Featured in The Boston Globe, NYtimes, and American Theatre Magazine, The Fire This Time Festival is leading the push towards new possibilities in Black Theater. Offering early-career playwrights of African and African American descent the opportunity to write material that reflects diverse perspectives as 21st century theater artists, the works tackle a wide range of genres and topics. This years festival is directed by Candis Jones.

The Rider by Mona Washington
Ade Ogunbade and Julia Ford Williams are very much in love and engaged. However, Ade wants a pre-nuptial agreement. Much to his surprise, Julia agrees. Her only condition? She wants to add a rider. Can love be contracted? Will their their cultural differences and emotional sensitivities prevent their union? “The Rider” explores these questions and more.

The House by Charly Evon Simpson
The need to decide what to do with their father’s house brings siblings B and Jackie together on a cold winter afternoon.

BLACK, WHITE & BLUE by William Watkins
A black motorist. A white cop. A bystander who is far from innocent. Which truth will you believe? BLACK, WHITE & BLUE explores the deadly stereotypes that make us all slaves to fear.

Anonymous by Sandra A. Daley-Sharif
Sick of rejection and her career seeming to go nowhere, Noelle Hardisohn, a visual artist, makes a bold move. It worked! Everybody is eager to buy the art of this bold talent. But why don’t they know she’s Black? Why don’t they know her name?

Poppy by Shelley Fort
A young girl runs away from home and finds herself on an adventure through NYC. After she falls asleep on a bus, she wakes up in a courtroom and is forced to confront the reason she ran away. A nightmare or reality? “Poppy” explores loss of innocence and the cost of being a bold, fearless young woman in today’s society.

The Falling Man By Gethsemane Herron-Coward
The Falling Man is inspired by Richard Drew’s infamous photograph. Two women war with a journalist in the aftermath of their father’s absence post 9/11 New York. The Falling Man asks how one mourns a man who won’t return, a man who was half stolen to begin with.

Visit www.firethistimefestival.com for more info!