The Region News

Indiana University recently issued the following announcement.

Date: February 24, 2022

The state’s only live theatre festival for Black playwrights is partnering with the Butler Arts and Events Center (BAEC) to stream six plays sponsored by the Africana Repertory Theatre of IUPUI (ARTI).

Five plays of OnyxFest 2021, along with “The Price of Progress: The Indiana Avenue/IUPUI Story,” both sponsored by the Africana Repertory Theatre of IUPUI (ARTI), can be accessed for free through the end of February on the Butler Arts and Events Center (BAEC) platform. 

The screening collaboration with the Butler Arts and Events Center and the Jordan College of the Arts extends the production well beyond Indianapolis to a worldwide audience. 

This year’s lineup features the following plays:

• “1200 MILES FROM JEROME” written by Crystal V. Rhodes and directed by Deborah Asante. The perilous journey of a 1940’s family driving a teenage Japanese internment camp fugitive from Arkansas to New York.
• “FLY BLACKBIRD FLY/ VOICES WE CAN’T UNHEAR” written and directed by Latrice P. Young. A “choreopoem” recounting traumatic experiences of several Black women at their breaking point.
• “THAT DAY IN FEBRUARY” written by Janice P. Neal and directed by Dena Toler. What happens when adult siblings frozen by childhood trauma are forced to confront their past?
• “THIS BITTER CUP” written and directed by Charla Booth. This is the story of a southern Black family in the 1950’s vying to find balance in their lives as they struggle for peace.
• “RANSOM PLACE” written by Jameel Amir Martin and directed by Shandrea Funnye. A pair of unlikely companions hold on to what is precious to them as they contend with life-changing forces.
• “THE PRICE OF PROGRESS: THE INDIANA AVENUE/IUPUI STORY” written by Vernon A. Williams and directed by McKenya Dilworth. A two act play about the rich culture of Indiana Avenue & the evolution of an urban university in the same Indianapolis community.

The Butler Arts and Events Center (BAEC) serves Butler University, Indianapolis, and the larger Central Indiana community by hosting more than 300,000 patrons annually for a variety of presentations that provide shared experiences in the performing and visual arts.

During the first year of streaming OnyxFest on the BAEC platform, 43% of the viewing audience came from central Indiana. The national audience included Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Antonio, and Atlanta. Globally, viewership came from Austria, Brazil, Finland, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Mexico, Nicaragua, Netherlands, and Singapore.

Original source can be found here.