In collaboration with 3Views on Theater, SideLight is proud to present an ongoing series of curated essays from a contingent of the next generation or artists and arts leaders. As the theater and entertainment industry rebuilds and reimagines, these pieces speak directly to our present, yet also seek to envision our future. Please read, absorb, and share widely.
Editorial Team:
Melissa Crespo – Sarah Rose Leonard – Phaedra Scott – Adin Walker
Yonatan Gebeyehu
"Will It Be Me or You?"
Read here
Yonatan Gebeyehu (he/him/his) is a Brooklyn based artist. Recent acting credits include: Timon of Athens (Theatre for a New Audience), Everybody ( Shakespeare Theatre Company), and I Thought I Would Die But I Didn't (The Tank / New Georges).
Photo Credit: Deborah Lopez
Abigail Jean-Baptiste
"why it hurts to stand"
Read here
Abigail Jean-Baptiste (she/her/hers) directs and produces theater in NYC. Abigail aims to build empathy using anti-racist theatrical practices. Her work unsettles canonical expectations and disrupts exclusionary accounts of history, centering women-identifying black folx. Proud Lilly Award winner. BA: Princeton.
Photo Credit: Lileana Blain-Cruz
Roger Q. Mason
"A Gratitude"
Read here
Roger Q. Mason (he/they) is an award-winning writer, performer and educator. Mason's playwriting has been seen on Broadway at Circle in the Square (Circle Reading Series); Off/Off-Off-Broadway at New York Theater Workshop, The Fire This Time Festival, New Group, American Theater of Actors, Flea Theater, and Access Theater; and regionally at McCarter Theater, Victory Gardens, Chicago Dramatists, Steep Theater, Serenbe Playhouse, EST/LA, Son of Semele, Coeurage Theater Company and Skylight Theater Company. Mason holds degrees from Princeton University, Middlebury College, and Northwestern University.
Photo Credit: Abdullah Helwani
Adrianna Mitchell
"Crumbs from the King's Table: Financial Wellness and Worth of Black Actors in the Theater"
Read here
Adrianna Mitchell (she/her/hers) is a Brooklyn-based actor, director, writer, & black artist advocate; she’s an alumna of Spelman College and A.C.T’s MFA program. Catch her next on Abc’s pilot Harlem’s Kitchen, FX’s Snowfall (Season 4) and as Co-Host of her podcast “Don’t Act Broke: Bread, Bags, and Showbiz” - Coming in 2021!
IG: adriannamitchell_
Photo Credit: Portraits by Detavio
Westley Montgomery
"Opera is Racist: Confronting the Canon"
Read here
Westley Montgomery (he/him/his) is a singer, multidisciplinary artist, and academic whose work explores race and gender in performance. Westley is currently a PhD student in the Department of Theater & Performance Studies at Stanford University.
All media curtesy of the writer.
Ogemdi Ude
"What's After the Afrofuture?"
Read here
Ogemdi Ude (she/her/hers) is a Nigerian-American choreographer, educator, and doula based in Harlem. Her work has been presented at Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Danspace, Gibney, Center for Performance Research, Movement Research at Judson, and for BAM's DanceAfrica festival.
Photo Credit: Chidozie Ekwensi
Upon reading these pieces,
please learn about the below organizations and make a donation:
"A Movement Uplifting Black-Owned Bookstores, Literature, and Works of BIPOC Communities."
"A National Prison Abolitionist Organization dedicated to abolishing the criminal punishment system and liberating LGBTQIA2S+ people and people living with HIV/AIDS who are affected by that system through advocacy, support, and organizing."
"A Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit, Trans and Gender Non-Conforming People of Color Community Organizing Center, focusing on the New York City Area."
"Protests and defends the humans rights of Black transgender people. We do this by organizing, advocating, creating and intentional community to heal, developing transformative leadership, and promoting our collective power."
This collaboration with 3Views on Theater is generously funded by The Lillys
and donations made by:
Suzanne Agins
Bernie Belkin
Michael J. Bobbitt (on behalf of New Repertory Theater)
Mimi Brodsky Kress
Evelyn Giovine
Cassie Greer (on behalf of Bag 'N' Baggage Theater)
Patricia Lynn (on behalf of Hunger & Thirst Theater)
Donna Nadler
Barbara Nagel
Adam Odsess-Rubin (on behalf of National Queer Theater)