The African American experience is not represented solely by one voice or one style. Horse Trade Theater Group and The Fire This Time Festival provide a platform for talented early-career playwrights of African and African American descent to explore challenging new directions for 21st century theater.

A Military Habit
Written by Aziza Barnes,
Directed by Dennis A. Allen II
Identical twin sisters Spencer and Ellis pump fake, twist and confess the lies told to them by family and the lies they tell each other, while simultaneously shooting the shit and dissing boys from high school.

The Sandbox
Written by Azure D. Osborne-Lee,
Directed by Jamal Jordan
June stands alone in the broiling desert sun. Jelly hunts a tiger deep in the wildest of jungles. Two sisters struggle to bride the gulf between them inThe Sandbox.

Not In This Room
Written by Daaimah Mubashshir,
Directed by Kimille Howard
Abdullah, a faithful and devoted family man, comes home from his honeymoon, and everything, absolutely everything has changed. How can family still be family when they abandon what holds them together?

Easy to Fall in Love
Written by Larry Powell,
Directed by Tonya Pinkins
It’s Bobby’s first time ever getting his shoes shines and it’s Greg’s last time shining. The truth spoken here can change the course of their entire lives… Will they tell it?

Coal Run Road
Written by Julienne Hairston,
Directed by Tasha Gordon-Solmon
A young man returns home for a celebration to find personal and racial tensions have built to a festering heat beneath the surface of Coal Run Road.

Dolphins and Sharks
Written by James A. Tyler,
Directed by Charlotte Brathwaite
When Yusuf Nwachukwu catches his annoying co-worker breaking employee policy he must decide if he will tell the manager or keep quiet about it. Dolphins and Sharks explores how disadvantaged people function and collide in a capitalistic society..

The Marriage of Zoltar, or Rollercoaster: Your Love
Written & Directed by Rod Gailes OBC A Coney Island fortune telling booth and a glance in the wrong direction threaten to derail Adam’s best laid plans for an elaborate 5th Anniversary marriage proposal.

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