulting by Amira Mustapha, which follows 30-something Muslim Miriam and her friend Liz through the process of coping, both presented June 16; Zoe Howard's Midnight Mirage, featuring two strangers connecting on a subway platform as time warps around them, and Christin Eve Cato's The Good Cop, which presents civil rights journalist Anita's journey to break the blue wall of silence, presented June 22; and A Shot Rang Out by Michael Hagins, about a white police officer trapped during a protest with a scared Black teen and a disgruntled schoolteacher, and Stoop by Isa Guzman, a play about generational differences and coming out as Transgender within a predominantly Latino community, presented June 23.

In its two-decade history, DUAF has presented nearly 300 new plays by over 200 emerging and established playwrights including Dominique Morisseau, Martyna Majok, Nelson Diaz-Marcano, Carl Hancock Rux, Craig MuMs Grant, and Ming Peiffer.

The 20th Anniversary season will be held in June 2022 in New York City.

by Stephi Wild

Mar. 3, 2022  

The Downtown Urban Arts Festival (DUAF) has selected the playwrights who will present their theatrical works at its 20th Anniversary season to be held in June 2022 in New York City. Selected from over 150 playwrights worldwide, this talented crop of 16 new and emerging writers hailed from coast to coast in the U. S. will stage urban works that address a mosaic of urban contemporary topics ranging from mental illness, homelessness, AIDS, 9/11, policing, LGBTQIA and black male identity. The participating playwrights and their plays are:

Alano P. Baez (NY) - Soul Survivor

Cris Eli Blak (KY) - The Hard Knock Lyfe

Christin Eve Cato (NY) - The Good Cop

Jennifer Cendana Armas (NY) - The Love Not Together

Lynda Crawford (NY) - The Nonessentials

Sheila Duane (NJ) - The Palmist

Elle (CA) - Run

Isa Guzman (NY) - Stoop

Marcus Harmon (NY) - 20th Anniversary

Alethea Harnish (NY) - Phantasmagoria

Rollin Jewett (NC) - Socky Tells All

Joy (CT) - The Pride

Nina Ki (NY) - Primary Colors

Amira Mustapha (NY) - Adulting

Marcus Scott (NY) - Forever and a Day

Bryan-Keyth Wilson (TX) - For Colored Boyz

The alternates are Renee' Flemings (NY), Michael Hagins (NY), Zoe Howard (NY) and Kwik Jones (OR)

Playwrights selected include Allison Whittenberg - Choice, Robin Rothstein - Grassroots, Elijah Vasquez - Teeter and more.

by BWW News Desk

Jan. 11, 2021  

   The Downtown Urban Arts Festival is planning a return to the stage in spiring/summer 2021 for its much anticipated 19th Annual season with Tony-nominee Reg E. Gaines back as its Artistic Director. From over 100 submissions received from across the nation, DUAF has selected the following emerging playwrights for its 2021 season.

Short

Allison Whittenberg - Choice Robin Rothstein - Grassroots Elijah Vasquez - Teeter Marcus Scott - Wookies in the Wilderness Mel Nieves - TGIF Can't Get Here Soon Enough Sarah Congress - COVID-19 Bachelore Number 5 Marcus Scott - Sundown Town Mary E. Weems - A Conversation in an Elevator Cris Eli Blak - Breakz J. Lois Diamond - I Feel Good! Alano P. Baez - Los Lolitas Chima Chikazunga - The Detention Hours Rollin Jewett - The Big Dream Sheldon Shaw - Jailbird Audrey Lang - Lily Ineffable Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj - a sudanese mother... a mexican mother...

Full

Kieran Carroll - The Youthful Adventures of Damon Dukirk Andy Boyd - Coney Island Baby Mallory Jane Weiss - A & Z's Escapes in Moonstruck City Nattalie Gordon - Rice and Roundworm Antionette Ellis - Williams - Scarf Diaries Carmel Lotan - Smartphone Love Juan Ramirez Jr. - Say Less Kwik Jones - Memphis Bound LaDarrion Williams - Umoja Mehrnaz Tiv - Threads Phil Blechman - Murderabilia Brian Quirk - Morrow Sheila Duane - The Loom Tommy Jamerson - Murderous Innocent Malique Guinn - Gang Sines Lawrence DuKore - Sunshine

Review: “Blood Orange” and “Mirrors” at the Downtown Urban Arts Festival

April 29, 2018

Anthony J. Piccione

New York Theatre Critic

It was my fourth day of reviewing shows at the Downtown Urban Arts Festival, and once again, I was treated to not one, but two, shows during the same performance slot. Not unlike the last time I was here, there was one play that was clearly better than the other, but that was not the only difference that I noticed on this night.

