| Theater Resources Unlimited Announces Cast of "Golden Wings," Part of the TRU Voices New Plays Virtual Reading Series - 6/27 | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 08:09 am EDT 06/25/21 | |
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| Theater Resources Unlimited announces Tony winner Lillias White and Scotch Ellis Loring will head the cast of Golden Wings, the second play in the TRU Voices New Plays Virtual Reading Series presented with The StoryLine Project Sunday, June 27, 2021 at 3:00pm Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) announces that the second play in the TRU Voices Series, Golden Wings by Coolidge Harris II, will star Tony winner Lillias White and Scotch Ellis Loring on Sunday, June 27, 2021 at 3pm. The cast also includes Stanley Wayne Mathis, Jerome Preston Bates, Dan Saunders, Crystal Starr, Sherman Edwards and Aliria Johnson. Kamryn Neill will handle narration and stage directions, Elizabeth Flax is Swing and Emely Selina Zepeda is stage manager. Golden Wings is part of the 22nd annual TRU Voices New Plays Virtual Reading, new plays by TRU writers produced by TRU producers, presented with generous support from The StoryLine Project. Tickets for the series are available at http://truboxoffice.com This deeply felt new family drama, directed by Rain Pryor (Fried Chicken and Latkes) and produced by Benny Lumpkins Jr. and Lhaser Rd. Productions, explores the complexities of love, loyalty, and the sanctity of marriage. When the line is crossed in the Pinkens family, it is revealed that the truth can bring you out of the darkness and into a whole new light. The play reading will be followed by TRU’s unique “Dollars and Sense” talkback panel with industry professionals and will include Patrick Blake, producer (The 39 Steps revival, Bedlam Theater's Hamlet/St. Joan, Play Dead, The Exonerated, In the Continuum), founding artistic director Rhymes Over Beats; Merrie L. Davis, producer and out of the box marketer (Olivier Winning Producer Best Musical Revival Company in the West End,Company on Broadway, Eclipsed, Gigi,The Musical; off-Broadway, Himself and Nora); Van Dirk Fisher, founder & artistic director of The Riant Theatre and producer of the Jocunda Festival; R.K. Greene, executive director of The Storyline Project, producer (Farinelli and the King, Peter and the Starcatcher, A Time to Kill; The Lightning Thief tour; off-Broadway Terms of Endearment, Cougar the musical; upcoming Beau the musical); Ted Lange, actor, writer, director (2-time NAACP Theater Award winner Best Play Four Queens - No Trump and The Cause, My Soul, Isaac Washington on The Love Boat); Stephanie Rosenberg of Empress Productions (Moulin Rouge, Anastasia, The Lightning Thief, On the Town; Grammy winning cast recording of The Color Purple); Janel Scarborough, producer/script developer (Single Black Female, Welcome to America, Fotos), founding member of Backdoor Films. “We were so heartened to see that the shutdown did not shut down our talented community of writers,” says TRU literary manager Cate Cammarata. “We got an inspiring influx of new work submitted to the series, and we’re proud to present three of the most intriguing. Also pleased to announce that all three are directed by women (and two have women producing them).” BIOS Coolidge Harris II (playwright) attended California State University, Sacramento and after graduation was a member of the Sons and Ancestors Players Theatre Troupe under the artistic direction of the late T. Michael Gates. Coolidge uses poetic language to tell stories of the Black American experience. He has authored the one act play, A Trial for Butchy, and later wrote Footsteps in the Dark . After a move to the Bay Area and spending 25 years in the Washington DC metro area, Coolidge came back to California and retired as an educator to pursue his passion in playwriting. Coolidge has always been a fan of the theatre. He was inspired by watching August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Fences in the late 80’s at San Francisco’s Curran Theatre, and having the honor of meeting James Earl Jones in his dressing room after a performance of Athol Fugard’s Master Harold and the Boys, “I told him I wanted to be a playwright and we sat and had a long conversation. He was so gracious,” Coolidge recalls. His more recent plays are Golden Wings and Greenwood. He fondly calls Greenwood his first play after using his life’s experience to tap into the souls of the hundreds lost on that day May 31, 1921 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Coolidge was inspired to write Greenwood because it