 By Face Off Theatre Company KALAMAZOO, Mich. – With the greater willingness of people of all colors and backgrounds to stand up against inequities since George Floyd’s death nearly two years ago, the ever socially-conscious Face Off Theatre Company devotes the first play of our 2022 season to the harmful effects of colorism to continue the conversation on tough racial issues. “Yellowman” will be presented Feb. 18-20. It was written by award-winning, African-American female playwright Dael Orlandersmith. “As an arts organization that prioritizes education and activism through our work, we are excited to use this emotional drama to facilitate dialogue around strongly held perceptions about the Black community and within the Black community that are problematic,” says “Yellowman” Director Marissa Harrington, who is artistic director for Face Off Theatre. A talkback follows every performance. “I do believe that colorism is a HUGE issue. I recently had a conversation with my seventh-grade daughter regarding what's considered ‘beautiful’ within our community. It was very enlightening and sad at the same time. Kids are receiving messages early on about accepting (or not) their skin tones. Colorism is just as harmful as sexism, ageism, ableism, homophobia and body shaming.” Playwright Dael Orlandersmith was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and Drama Desk Award nominee for Outstanding Play and Outstanding Actress in a Play for "Yellowman" in 2002. Harrington says she loves that this play also explores universal themes such as self-love, friendship and dysfunctional parent/child relationships. The dynamic two-person cast stars Tanisha L. Pyron, one of the six Black women who co-founded Face Off Theatre, and Yasir Muhammad in his second show with us. Muhammad made a memorable company debut in last summer’s show-stopping piece, “Pipeline,” about the school-to-prison pipeline. “Yellowman” is the first of four plays in Face Off Theatre Company’s 2022 season, which runs from February through November. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 18; 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 19; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 20 at Dormouse Theatre, 1030 Portage St., Kalamazoo, located at the corner of Lake and Portage streets. We use a pay-what-you-can model. For tickets: faceofftheatre.com. NOTE: Proof of COVID-19 vaccination is required to attend. Also be advised the production contains adult language and subject material. ====================== About Face Off Theatre Company Face Off Theatre Company of Kalamazoo has been committed to thought-provoking Black theatre and the development of playwrights, actors and directors of color since our founding in 2015. We draw audiences and talent from throughout Southwest Michigan. About the playwright Dael Orlandersmith is an Obie, Guggenheim and PEN Award-winning playwright and actress. She has authored a number of plays, including "Monster," "The Gimmick," "The Blue Album," "Bones" and "Until the Flood." "Yellowman" was commissioned by and premiered at Princeton, New Jersey's McCarter Theatre in a co-production with The Wilma Theater, Philadelphia, and Long Wharf Theatre, New Haven, Connecticut. She was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and Drama Desk Award nominee for Outstanding Play and Outstanding Actress in a Play for "Yellowman" in 2002. (Source: goodmantheatre.org) Follow Face Off Theatre on Facebook and Instagram for show updates and auditions! Photo credits: Tanisha L. Pyron and Yasir Muhammad (courtesy photos) 
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 By Face Off Theatre Company KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The votes are in! Face Off Theatre Company is happy to announce the winners of the two $100 prizes in our first Monologue Competition! They were chosen by the general public casting votes online. The winner of the Emerging Actor category is Khadijah Brown, with a monologue from the film “Hidden Figures” (screenplay by Theodore Melfi and Allison Schroeder, based on the book “Hidden Figures” by Margot Lee Shetterly.) Click here to watch her performance. The winner of the Established Actor category is Delanti Hall, with a monologue from “Detroit '67” by Dominique Morisseau, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning playwright from Detroit. Click here to watch his performance. “On behalf of the company members of Face Off Theatre, we want to say THANK YOU to everyone who competed, voted, donated and supported!” says Company Member Ynika Yuag, who chaired the competition. “And a big thank-you to the anonymous donor who provided our cash prizes.” Face Off