The evening started off weak, with the relatively mediocre one-act Blood Orange by Marcus Scott, directed by Justin Schwartz, and starring Schuyler Van Amson, Tommy Walters, and Sunny Choi. The basic premise seems ripe for both comedy and the exploration of certain social issues: An interracial gay couple gets together, and one half attempts to celebrate an anniversary by setting up a threesome. Unfortunately, the play is short on laugh lines, drags on at times, and occasionally feels – particularly toward the beginning – that it is trying to portray sexuality simply for the sake of portraying it. The truly awful part of this production, however, is the lackluster acting. Mr. Choi seems slightly more in character, but for the most part, the acting was on par with that of a high school drama club with little more experience in theatre. While many actors can often be good despite the fact that they are given a play that they can’t do much to improve, a play is always reliant on the actors being good in order to succeed on stage, which appears to be the main problem here.

Thankfully, after getting through that, I saw the highlight of the evening: Mirrors by Azure D. Osborne-Lee and directed by Kirya Traber. In a sharp contrast with the last play, this is a poignant and heartbreaking full-length drama – albeit with more than a few funny moments of dialogue – about a young black woman named Alma Jean whose mother passes away, and then goes to live with a mysterious, long-lost friend of her late mother named Bird Wilson. Over the course of the play, as they both grapple with this new reality, more is gradually revealed about themselves and about the deceased parent, ultimately building toward an emotional plot twist toward the climax, although by the time the audience gets there, there’s plenty of material that is bound to leave the average theatergoer on the verge of tears.

The cast – consisting of Crystal Lucas-Perry (Bird Wilson), AnnMarie Sykes (Alma Jean Pierson), La Rivers (Annabelle “Belle” Pierson), Joyia D. Bradley (Constance Jenkins), AnJu Hyppolite (Mabel Mosley), Jordan Randolph (Louise Sterling) and Jak Watson (Ray Johnson Jr.) – couldn’t have done a better job at capturing the raw emotions of the characters, and portraying the dark reality that they live in. Ms. Lucas-Perry’s performance, in particular, is deeply powerful and is a big part of what makes this show so memorable.

So while the gap in quality wasn’t quite as large, it was still noticeable, and it was truly bizarre to see a well-written full-length play and a mediocre one-act play in the same time slot. I would certainly hope that if Mx. Osborne-Lee’s play is performed again, it gets the chance to have its own performance slot to itself, as I feel it deserves it, and is a play that I certainly would be recommending to readers, if only there were more performance dates. It’ll be interesting to see what the rest of this festival has to offer.

“Blood Orange” and “Mirrors” each ran for one night only at the Downtown Urban Arts Festival on April 25th. For more information on upcoming events at this festival, please visit www.duafnyc.com.

In Spring 2019, the Downtown Urban Arts Festival (DUAF) will return for its much-anticipated 17th annual season. Reg E. Gaines, Tony-nominated for Bring in da Noise Bring in da Funk, is back as the Artistic Director of the festival. After his evaluation of scripts that were received from across the U.S., the following writers and their plays were selected as the finalists for the 2019 season.

SHORTS

Rollin Jewett (Buzzkill)

Marcus Scott (Call and Response)

Emma McFarland (Flinted)

J. Lois Diamond (Growl)

Ruoxin Xu (In the Name of Us)

Nelson Diaz-Marcano (Paper Towels)

Thomas Coash (Raghead)

David Beardsley (Something True)

Ledia Xhoga (The Delay)

A. Esmie Wright (Thinking Those Thoughts)

ONE ACTS

Rae Binstock (1077)

David Dudley (800 Days of Solitude: A Conjuring)

Conlan Carter (BAD)

Porsha Olayiwola (Black and Ugly)

Rock WILK (Book of Judith)

Joe Delgado (Crushed at the Crossing)

Victoria Moy (Gambled Eggs)

Lori Fischer (How to Get Famous)

Edwin Rivera-Arias (In the Palace of the Planet King)

Tommy Jamerson (Love/Fantasy)

Cisco Montgomery (Murder the Devil)

Juan Ramirez, Jr. (Ridin Shotgun)

A. Emmanuel Leadon (Short Rib)

Josh Drimmer (Story and Her)

Augusto Amador (The Quiet Zone)

Janet Onyenucheya (Escalator)

Steven A. Butler, Jr. (Veils)

In 2001, DUAF was founded with the purpose to build a repertoire of new American theatre that echoes the true spirit of urban life and speaks to a whole new generation whole lives defy categorizing along conventional lies. That purpose has been realized many times over, as more than 100 writers have created and refined their work for the stage and thousands of inspired audience members have applauded their performances. DUAF inaugurated the festival in 2002 at HERE in SoHo to help revitalize the NYC downtown arts scene, which, at the time, was experiencing a severe downturn due to the WTC disaster. It has been recognized as one of the world's best festivals for new works and described as not only prestigious, but a slice of heaven for playwrights who want the chance to freely express themselves. (Lisa Mulcahy, Theater Festivals, Allworth Press, 2005)