is the untold American tragedy. This year commemorates the 100-year anniversary of The Black Wall Street Massacre. “I am determined to let America know about this once thriving African-American community that was destroyed for no reason at all. My hope is that this play will inspire people to learn more about this massacre, to honor those lives lost in it.” Greenwood won Honorable Mention in the 2020 Panndora’s Box Playwrights Competition, a finalist in the 2020 (AACT) American Association of Community Theatres NewPlayFest and is currently a semifinalist in the 2021 National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre. Rain Pryor (director) is a dynamic speaker, award winning actress, singer, comedian, two-time award nominated author, and daughter of the late legendary comedian Richard Pryor. co-founded Baltimore Theatre Works. She taught acting at Center Stage, Baltimore School for The Arts, and was honored at Coppin State University Theatre Arts Conference in 2019. Mother May I by humorist Dylan Brody was Pryor’s directorial debut. She also directed MILF, Mom I’d Like to Follow written and performed by Comedian Meshelle, which won Best Stand Up at the United Solo Festival in NY and has played to sold out crowds across the country. She was artistic director of the Strand Theatre in Baltimore in 2010 and directed three highly successful shows that brought the company into a financial surplus. Fried Chicken and Latkes is Pryor's award-winning solo show, a story of growing up black and Jewish in a politically incorrect era. The show played to sold out crowds at the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills, CA, and repeated that success in New York, Chicago, Ohio, Virginia, Texas, and Scotland. Benny Lumpkins Jr. (producer) originated from Detroit and got his theatre start at Old Dominion University. Recent producing credits include: Broadway Slave Play, Off Broadway The Landstuhl Chronicles, A Commercial Jingle for Regina Comet. A Hollywood costume designer/set costumer, recent credits include: “My Brother Wes,” on Amazon. Lillias White (Bessie) made her Broadway debut in Barnum. She has also appeared on Broadway in Cats, Carrie, Dreamgirls, Once on This Island, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Chicago and FELA! (Tony nomination). For her role in Cy Coleman’s The Life, she won the Drama Desk , Outer Critics Circle Award and the Tony Award (Best Featured Actress In A Musical). She was recently seen in the world premiere of Gotta Dance at the Paper Mill Playhouse, has performed at the Public Theater production of Romance In Hard Times (OBIE Award), Dinah Was at the Gramercy Theatre, Second Stage Premiere of Regina Taylor’s Crowns (AUDELCO Award), Texas in Paris at the York Theatre Company, (Lucille Lortel Award Nomination) and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom at The Mark Taper Forum (N.A.A.C.P. Theatre Award - Best Actress in a Musical)! White’s concert performances include her critically acclaimed cabaret show at 54 Below called The Lillias White Effect (directed by Will Nunziata), for which she earned a Bistro Award. For The Actors Fund of America, she performed in Funny Girl, Hair and the 25th anniversary Concert Dreamgirls and South Pacific which was broadcast by PBS Great Performances. She also appeared in concert at the Kennedy Center, JAZZ@Lincoln Center, Lincoln Center, and many times at Carnegie Hall. She has toured internationally with her one-woman show, From Brooklyn to Broadway. White’s television appearances include a regular role on “Sesame Street” (for which she won an Emmy Award), “Gotham,” “Person of Interest,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Law & Order,” and the recurring role of Fat Annie on the Netflix show The Get Down. Screen credits: Lead Muse in Disney’s Hercules, Anastasia, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Game 6, Pieces of April, Then She Found Me, and Nasty Baby (with Kristen Wiig). Scotch Ellis Loring (Brown) has been in arts and entertainment for almost thirty years. His first professional job for television was as Tootie’s suitor on “The Facts of Life.” Most recently he guest starred on the Ryan Murphy hit “911.” In film, he has had the pleasure of working with decorated directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, David Fincher, Cameron Crowe and Todd Holland. Scotch has been producing for several years with project that include pilots, features, live productions and the indie features, including award winning short feature “WIG”, which he also penned. As a singer he’s toured nationally with Jesus Christ Superstar and Civil War. He performs in the local L.A. cabaret scene and has a recorded his entire career. The ballad “Lost Til I Found You”, which he wrote, plays over the closing credits of the feature film Firehouse Dog. He has performed with Larry Gatlin, BeBe Winans, Carl Anderson, Dennis DeYoung, Freda Payne and Syreeta Wright and composers Ray Davies, Charles Fox, Barry Gordy and Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil. Scotch is most proud of his web series “FAUX SHOW”, starring Tiffany Haddish and Kim Coles. Streaming on YouTube or at www.FauxShowTv.com. Faux Show won “Best Webisode” in its first festival and has since won several other honors including “Best Director” for Scotch. His most recently finished his supernatural feature film script “Flat Shader” which is currently hitting the market. Jerome Preston Bates (Travis Mather) is an American theater, film and television actor, director and playwright. Broadway: August Wilson's Jitney directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Manhattan Theater Club, Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play), Stick Fly directed by Kenny Leon; August Wilson's Seven Guitars directed by Lloyd Richards. Sherman Edwards (PJ) is honored to be a part of this reading of Golden Wings. He was last seen on stage in Chicago for A Red Orchid Production of Killing Game . He was named 2012’s ‘Best Stand Up Comic in Chicago’ by the Chicago Reader and has been lucky enough to perform at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, The TBS Just for Laughs festival and a few other notable places. TV/Film credits include HBO GO's Single Long, FOX’s Empire and will be seen in the upcoming independent film Monuments. Sherman and his wife, Brittany Burch, just welcomed a daughter into their family and are looking forward to getting some sleep in the distant future. He is represented by Paonessa Talent. Elizabeth Flax (Swing) is an actor/director with experience in theatre, voice over, film and television. Theatre credits include Dr. Bonnie Lee Abernathy in 2 Wolves and A Lamb, Common Enemy (World Premieres) and Jacob Marley’s Ghost in A Christmas Carol at Triad Stage; Valeria in Coriolanus: The African Warrior (Harlem Shakespeare Festival); Klytemnestra in Elektra (The Actors Studio); Playing With Fire (Negro Ensemble/August Strindberg Rep) and Music Deep Rivers My Soul (Jazz at Lincoln Center). Recent directing credits include Greenwood (Coolidge Harris II), Having Our Say (Emily Mann); They That Sit in Darkness (Mary P Burrell); Illinois Boy Blues (Khalil Muhammad); Dembe (Amy daLuz). Television: Law and Order: SVU (Recurring); Law and Order: Criminal Intent; Law and Order; Daredevil; New York News; The Sopranos; Third Watch; Everyday People. Aliria Johnson (Carol) is a recent graduate from The University of the Arts with a BFA in Musical Theater. Recent credits include The Maids, The Elementary Spacetime Show (Fringe Arts and Playwrights Downtown), Folk Wandering (Polyphone Festival), and Hear Me War (Philadelphia Women’s Theatre Festival). She is ecstatic for all of the amazing opportunities theater will have to offer in the near future. Stanley Wayne Mathis (Phillip) (Equity/Sag-Aftra) a native of Washington D.C. is based in NYC. Broadway Credits include: Oh Kay!, Jelly’s Last Jam, The Lion King, You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown, Kiss Me Kate, Wonderful Town, Nice Work If You Can Get It and The Book Of Mormon. He has performed on stages Nationally and Internationally in Regionals, The Bermuda Theater Festival to The Royal Court Theater in London. Television audiences may remember his appearances on: Law & Order, Criminal Intent, Gossip Girls, NY 22, NBC’s RISE. Film: Magic Sticks, Dark Streets, Brother To Brother and Steve Mc Queen’s SHAME. Stanley has also recently written his own multi-media play entitled Preaching To The Choir/ An Inconvenient Truth A Blacklivesmatter Odyssey. www.stanleywaynemathis.com Dan Saunders ( Finney) worked as an actor in New York and Los Angeles more years ago than he would care to admit, appearing on All My Children and One Life to Live as well as in numerous stage productions, including his own play The Death of William Shakespeare. He then made a dramatic change and built a successful career as a federal prosecutor and later an entertainment litigator, which is how he finally made the cover of Variety. But he has never lost the theater bug and continues to perform whenever possible while maintaining his legal practice. Most recent roles include The Fantasticks (Henry) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bottom). He