Mission:
The mission of Texas State University's Black and Latino Playwrights Conference is to study the craft, to nurture the artist, and to celebrate the work.

Description of the Program:
The Department of Theatre and Dance annually sponsors a Black and Latino Playwrights Conference that includes professional guest directors and actors, auditions, 3 - 5 days of open rehearsals, and in-class presentations by guest artists, culminating in staged reading performances open to the campus and community.

Objectives:

• To provide Texas State University students majoring in theatre with the opportunity to work with professionals for a hands-on, week-long lab that includes the collaborative process of "finding a play" in rehearsals, culminating with a public staged reading.
• To showcase the work of Black and Latino playwrights from across the country.
• To annually lend an ear to new voices and help writers, in collaboration with directors, actors, and dramaturgs, shape their stories and hone their craft in an environment that allows the writer to explore and grow and learn fearlessly.
• To share the play with the campus and community in a staged reading for audiences, followed by a discussion and/or question and answer session.

About the Artists:
Eugene Lee's acting credits include the television shows Good Times, The White Shadow, The Guiding Light, and The District. His films include The Women of Brewster Place, with Oprah Winfrey, Blacklisted, and Coach Carter. On stage, he has performed in the Pulitzer Prize winning A Soldier's Play with the Negro Ensemble Company and August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean on Broadway. His playwriting credits include East Texas Hot Links, Fear Itself, Somebody Called: A Tale of Two Preachers, Killingsworth, and Twist for the Stage as well as episodes for the television series Homicide: Life on the Streets, Walker Texas Ranger, and The Journey of Allen Strange.

Joe Luis Cedillo is a left-handed, Latino playwright-director. His plays include 69 Portraits of Che, 3 Bulls, Textbooks & Fences, El Colonel, and Lumbre. A native Californian, his work has been featured in the Edge of the World Theatre Festival and at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, CA. He recently premiered a new one-man performance piece, Home: Red, White y Azul. Currently he is attending the University of Iowa for his MFA in Iowa's Playwright's Workshop.




 

 

 

For more information call (512) 245-2147 or email Eugene Lee EL18@txstate.edu or The Center for Multicultural and Gender Studies mcgs@txstate.edu
Visit The Center for Multicultural and Gender Studies Website: http://www.txstate.edu/mcgs/special-projects/blpc.html