Siltelines BLM Screenplay Writers Announced!
Cadence Theatre Company is pleased to announce the five artists selected to create screenplays for its inaugural Sitelines BLM program: Brittany Fisher, dl Hopkins, Margarette Joyner, Jessica (Colocho) Mairena, and Obadiah Parker.
Sitelines BLM is a new initiative within Cadence’s existing Sitelines program, and seeks to fulfill the original mission of Sitelines. Due to COVID-19, artists will be venturing into new areas of artistic production, including film. The mission of Sitelines BLM is to enhance community intervisibility in ways that allow us to gain profound levels of perception and understanding of each other, building community through antiracist practices and a focus on BIPOC artistic expression.
This summer, there was a call for screenplays or plays of no more than 5 minutes in length with an exterior location, limited props, and cast. The call was answered, judges deliberated, and Cadence Theatre Company is pleased to announce the commissioned writers for Sitelines BLM. Project director Omiyemi (Artisia) Green says, “of the numerous scripts received these were the writers who rose to the top of the evaluation process. In addition to the criteria listed on the call for scripts, writers were evaluated on the degree to which the work was Richmond site-specific, and the possibilities the work held for deepening human intervisibility and inciting meaningful conversations.” The finalists are now being asked to submit a complete screenplay or script no later than December 31, 2020.
Congratulations to all of the commissioners!
Bleach by Brittany Fisher
Brittany Fisher is a playwright from Richmond, Virginia, and currently a fellow in Juilliard's Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program. Her writing has been featured in Virginia’s Best Emerging Poets and Kinfolks: a journal of black expression and other publications. She was a 2018-19 and a 2019-20 Pipeline New Works Fellowship Program participant, and her work has been featured at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, Great Plains Theatre Conference, and Cadence Theatre Company/Virginia Repertory Theatre. Fisher received her B.A. from James Madison University.
Break by dl Hopkins
dl Hopkins is an award-winning actor, poet, and the former Artistic Director of the African American Repertory Theatre of Virginia. Hopkins is a founder of the Southern Revolutionist Literary Guild (SRLG), a collective of poets and spoken word artists. While serving on the Board of Directors of James River Writers, Hopkins created the Just Poetry Slam, Richmond’s first and longest-running poetry slam. Hopkins is a founding member of the Jazz Actors Theatre, which was established by his mentor, Ernie McClintock, the founder of Harlem’s Afro-American Studio for Acting and Speech and the 127th Street Repertory Ensemble. Hopkins is a former Artist-in-Residence at the University of Richmond, where he performed and taught McClintock’s Jazz Acting Technique. Hopkins’ film credits include the 2016 Academy Award-nominated feature film Loving, and roles on television include Tim Reid’s and Showtime’s Linc’s, HBO’s The Wire, the Fox series Legends & Lies as Bass Reeves, and The Real Lone Ranger. Hopkins was awarded the Theresa Pollack Prize for Excellence in Acting in 2017. In 2000, then Mayor of Richmond, Tim Kaine, presented Hopkins the Key to the City.
Still Fighting by Margarette Joyner
Margarette Joyner is a full-time actor interpreter at Colonial Williamsburg, where she not only performs, but has written several of the programs. She received her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and her undergraduate degree from University of South Alabama, and is the founder and executive director of The Heritage Ensemble Theatre Company. Joyner recently released a co-authored book, When I Kill Him, Jesus Can Have Him (Pecan Tree Publishing), and has written and produced several stage plays. She is an Assistant Professor of Theatre, and has taught at the university level for six years. Joyner is a director, actress, poet, vocalist, costume designer, scenic designer, and spokesperson.
(A STUDY OF THE UN) American Tourist by Jessica (Colocho) Mairena
Jessica (Colocho) Mairena is a trans/non-binary artist who is extremely excited to be making his debut with Cadence Theatre Company’s Sitelines BLM. His art and writing have been featured in several publications, most recently in Digital America (Volume 16). Mairena currently works as a therapeutic assistant and as a crisis advocate for an intimate partner violence nonprofit.
Enough by Obadiah Parker
Obadiah Parker is a senior undergraduate VCUarts Theatre major with a minor in Creative Writing. Parker's short play, 20/20 Vision, was presented at the Playwriting Club @ VCU in 2019. Since then he has written numerous unpublished short plays, short stories, and poems. Currently Parker serves as the education chair for the Black Theatre Association’s community engagement initiative, where he helps promote Black artists by placing them in volunteer opportunities within the Richmond community.