Theatre loved seeing everyone's talents and we hope to see more of all of you very soon! Watch for this event next year. We plan to make it yearly! As promised, feedback from the Monologue Competition panel members will be sent out individually to each performer via email by Monday, October 25. About the winners Both Khadijah Brown and Delanti Hall are familiar faces to Face Off Theatre goers. Brown has been in six of our productions. She most recently had a leading role in our May show, Vickie G. Hampton’s “I Am Grace,” about race, class and forgiveness in a small town. The Joliet, Ill. native discovered her love for acting in Benton Harbor, Mich., where she was raised. She came to Kalamazoo in 2017 to lean deeper into her passion for theater. Hall is completing his bachelor’s in fine arts in acting at Western Michigan University. The Detroit native’s Face Off Theatre debut was in July of this year in a lead role with Dominique Morisseau’s “Pipeline,” a play about the school-to-prison pipeline. He returned in August for Kermit Frazier’s “Smoldering Fires,” about a neighborhood coping with crime. Working behind-the-scenes We could not have done this amazing event without the hard work of Face Off Theatre’s Monologue Competition Subcommittee, whose members are Earlene McMichael (Brand Marketing & Social Media Manager), Betty Lenzy (Volunteer Manager) and Ynika Yuag (Directing/Dramaturgy/Workshops). Yuag is committee chair. We wish also to thank our panelists, who took the time to provide feedback to all of our contestants. The panel included: Ynika Yuag, a Kalamazoo College theatre arts and psychology graduate; Laura Livingstone-McNelis, company manager for Festival Playhouse at Kalamazoo College; Actress/Playwright/Entrepreneur Angela Anderson, who is a Face Off board member; Face Off Co-Founder/Artistic Director Marissa Harrington; and Kalamazoo Actress Sandy Davis, a musical theatre performance graduate of Western Michigan University. ====================== About Face Off Theatre Company Face Off Theatre Company was founded in 2015 in Kalamazoo by six African-American women with theater and playwriting degrees from Western Michigan University. We are devoted to thought-provoking Black theater and the development of playwrights, actors and directors of color, drawing audiences from throughout Southwest Michigan to our performances. Follow Face Off Theatre on Facebook and Instagram for show updates and auditions! Photo credits: Khadijah Brown (Tanisha Lynn Pyron Creative Photography); Delanti Hall (courtesy photo)    By Face Off Theatre Company KALAMAZOO, Mich. – Never acted before? Got loads of experience? We want Y-O-U! Face Off Theatre Company is hosting our first-ever monologue competition fundraiser! It's completely virtual, so you can compete from wherever you are! It's easy. Click here to enter a 1-2 video monologue by 11:59 p.m Saturday, Oct. 9th. All genres, all ages and all backgrounds are welcome! Face Off is the only theatre company in Kalamazoo that is Black (or POC) owned and operated. By competing (or by helping spread the word about this competition), you'll be directly supporting us as we continue gaining financial independence! How to enter If you're interested in competing, click here to visit our special monologue competition website to learn how to register and submit your monologue. After submitting a $10 entrance fee, you'll compete in one of two categories, one for beginners ("Emerging") and the other for experienced ("Established") actors. Online votes will determine the winner in each of two categories. If you win your category, you'll get a $100 cash prize! ANYONE who enters is eligible to receive feedback from our six-member panel of local theatre professionals, directors and educators! Or just donate! If you don't want to compete, you can also vote when the time comes! Vote here from Oct. 11-15! Or, if you want to just open your purse, you can send in a donation anytime here! Donation instructions can be found mid-way on our monologue website. Visit this site for more info! https://fotcmonologuecompetition.square.site ====================== About Face Off Theatre Company Face Off Theatre Company was founded in 2015 in Kalamazoo by six African-American women with theater and playwriting degrees from Western Michigan University. It is devoted to thought-provoking Black theater and the development of playwrights, actors and directors of color, drawing audiences from throughout Southwest Michigan to its performances. