I have the privilege and honor to join the inaugural NOW AFRICA: Playwrights Festival on Day 1. FREE with RSVP.

NOW AFRICA: Playwrights Festival, organized to illuminate dramatic African literature, will be held in New York in September 2015. Artists such as, Wole Soyinka, Ngugi wa Thiong’o and other contemporary African artists, will be featured in multiple events to engage both NYU and the greater NYC theater community. This inaugural event is hosted by the Center for Art & Public Policy and the Institute of Performing Arts at NYU Tisch School of the Arts and Anna Deavere Smith’s Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue.

DAY 1 of the festival, Saturday, September 26, 2015, will be located located at 20 Cooper Square, 5th Floor, Room 503, New York, NY 10003. This day will feature a performative reading of Binyavanga Wainaina’s incendiary and satirical piece, “How to Write About Africa.” Afterwards there will be facilitated discussion on the implication of Wainaina’s piece and the radical movements currently occurring within contemporary African dramatic arts. A showcase of excerpts from African playwrights will close this day. 

DAY 2 of the festival, Sunday, September 27 will be located in the black-box theatre of the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program on 715 Broadway, NY, NY [2nd floor]. This evening will include a reading of African playwright, Mfoniso Udofia’s, full length play, "runboyrun" and a talk back. 

DAY 3, the final day of the festival Monday, September 28, 2015, will be located in the Reise Lounge at the Tisch School of the Arts on 721 Broadway, NY, NY. Excerpts of plays [precolonial-postcolonial] will be juxtaposed with their contemporary counterparts in order to assess/contemplate how African narratives are changing over time.

The Yale Drama Series Award went to Barbara Seyda for ‘Celia, a Slave: 26 Characters Testify’. "A docutheatre piece about an infamous case involving a young slave convicted for killing her master [took the] top prize." We did a reading at the Claire Tow Theatre at Lincoln Center directed by Niegel Smith.

Cast:
PICO ALEXANDER
EMMMA DUNCAN
CALVIN DUTTON
QUINCY DUNN-BAKER 
CHRISTOPHER INNVAR 
MARJORIE JOHNSON
CRYSTAL LUCAS-PERRY 
RONALD PEET
DAVE QUAY
GAYLE RANKIN 
MIRIRAI SITHOLE
PERNELL WALKER
KARA YOUNG

It was a whirlwind weekend with only 48 hours to put up 10 new ten minute plays but what a joy it's been! Here we are in all of our costumed glory; producers, actors, writers, and directors celebrated the 5th anniversary of Harlem9's 48 Hours in...Harlem and it went off without a hitch! Can't wait to come watch the plays next year as an Alumni!

Tonight was the meet and greet for 48 Hours...in Harlem! Harlem9 is an arts organization comprised of various producing entities that have come together in Harlem to explore the past, present and future of black culture and celebrate our rich history of storytelling.

The annual event is 48 HOURS IN HARLEM where 6 Playwrights. 6 Directors. 18 Actors ...giving raw impressions of 6 provocative black plays. Below are some pictures of the whole company as well as the group I was randomly drawn to be a part of. Can't wait to start this fast adventure!

I was once again graced with the opportunity to read Antu Yacob's "Mourning Sun" and this time for a group of young women participating in a summer program at Barnard College. This reading featured: 

Arlene Chico-Lugo, Mark Anthony St Cyr, Chukwudi Iwuji, Nikki Walker, Mirirai Sithole, John P. Keller, Derick Sherrier, and Jenny Lyn Bader. It was directed by Ari Laura Kreith. Can't wait to see where the future of this play goes!

The Mic.com article on "The Ingenious Tricks Real People Use to Keep Phones from Ruining Friendships" featured a stock photo campaign that Mirirai was a part of with Image Source! It gained a lot of traction on various social media sites and gives great advice on how to unplug from our miniature robots.

I got the chance to shoot an episode for the new "Untitled Aziz Ansari Project" that will air on Netflix in the near future! I spent the day at Morgenstern's (an ice cream shop in the Lower East Side) and served Aziz and Noah Emmerich as an ice cream clerk....really hard work. ;) I also got to work with the amazing and infamous Brian Charles Johnson ("Spring Awakening", Wolf of Wall Street). The episode was directed by Eric Wareheim...yes of Tim and Eric fame and I had a great time hanging with the boys. I can't wait for the series to 1. Be titled and 2. Start streaming. Many thanks to the team at Wolf Talent Group, Cody Beke Casting and the lovely humans at SAG-AFTRA membership for helping me get my paperwork together in order for me to JOIN THE UNION. This one is for the books!

One Bird Productions produced a developmental reading of Cecelia Raker's Dry Bones Rising at the Sheen Center in New York City in April, 2015. 

Cast (In Alphabetical Order):
David Fisch, Ethan Itzkow, Sarah Lasko, and Mirirai Sithole (AEA). It was directed by Lucy Gram.

Tonight was opening night of Confessions of a Liar  by David Brian Colbert and I can't believe we've already made it to this point. This was Mr. Colbert's first New York City premiere as a playwright and we couldn't be more excited to be acting in it with him as well. Thanks to Bloom's Tavern and MBL Productions for putting together a lovely intimate evening (pictures below). Now here's to an awesome run at 59E59 Theaters.

Yesterday was the first rehearsal of Autumn's Harvest and today is the first rehearsal of C.O.A.L. (Confessions of a Liar) by David Brian Colbert (crazy...I know)! C.O.A.L will be helmed by the wonderful Craig Baldwin, and I'll get the awesome opportunity to perform with this small cast of four at 59E59 Theaters, a dream theatre of mine. After many months of back and forth trying to figure out whether I could do both productions feasibly, I am so grateful to be working with a new family during these cold winter months so thank you stage managers and producers for making this work out. 
CAST:
Woman: Lisa Bostnar
Man: David Brian Colbert
Girl: Mirirai Sithole
Boy: Jackson Tanner