The Grok Acting Studio presents Live Theater - a Virtual production of theater celebrating artists of color.
About this Event
Amy’s play “Fridas with a Ribbon” will be premiered as part of three new works, all biographical stories celebrating culture, art, and heritage. This is a Free Event to online audiences.
The three plays all feature biographical figures and will be streamed online through Youtube and other social media sites. "Virtual theater is a very new concept and this is an experiment, but not just an experiment in bringing theater to audiences remotely, but also in delivering content in a way that hopefully influences our communities for the better," says Sean Rose, who is producing the series and directing two of the plays. The Grok Acting Studio, The Rose Theater Foundation for the Arts, and the Department of Cultural Affairs of Los Angeles have all contributed to making this series possible.
The three short plays are The Rejection, Frida with Ribbons, and Beethoven and the Misfortune Cookies.
The Rejection is a short play and dramatization of August Savage, an African American sculptor who worked for equal rights for African Americans in the arts during the Harlem Renaissance, written by Michael angel Johnson and being directed by Sean Rose. The Rejection features Toni Belafonte (a student of Grok Acting Studio) as Augusta Savage and Efe plays her night Hattie. Sean Rose is directing.
Also featured is Frida with a Ribbon by Amy Oestreicher, a play about Frida Kahlo, a Mexican painter whose works explored gender, class, and race in Mexico. In this interpretative piece, two versions of Frida are played by actresses Nataly Penya who has also studied at The Grok Acting Studio, and actress Tatiana Zappardino.
The third piece, Beethoven and the Misfortune Cookies, written by Joni Ravenna, is a one-man play about African American Music Appreciation Professor Kabin Thomas (played by actor Rayshawn Chism) who was fired from the University of Arkansas after a white student complained about the use of profanity and a graphic image depicting a lynching in one of his lessons. Allison Bergman is directing.
Youtube Event Link: https://youtu.be/Hc1h2kKECCI
Instagram: @Grokactingstudio