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for show updates. For more: faceofftheatre.com   By Face Off Theatre Company KALAMAZOO, Mich. – It was 15 years ago that African-American playwright Kermit Frazier’s “Smoldering Fires” play about two boys trying to address violence in their neighborhood debuted, but its message of the need for people to act individually and collectively to move the needle is still relevant today as Kalamazoo’s premier Black theater company, Face Off Theatre, offers a filmed staged reading of this youth play from August 20-22, 2021. It will be streamed only. The production comes at a time when police report an uptick in shootings in the city of Kalamazoo since the pandemic, as well as in the region and nationwide. Just this month, a Kalamazoo County sheriff’s deputy was shot, and in a separate incident, two people were shot on a South Haven beach in broad daylight. These casualties leave families devastated and law enforcement and community and government leaders seeking solutions. The play leaves us with much to ponder at this somber moment. Streaming starts Friday, August 20 at 7:30 p.m. and continues through the 22nd at 11:59 p.m. We use a pay-what-you-can model to make theatre accessible to everyone. Click here for tickets, or scroll down to the end of this story. You will be given a unique link to view the play. Message of influence, change “This is a show that we, as a company, believed had a great message—a message of influence and change,” says Bianca Washington Ciungan, who is directing the play. She is youth director at Face Off Theatre, which she and five other African-American women founded in 2015. “We found it important to highlight specifically young Black men, specifically our youth,” Washington Ciungan adds. “It has always been important to tell reflective stories of a window of life that’s not our own, so we can better understand different sides of life. I think ALL people would enjoy this show because with every show there is an education, something that you can walk away with and think about. And for those whose lives reflect these themes, it is so important to see that theatre can speak to their lives, too.” Two unlikely friends Kermit Frazier crafts a story about two Black boys who seem unlikely friends. Dashaun Johnston can barely make it through the school day without getting into trouble, while Corey Tyler excels. But the two have a special bond, and together they share a dream of cleaning up their sometimes violent, urban neighborhood. The piece is part of our Youth Series. “Smoldering Fires” touches on the power of youth activism and of collective social action, both in present day and during the Civil Rights Movement. It is the fourth of our five plays this year in our 2021 season. Familiar and new faces We’re delighted to have actors from past shows joining us for this thought-provoking production, including Jahleel Fisher as Corey Tyler, and Delanti Hall as Dashaun Johnston, the two young characters around which the play centers. Also familiar faces are Ron Ware, Zaynee Hobdy, Ariel Bennett, Carter Steppes and Lars J. Loofboro. Rounding out the cast are Melinda Vanderbilt, Sanaa Olivacce and Kaelyn Averhart. This is their first Face Off Theatre Company production. TICKETS: faceofftheatre.com ====================== About Face Off Theatre Company Face Off Theatre Company was founded in 2015 in Kalamazoo by six African-American women with theater and playwriting degrees from Western Michigan University. It is devoted to thought-provoking Black theater and the development of playwrights, actors and directors of color, drawing audiences from throughout Southwest Michigan to its performances. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for show updates. For more: faceofftheatre.com About the playwright Kermit Frazier has been a writer — especially playwright and television writer — as well as a teacher of writing, literature, and theater for more than 40 years. His latest play, MODERN MINSTRELSY, was a finalist (60 plays out of 1,450 submissions) for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. Another new play, FIREPOWER, premiered at the Detroit Repertory Theater in 2017. Frazier has had nearly 20 plays produced in New York and around the country. As a television writer, his series include the popular children’s mystery show “Ghostwriter” (which he helped to create and was a head writer), “Gullah Gullah Island” (co-producer and executive story editor), ABC sitcom “Married People,” Fox series “True Colors,” soap opera “All My Children," “The Misadventures of Maya and Miguel” and “The Magic School Bus.” Sources: broadwayplaypub.com; ensemblestudiotheatre.org Photo credits: Playwright Kermit Frazier, below (enchantedmountains.com); Director Bianca Washington Ciungan (courtesy photo)    By Face Off Theatre Company KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The nation has not been able to get a handle on the trend of students pushed out of school and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems. But one distraught African-American mother, herself a schoolteacher, tries when her son finds himself in trouble in Dominique Morisseau’s “Pipeline,” the next production of Face Off Theatre Company, Kalamazoo’s premier Black theater group, and it pulls on our heartstrings. The story centers around Nya, an inner-city public high school teacher whose only child, a son, Omari, is full of rage following her divorce. She’s committed to her students, but desperate to give him opportunities they'll never have. However, when she sends him to a private school, he gets swept up in a controversial incident that threatens his future there, sending Nya into an emotional breakdown. Will she be able to reach him before a world beyond her control pulls him away? 'Affects students of color' “’ 'Pipeline’ is a very important play for 2021, and the reason is because we are having conversations about racism and inequities in this country; and it has been proven by studies that there is a school-to-prison pipeline, and it directly affects students of color,” says Artistic Director Marissa Harrington, who is directing the piece. Harrington says data shows there’s over-policing of student behavior in America's classrooms. “So, this play, while wonderful and poignant and powerful, it’s unfortunate that this play is still relevant in today’s society. My hope is this play will spark conversations in our community about how we can make the educational system more equitable for all students.” Coming in July Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. July 16-17 and 2 p.m. July 17-18 at Dormouse Theatre, 1030 Portage St., Kalamazoo, at Lake and Portage streets. We use a pay-what-you-can model. Scroll down for the link for tickets. It's our second live performance since last year (all others have been virtual). Also noteworthy is this is our third time staging a play by Tony award-winning, Detroit-born playwright, Dominique Morisseau. The others were “Detroit ’67” in 2017 and “Sunset Baby” in 2018. (Read on for her bio.) Face Off Theatre Season Stage Manager Shea-Lin Shobowale-Benson, an actress and playwright, will take centerstage as Nya. Playing her son is Delanti Hall, and her ex-husband, Xavier, is Yasir Muhammad. The other experienced thespians in the cast include Mikaela Johnson (Jasmine), Michael Davis Arnold (Dun) and Sandy Davis (Laurie), with Face Off Theatre Brand Marketing Manager/Playwright/Director/Actress Earlene McMichael as assistant director. TICKETS: faceofftheatrecompany.anywhereseat.com ====================== About Face Off Theatre Company Face Off Theatre Company was founded in 2015 in Kalamazoo by six African-American women with theater and playwriting degrees from Western Michigan University. It is devoted to thought-provoking Black theater and the development of playwrights, actors and directors of color, drawing audiences from throughout Southwest Michigan to its performances. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for show updates. For more: faceofftheatre.com About the playwright Dominique Morisseau wrote the book for the musical “Ain’t Too Proud—The Life and Times of the Temptations,” which opened on Broadway in 2017 and marked her Broadway debut for which she earned the Tony Award for Best Book for a Musical; she was the first African-American woman to do so. Other honors include the Obie Award Special Citation for Collaboration in 2016, the MacArthur Fellowship (a.k.a. "Genius Grant”) in 2018, and two NAACP Image Awards. Currently, she works as the story editor and a co-producer of the television show “Shameless” on Showtime. Morisseau received her bachelor’s in fine arts from the University of Michigan. Photo credit: Dominique Morisseau, below (dominiquemorisseau.com)    By Face Off Theatre Company KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The always trend-setting Face Off Theatre Company, Kalamazoo’s premier Black theater group, paves the way for local theater in reopening to in-person audiences with this month’s staging of Kalamazoo playwright Vickie G. Hampton’s “I Am Grace,” a moving play exploring race, class and forgiveness in the aftermath of a powerful person’s son doing heinous acts in a small town. Safety protocols will be in place. “We are very excited to finally produce this piece that we've been workshopping with the playwright, Vickie, for a couple of years,” says Artistic Director Marissa Harrington. “Vickie very effortlessly captures the voice of young Grace, as well as, the dynamics within the African-American family. "Additionally, it's a story that I feel is extremely universal. How do families deal with hardship and trauma? After all the uncertainties of 2020 that we experienced, I'm sure every person watching this will be able to relate to this story of survival and resilience.” It's showtime! Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. May 21-23 and 2 p.m. May 22-23 at Dormouse Theatre, 1030 Portage St., Kalamazoo, located at the corner Lake and Portage streets. Audiences will enjoy that we have transitioned to a pay-what-you-can model, but note that the production's mature themes are not suitable for children. For tickets, visit: faceofftheatrecompany.anywhereseat.com This is Face Off Theatre’s first production in front of a live audience since last year (all others have been virtual). Guests and the cast will be kept safe through reduced seating, masks and social distancing, plus an option to view the show online. The cast, director "I Am Grace" is directed by Este’Fan Kizer, who appeared in our joint musical with Farmers Alley Theatre last summer of Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds." Two other actors from that show are in this one: Khadijah Brown (Fay "Mop" Lloyd) and Bri Edgerton (Lorrie). This is Khadijah's sixth show with Face Off Theatre. She had the leading role in our season opener in February of this year, Lynn Nottage's "Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine," about a public relations executive's fall from grace. Getting top billing in "I Am Grace" is Aija Hodges as Grace Lloyd. Rounding out the amazing cast are Marc Wilson (Rupert "Pop" Lloyd), Michael Davis Arnold (Abel Lloyd), Derek Miller (Aaron Lloyd), and Nicki Poer (Mrs. Graham). Our 2021 season kicked off in February. “I Am Grace” is the second of our five plays this year. ====================== About Face Off Theatre Company Face Off Theatre Company was founded in 2015 in Kalamazoo by six African-American women with theater and playwriting degrees from Western Michigan University. We are devoted to thought-provoking Black theater and the development of playwrights, actors and directors of color, drawing audiences from throughout Southwest Michigan to our performances. About the Playwright Vickie G. Hampton is an award-winning editor and writer. Her short play about retail racial profiling, “I’m Not Buying It,” was staged by Face Off Theatre Company in July 2020 as part of our Virtual New Play Series. Now we are presenting her full-length play, “I Am Grace." Her play, “Learning Curve,” was selected as an “A-Lister” for a staged reading at the 2019 National Black Theater Festival. The biennial festival draws nearly 60,000 theater patrons from around the globe to Winston Salem, N.C., to showcase the best of Black theater. Her “I Am Grace” play was an “A-Lister” at the 2017 National Black Theatre Festival. Follow Face Off Theatre on Facebook and Instagram for show updates and auditions!    By Face Off Theatre Company
KALAMAZOO, Mich. – Fabulation, a cautionary tale reminding us not to forget our roots as we climb the ladder of success, kicks off the Black Arts & Cultural Center's Face Off Theatre Company's seventh season in February. The company is devoting its entire 2021 season to plays that tell deeply personal stories of African-Americans’ struggle for economic prosperity in America, in response to the tumultuous racial unrest nationwide that’s put a spotlight on imbalances. “Face Off Theatre is offering five plays in a series we’ve titled ‘Rebirth,’ so appropriate after all that our nation went through in 2020,” says Artistic Director Marissa Harrington, in announcing the company’s new season that starts in February. “We hope these works will help keep top of mind the importance of creating a world with the access and conditions that allows everyone to lead safe and financially secure lives. We need to continue the fight for racial equity.” Fabulation, or the The Re-Education of Undine by Lynn Nottage, will be streamed online only, and is timed to coincide with Black History Month. Showtimes are: 7:30 p.m. Friday-Sunday, Feb. 26-28. (Scroll down for the link for tickets. The show is pay-what-you-can.) The play is a social satire about an ambitious and haughty African-American woman, Undine Barnes Calles, whose husband suddenly disappears after embezzling all of her money. Pregnant and on the brink of social and financial ruin, Undine retreats to her childhood home in Brooklyn’s Walt Whitman projects, only to discover that she must cope with a crude new reality. This piece, directed by Ynika Yuag, is a comeuppance tale with a comic twist. Many of the cast members are familiar faces to Face Off