Past Work

Our goal is to bring the distinct theatre/worldview of our resident playwrights and that of Freedom Train Productions to theaters across NYC and beyond. Below is a listing of the plays that we have brought into our development process. Interested theatre producers are encouraged to contact the writers directly about future production opportunities.

2009:

Bring the Beat Back: An Apocalyptist Episode
by Derek Lee McPhatter [contact]
Tru Believers know the Musicship Megarhythmic is on its way to save them from the End of the World, but you can’t get on if you can’t get down, and somebody done stole the beat. Trudy thinks her boy-crazed brother may be the troublemaker in question. And unless she can literally “straighten things out” between her brother and his latest love, the Musicship may just groove on by without them. Reaching into a transcendental realm of underground dance music, Bring the Beat Back is an experimental work of music-drama.
+ LISTEN: Derek on P-Funk, Octavia Butler, and his approach to sci-fi.

Dirty Little Black Girls
by Patricia Ione Lloyd [contact]
Uncover the darkest desires of the purest of hearts. Meet the women who mourn and clean around the skeletons in the closet. Dirty Little Black Girls explores race, sex, class, and homophobia by looking at the lives of three domestic workers of color.
+ LISTEN: Ione on her family's linguistic roots, class, and economic dignity.

Woman to Woman
by Ayanna Maia [contact]
Woman to Woman is a comedic drama about black women shape-shifters and love. Two creative lovers, a voluptuous actress and a happily retired drag king, are about to face the most challenging time of their relationship. Evonne wants to be a star but whose hiring size is 14 with an attitude on Broadway. Roni wants to settle down, but her past won't let her. As the comfortable love affair they have wrapped themselves into unravels and clashes with family values, self-image, and dreams of fame, they must decide if playing the part is worth the risk.
+ LISTEN: Ayanna on family, blackness, and her new play.

2008:

delta dandi
by Sharon Bridgforth [contact]
delta dandi is a Conjure. A weave of monologues, chants, choral tellings, blood memory and song, it asks: How does collective grief and trauma inform the African American experience? delta dandi invokes the Transmigration of a Spirit's journey as she walks towards Transformation and Love.
+ LISTEN: Sharon on Blues, Langston Hughes, and the non-linear.

Submerged from All Sides...
by Aurin Squire [contact]
In Aurin's new play, he uses laughter to call out just how uptight our society is about sex. Can change happen? After Submerged from All Sides..., your hurtin' stomach just might have the answer.
+ LISTEN: Aurin on being submerged.

when last we flew
by Harrison David Rivers [contact]
Set in small town Kansas, when last we flew asks the question -- how black can you be if you are surrounded by white people? In his writing, Harrison seeks to tell stories which in other contexts are often misunderstood, tuned out, or dismissed as mere noise (psst, they also are funny and intelligent too).
+ LISTEN: Harrison David Rivers on his first play.

2007:

S/HE
by Nick Mwaluko [contact]
What if as a child you were told by a deity that you were meant to be the opposite sex? Could you be courageous for your god or goddess in the face of intolerance? S/HE by Nick Mwaluko (Columbia MFA) is a play about one person's struggle for acceptance and love.

Age of Grace
by Jesse Cameron Alick [contact]
Remember that guy who you swore was gay but turned out to be metrosexual? Or what about that best friend you always wanted to date? According to the world of Grace, you were lovers - in a past life! Playwright Jesse Cameron Alick calls Grace a remix of Judeo-Christian beliefs with Buddhist tradition weaved into a story about how some things in life are beyond our control.

I Am Not A Hero
by Andre Lancaster [contact]
A queer hate crime witnessed. A documentary film completed. A slave ship rebellion. Can any of this change the future?

LIKE WILDFIRE
by yvonne fly onakeme etaghene [contact]
If compassion became a contagious disease, what would it look like? Poet, performance activist & playwright yvonne fly onakeme etaghene answers this question in a play that is a poetic exploration of humanity in a brutally apathetic world. These characters delve to the depths of love, activism & madness, and must face their fears to survive & thrive: com/passionately.

Steal Away
by Andrea E. Davis [contact]
In Steal Away, Romi is a young Black woman who lives in the Underground, a community founded by runaway enslaved peoples. But after she comes out, Romi confronts this society's sexism, homophobia, and stubborn sense of liberation.

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