Tony Winner Hope Clarke Stars
1st Annual Juneteenth Festival of New Plays in NYC!
June 18th and 19th

After eleven wonderful years of celebrating “Juneteenth” with a jamboree of new plays, hosted by Actors Theatre of Louisville, JLT launches the 1^st Annual Juneteenth Festival of New Plays in NYC!, on June 18^th and 19^th, with guest artist, Hope Clarke, a Tony Award winner in choreography for Porgy and Bess (1995) and Tony nominee for Jelly’s Last Jam (1993).  Ms. Clarke plays the title role, Diana Sands, in a one-woman, biographical play, written by Steve Willis and directed by Sue Lawless, an Obie nominee for In Gay Company (1975).  Author and director are “Juneteenth” veterans from 2006 and 2004 respectively.

The Festival features four play readings, all biographies, receiving first-time public performances in New York City. It starts Saturday, June 18^th, at 5PM, with Diana Sands, which is followed by a reception starting at 8PM; and resumes Sunday, June 19^th, at 1PM, with Young Frederick Douglass. The Festival ends with Nobody at 8:30PM; 1000 Miles is sandwiched between at 4:30PM. 

The Festival is at Nicou’s Spoon Theater, 38 W. 38^th Street, on the 5^th floor. The building is handicap accessible with elevator service, and the space is air-conditioned.

Admission is $5/play or $10/Festival Pass. The fundraiser reception is $15 and includes soft drinks, wine/beer, and desert, while you mingle with the company of Juneteenth artists.

Concessions are available at each reading, and our famed 50/50 raffle concludes the performance. “You can’t win if you don’t play!”

To reserve: email jlttix@aol.com or call (212) 964-1904.

WHAT and WHY “Juneteenth”

The Festival celebrates “Juneteenth”, a traditional African-American holiday marking the belated news of freedom to slaves in the western territories delivered on June 19, 1865. The original festivities included storytelling, and the company emulates this with a play reading series. 

Festival plays emphasize African-American legacy, and with current popular trends to re-write our history, i.e. slaves were freed by the Constitution (not!), slavery had nothing to do with the Civil War (really!), it is imperative now more than ever to keep the African-American legacy front and center in our entertainment consciousness!

But why celebrate a southern roots holiday in New York City, you may wonder?  New York City has the highest concentration of African Americans in the nation at 26%. It is shameful that “Juneteenth” is under-recognized in the nation’s arts capitol and as the pitchman for The David Letterman Show proclaims, “the greatest city in the world!”