PROVIDING
THEATER AS A SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY
Mailing
Address: 4101 Budlong Avenue #4 – LA, CA 90037 ~ 213-624-4796 ~
www.townestreet.org
Funding awarded by:
The Ford Foundation, Sempra Energy, The Beuth Foundation, California
Community Foundation, California Arts Council, Los Angeles County Arts
Commission, Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, Northrop Grumman
Corporation, Howarth & Smith, Attorneys at Law, Toyota Motor Corporation &
our numerous patrons
The Towne Street Theatre
is the premiere African-American theater company in Los Angeles.
Formally located in the Downtown Fashion District, our mission is
producing and developing original works by Los Angeles playwrights that
are reflective of the African-American experience. We also produce a
“Black Classics” series, a salute to African-American playwrights who have
contributed to the American theater. The Towne Street Theater has become
not only an oasis for creativity and imagination, but a theater that helps
to bridge the cultural divide by bringing artists and audiences of all
colors together.
For the past fourteen years, the theatre has featured a
diverse selection of intriguing productions; from Walking With A
Panther, Sheri Bailey’s gritty drama about the stormy reunion of a
Black Panther and his family, after a 23 year prison sentence to Bernardo
Solano's Science & the Primitives, a story of “altered
states” in the jungles of South America and Before 1950, a
collection of plays and poetry by African-American women writers, such as
Margaret Walker and Alice Childress. The 1995-96 season featured world
premieres by African-American Los Angeles based women playwrights, Barbara
White Morgan & Sheri Bailey. The Dance Begins When The Waltz Goes
Backwards opened in October 1995 and returned by popular demand in
March, 1996. The story of an white aging, savvy television writer and his
re-encounter with a black intellectual homeless philosopher; this urban
comedy was embraced by the public and received critical acclaim. The
season continued with Sheri Bailey’s generational epic Summers in
Suffolk. Following an African-American family from the
1870’s to the present, it revolved around the “Juneteenth” holiday.
Comprised of 19 actors, 5 directors and an accompanying slide show, it was
a multi-media history event and was sponsored in part by a grant from the
Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department. Audiences were quite taken with
this production and its positive images of African-American history. It
received 3 NAACP theatre nominations.
Our fourth season opened February 1997 with Passing,
our first commissioned piece. Sponsored in part by a grant from the Los
Angeles County Arts Commission and written by Sheri Bailey, Passing
is set against the roaring 1920’s and the Harlem Renaissance. Dealing
with the issue of a Black person passing for White, it centers on two
beautiful women making explosive choices about sexuality, race and class.
Overwhelming response extended a six week run to 10! Passing
also won Best Actress and Best Costume awards from the NAACP and was
nominated for Best Play, Best Playwright and Best Supporting Actor. The
season concluded with a staged reading of The House of Bernarda Alba
featuring an all Black cast and a holiday show with the Magic Mirror
Players, a children’s improv troupe.
The fifth season proved
to be another year exciting year in theatre. Passing
returned in February to sell out audiences, after winning awards in acting
& costumes from the NAACP and DRAMA LOGUE. The TST conservatory began,
with classes in acting, screenwriting, playwriting, classical theater and
more. We took part in the County’s Arts Open House Day at One Colorado
in Pasadena. Our Black Classics series began in October with the comedy,
Five on The Blackhand Side.
As the 20th
Century came to a close, Passing returned for the third year
in a row and a new piece, Millennium in Black premiered.
Set in the year 2099, it explored the danger of not knowing your past and
how important it is to carry our history into the future. This was also
the first year of the TST Musical Theater Camp for Children, located in
South Central Los Angeles.
In our seventh year we
took part in the NoHo Festival in North Hollywood, hosted a Summer Reading
series, produced the 2nd year of the TST Musical Theater Camp
for Children, the continuation of the TST Conservatory and began a new
program, Conversations With…honoring careers of legendary
African-American performers.
Our eighth year began
with the production of Joleta, which went on to win the
NAACP award for Best Writer and was also nominated for Best Ensemble and
continued with the staged reading series, film reading series, and
children’s camp.
In 2002, our ninth
year, we received three ADA (Valley Theatre League Nominations) for
Start of Conversation and The Phonograph
received nominations for Best Actress and Best Costumes from the NAACP.
Our 2003 10 year anniversary year was a special season of favorites and
two new programs, TST on the Edge, and the TST Mind Maze – a
game show to help kids study for the California Achievement Test. In 2004
we presented the long awaited return of Passing, and held the first
TST Treasures Awards. We were also honored by the League of Allied
Arts. 2005 included Psychology of Chromosome X and the 7th
year of the Kids Camp! 2006 found increased children’s programming, the
staged reading series and 2007 saw the first 10 minute Play Festival,
Very Strange Fruit and the Kids Camp production of
Beauty & The Beast. We hope you’ll join us in 2008 for more great
theatre!!
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