is also an amateur magician and a proud member of the Academy of Magical Arts at Hollywood’s Magic Castle. Dan is extremely grateful to be involved with such an illustrious company in this reading of Golden Wings. Crystal Starr (Gloria) 2x music award winner Crystal Starr is the leading artist of the new generation that emerged in the wake of the influence of Madonna, Beyonce and Prince. Dubbed as the Latina Amy Winehouse, and sometimes compared to a girl version of Bruno Mars and the Hooligans, Crystal Starr is a major act in the making. Starr’s impressive resume and performance skills, having performed regularly to crowds of over 80,000 people as an official support act for artists such as Paul Stanley (Kiss), Ariana Grande, Drake, Jlo, and Lady Gaga has also starred on Broadway playing a singer from the hit girl group “The Shirelles” in the Hit Broadway show called “Baby Its You.” Her dynamic show, which features her background singers “The Bowties”, is a high energy choreographed concert that keeps people wanting more. Snoop Dogg recently shouted out “Crystal Starr and the Bowties” as being a Star. Crystal Starr fly’s the flag for female activism and Children in Foster care, aiming to always encourage women and children to free themselves from the shackles of societal pressures and to be themselves. Crystals newest single ‘Goodie Two Shoes’, from her upcoming album StarrShip, tells the story of the pressures a girl goes through while trying the do the “right thing” in a world filled with pressures to do just the opposite. Deemed a “Goodie Two shoes” herself, Crystal was always teased for not falling into the trap of the many peer pressures many girls feel in today’s fast-moving life. Never wanting to become a star based on the account of a “Sex sells” idealism, she chose to empower herself and others by believing in herself, even if it meant taking the longer route. Starr chose to teach other girls that, by remaining in your power, “You Are Enough” through her Girl Empowerment Concert series, in which she produces through her non-profit Little Voices, “She Sessions” which empowers thousands of girls in foster Care. The Music Video is a fun throwback concept Crystal Starr came up with which pay’s tribute to powerful woman artist’s such as Janet Jackson, TLC, and SALT N PEPA whom she looked up to growing up in the early 90s. ", Crystal Starr’s voice celebrates all women, and her records stand as a collection of true stories inspired by the women in her life who have overcome abuse, only to persevere and grow stronger. Crystal Starr’s music exists to uplift and encourage women to be a community who support one another. Upcoming Sunday, July 11th, 2021, 3:00pm EDT Stephanie Pope Lofgren presents No One Cries for the Blacksmith by Lloyd Khaner directed by Tonya Pinkins starring Chuck Cooper and Robert Cuccioli "There's light at the end of every tunnel." No One Cries for the Blacksmith follows a hope-filled New York City taxi cab driver and his confident marketing executive passenger on the best, the worst and possibly the last day of their lives. Based on true events, this intense drama infused with humor will take you on a journey wondering if these strangers turned friends will make it out alive. Tickets and details at http://truboxoffice.com Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) is the leading network for developing theater professionals, a twenty-eight-year-old 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization created to help producers produce, emerging theater companies to emerge healthily and all theater professionals to understand and navigate the business of the arts. Membership includes self-producing artists as well as career producers and theater companies. TRU publishes an email community newsletter of services, goods and productions; presents monthly panels as well as the new weekly Community Gatherings; offers a Producer Development & Mentorship Program taught by prominent producers and general managers in New York theater, and also presents Producer Boot Camp workshops to help aspirants develop business skills. TRU serves writers through the TRU Voices Play Reading Series, Writer-Producer Speed Date, a Practical Playwriting Workshop, How to Write a Musical That Works and a Director-Writer Communications Lab. Programs of Theater Resources Unlimited are supported in part by the Montage Foundation, The Storyline Project and the Leibowitz Greenway Foundation. For more information about TRU membership and programs, visit www.truonline.org. |
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