25 Plays from The Fire This Time Festival

A Decade of Recognition, Resistance, Resilience, Rebirth, and Black Theater

Kelley Nicole Girod

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781350268104
• eBook ISBN: 9781350268135
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Drama
• Index: Literature

While the past decade proved to be some of the most tumultuous times in modern US history, the Black community has been resilient, opening up dialogues and sustaining advocacy. Nowhere has this been more apparent than at the Obie Award-winning The Fire This Time Festival in New York City. Since being founded in 2009, this theater festival has become the destination for emerging and early career playwrights from the African diaspora. Inequality in education and healthcare, skewed and negative images of Black people in mainstream media, racism in policing, widespread gentrification and its effects on multi-generational Black neighbourhoods, and the growth of Black love; these conversations have been happening in the US, and The Fire This Time Festival has borne witness. 25 Plays from The Fire This Time Festival: A Decade of Recognition, Resistance, Resilience, Rebirth, and Black Theater reflects this fantastic legacy, containing 25 ten-minute plays originally produced by the eponymous festival. Together, these pieces bookend the Black experience in the US from 2009 to the present day: from the hope for further progress and equity under the Obama administration, to the existential threat faced by Black people under the Trump presidency. Edited and curated by Kelley Nicole Girod, the anthology divides the plays into seven thematic sections concerning multi-faceted aspects of the Black experience, featuring work by seminal writers such as Katori Hall, Antoinette Nwandu, Dominique Morisseau, C.A. Johnson, and Marcus Gardley. Both timely and timeless, 25 Plays from The Fire This Time Festival presents an exciting, eclectic mix of 21st century theater that is perfect for study, performance, and reflection.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Contents
• I. A History of The Fire This Time Festival
• II. Foreword: The Privilege of Identity and Why I Founded The Fire This Time Festival
• III. Play Sections
• Section 1
• Play #1: The Beyoncé Effect by Katori Hall
• Play #2: Citizen Jane by Derek Lee McPhatter
• Play #3: Vanna White Has Got to Die! by Antoinette Nwandu
• Play #4: Hard Palate by Roger Q. Mason
• Section 2
• Play #5: Third Grade by Dominique Morisseau
• Play #6: Poor Posturing by Tracey Conyer Lee
• Play #7: scholarship babies by Francisca Da Silveira
• Section 3
• Play #8: The Fucking World and Everything in It by C.A. Johnson
• Play #9: Black, White, & Blue by William Watkins
• Play #10: Ain’t No Mo’ by Jordan E. Cooper
• Play #11: Assumed Positions by Natyna Bean
• Section 4
• Play #12: Within Untainted Wombs (an excerpt) by Dennis A. Allen II
• Play #13: Antepartum by Deneen Reynolds-Knott
• Section 5
• Play #14: Just Another Saturday in the Park by Bernard Tarver
• Play #15: Panopticon by Cyrus Aaron
• Section 6
• Play #16: Exodus by Camille Darby
• Play #17: The Sporting Life of Icarus Jones by Marcus Gardley
• Play #18: The House by Charly Evon Simpson
• Play #19: Sisterhood in the Time of the Apocalypse by Kendra Augustin
• Play #20: C.O.G.s by Samantha Godfrey
• Section 7
• Play #21: The Weatherin’ by Jonathan Payne
• Play #22: Slow Gin Fits by Angelica Chéri
• Play #23: Love and Happiness: Ada’s Story by Fredrica Bailey
• Play #24: Gravity by Josh Wilder
• Play #25: Maya and Rivers by Tyler English-Beckwith
• IV. The Fire This Time Creative Team
• Permissions and Acknowledgements
• Copyright