Theatre audiences, such as Khadijah Brown, this time starring as Undine Barnes Calles. Rounding out the cast are Michael Davis Arnold, Charles-Curtis, Zaynee Hobdy, Jerome M. Jones, Jayla Smith, Elizabeth Taylor and Ron Ware. TICKETS: faceofftheatrecompany.anywhereseat.com ====================== About Face Off Theatre Company Face Off Theatre Company launched in 2015 in Kalamazoo. It is devoted to thought-provoking Black theater and the development of playwrights of color, drawing audiences from throughout Southwest Michigan to its performances. Tickets may be purchased online, or at the door. For more: faceofftheatre.com Follow Face Off Theatre on Facebook and Instagram for show updates and auditions!  By Face Off Theatre Company KALAMAZOO, Mich.— Get ready for stimulating conversation! Reginald Edmund, an international thought leader on systemic racism, and longtime and emerging Kalamazoo activists headline a dynamic virtual “Black Lives, Black Words” panel discussion at 7 p.m. Friday, July 31. Watch the livestream on the Facebook page of Face Off Theatre Company via Facebook Live. The panel discussion is hosted by the Black Arts & Cultural Center’s Face Off Theatre Company and Western Michigan University Department of Theatre. Panelists will discuss what’s being done to affect lasting change on the race issue. The lineup includes:
About 'Black Lives, Black Words' This is the second event in a three-part “Black Lives, Black Words” series being held online by Face Off Theatre and Western. Reginald Edmund, an award-winning playwright based in Chicago, is the founder of the Black Lives, Black Words International Project that provides workshops to train people of color how to create plays and other works for the stage that answer the question: “Do Black lives matter?” WMU graduate Marissa Harrington helped start Face Off Theatre. Harrington, who serves as artistic director, believes having an outlet for artists of color to express themselves at this critical moment of heightened racial tensions is essential. "The movement here has been so inspiring. I don't see people letting up, and that's a good thing," Harrington said in a recent interview with her alma mater. "I hope that people are inspired by what they see and what they hear and are encouraged to keep going." Face Off Theatre Company has twice partnered with the WMU Department of Theatre to bring the Black Lives, Black Words project to Kalamazoo, first in 2018 and then in 2019. This summer's series is the first time they’ve done it virtually. Joan Herrington, who heads the WMU theater department, told WMU News Services that it is important for the project to return in the wake of calls for racial justice nationwide. WMU is the second university in the U.S. to host Reginald Edmund’s BLBW initiative. "I think there is more energy, more urgency for this work, and not just for this work, but really for us to look at institutional racism as it expresses itself in the arts,” Herrington said. NEXT UP: The series' third and final event is a curated talent showcase at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 1, also on Face Off Theatre Company’s Facebook page.  Play Exposing Retail Racial Profiling Brings Strong Close to Face Off Theatre's Virtual Series7/17/2020  By Face Off Theatre Company KALAMAZOO, Mich. – It’s important to dismantle racism everywhere its ugly head rears, including in retail racial profiling. That’s the subject of “I’m Not Buying It,” the final show in Face Off Theatre Company’s 2020 Virtual Spring/Summer New Play Series at 7 p.m. EST Thursday, July 23. Watch the production LIVE at Face Off Theatre Company’s Facebook page via Facebook Live for free! Kalamazoo writer Vickie G. Hampton’s 10-minute play takes us on the harrowing journey of self-discovery for a cashier on his first day at a high-end department store. You, the audience, can post your thoughts in real time during this staged reading. The program concludes with a Q&A with the playwright who will answer your questions, plus some of ours! 