Theater works come to life through Black Play Lab

With help from IU’s Department of Theatre and Drama, theater projects composed by black playwrights are getting a chance to become living works of art.

The department is holding its first-ever Black Play Lab, a workshop for works by black playwrights. A conference will be held in conjunction with the Black Play Lab Aug. 1–3 at the Lee Norvelle Theatre and Drama Center.

Lectures, panels, play readings and workshops will take place during the conference. Guests include artists and scholars from all over the country and all over the world. All events in the conference will be open and free to the public.

One keynote speaker is award-winning black playwright Ed Bullins, who will speak at 4 p.m. Aug. 2. Other guests include playwrights Robert Alexander and Amy Evans. There will also be a panel conducted by IU undergraduate students as well as a showcase for their works.

IU graduate student Bernice Darkoa assisted in a play reading during the Black Play Lab and said she was honored to see black-authored works become a success.

“I’m glad to have a chance to see real black playwrights,” she said.

IU theater and drama professor Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe came up with the idea of the Black Play Lab. She said she wanted to promote black dramatic works, which she said don’t get equal exposure in the theater industry.

“I want to see IU become a place where black playwrights are made and embraced,” she said. “I want to do it again until things change.”

Niyi Coker, a playwright and professor at the University of Missouri in St. Louis, said he was excited to work with other playwrights and directors who helped enhance his play and make it into an actual work to be viewed by the public.

“This is every writer’s dream, and it’s coming to reality,” he said. “It’s very inspiring.”

Cooper-Anifowoshe said theater was one of the last industries to embrace diversity. Because of the unfair competition in the industry, she said, black-authored dramatic works are rarely seen and recognized by theatergoers.

“There are a lot of African-American works, but you wouldn’t know it because they’re not being produced,” Cooper-Anifowoshe said. “It’s time for the stakes to be raised.”

She said it’s important for everyone to realize the importance of black theater because the works are a part of each individual’s everyday life.

“Black people matter in this country,” she said. “But people are afraid to look at it in their lives. Artistic expression is our obligation – our life.”