'Will generate conversation' Playwright Vickie Hampton says eliminating racism requires each of us do our part. “There is a crucial individual component to dismantling racism,” Hampton says. “I hope that, at the very least, ‘I’m Not Buying It,’ will generate conversations about our personal responsibility in examining our innermost beliefs about race and doing the hard work of confronting our own biases.” In "I’m Not Buying It," a cashier is surprised by the deep-seated discomfort and fear that surface when he deals with his first customer on his first day on the floor of an upscale department store. During the seemingly innocuous encounter, the cashier learns that there is, indeed, something sinister and disturbing at work. A brief post-play interview will be conducted by the play's director Earlene McMichael, an actress/writer who is Face Off Theatre’s brand marketing and social media manager. The company fully staged McMichael's “You’re Gonna Learn Today” new play at last summer's Black Arts Festival in Kalamazoo. Then Micealaya “Mickey” Moses, Face Off Theatre’s season planning/new play development director and dramaturg, will ask Hampton the Facebook audience's questions. Moses holds a master’s degree in fine arts with a concentration in playwriting from Western Michigan University. The play stars Beth Fields, Timothy Smith, Dwane Stiger and Ron Ware, all of whom have been in past Face Off Theatre productions. Thanks for your interest in Face Off Theatre Company! To help us put on future plays, please consider a CashApp donation to $BACCFOTC. FOTC is a division of the Black Arts & Cultural Center, known as the BACC. ====================== About Face Off Theatre Company Face Off Theatre Company launched in 2015 as the theatrical arm of the Black Arts & Cultural Center in Kalamazoo. It is devoted to thought-provoking Black theater and the development of playwrights of color, drawing audiences from throughout Southwest Michigan to its performances at the Epic Center’s Judy K. Jolliffe Theatre and nearby artistic venues. Tickets may be purchased online about a month before the show, or at the door. For more: faceofftheatre.com About the Black Arts & Cultural Center The Black Arts & Cultural Center, headquartered at downtown Kalamazoo's Epic Center, is widely known for its annual Black Arts Festival since founding in 1986. The organization develops the potential and creativity in Blacks in the Kalamazoo area, advances the awareness of Black artistic ability, helps to preserve Black cultural heritage and enhance interactions among diverse groups. For more: blackartskalamazoo.org Follow Face Off Theatre on Facebook and Instagram for show updates and auditions!   By Face Off Theatre Company KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Black Arts & Cultural Center’s Face Off Theatre Company and Western Michigan University Department of Theatre have retained award-winning playwright Reginald Edmund to headline a three-part “Black Lives, Black Words” virtual event to teach and celebrate how the performing arts can be an agent of change in fighting racism. Events include an “art-as-activism” workshop and a panel discussion on Black Lives Matter efforts in the Kalamazoo area to address systemic racism. They take place July 14 and 31, respectively. The series closes out with an open mic-style talent showcase on Aug. 1. All programming is free, and held at 7 p.m. Edmund, who is based in Chicago, founded the Black Lives, Black Words International Project, where he travels the world giving workshops posing the question, “Do Black lives matter?,” and then instructs participants on how to turn their answers into plays and other works for the stage, such as poems and spoken-word. “A playwright has a sacred task stemming back from ancient times of the griot, as the politicians, the preachers, and the prophets of their times gathering the people together and guiding them through stories toward a better world,” Edmund writes on the Black Lives, Black Words website. The virtual series The July 31 panel discussion will feature local people on the front lines of fighting racism. The Aug. 1 showcase will present extraordinary actors, playwrights, spoken-word artists and poets specially chosen for the occasion. Both events take place at 7 p.m. on Facebook Live on Face Off Theatre’s Facebook page. The July 14 workshop will be a private event between Edmund and up to 20 of Kalamazoo’s creatives of color on using their “art as activism” as the Black Lives Matter Movement continues to intensify nationwide in the wake of George Floyd’s death. Pre-registration is required. With the workshop coming up quickly, interested persons of color should email Face Off Theatre Company as soon as possible at faceofftheatre@gmail.com to be considered, or inbox us on Facebook. Include name, phone number and email address. Briefly state why the workshop would be beneficial. Face Off Theatre Company has twice partnered with the WMU Department of Theatre to bring the Black Lives, Black Words project to the campus, in 2018 and in 2019. Reginald Edmund, at right below, posed with some of Face Off's company members in 2019. This summer's series is the first time that Face Off and Western have ever done a virtual BLBW event or presented it as a multi-part offering.  |
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