The Reverberation Plays
ENHANCED AUDIO-DRAMAS
WITH MINIMAL VISUALS
🎬 Producer & Sound Designer: Simone Barros
🎥Videographer, Audio Engineer & Editor: Zachary Betonte
➤ THROW PITCHFORK | [WATCH]
Written & performed by Alexander Thomas | Directed by Sara Lampert Hoover
Post-Show PANEL: “The Legacies of Jim Crow and Black Family Dynamics” with Dr. Mikal Rasheed, Author of “Family Therapy with Ethnic Minorities”. | Moderated by Judy Tate
The search for self-definition is passed on through four brothers as they struggle with the Jim Crow legacy of their father. Deep wounds left on his psyche are passed onto a generation of sons. Told with humor and pathos by one of those sons, this true story puts human faces on the fallout of America's original sin.
➤ YOU CAN TAKE OUT A PARENT PLUS LOAN | [WATCH]
By Camille Thomas | Directed by Judy Tate | Starring Lynnette R. Freeman
Post-Show PANEL: “The Black Educational Experience” with Dorothy A. Brown, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law at Emory University and Author of “The Whiteness of Wealth” and McTate Stroman II, College Financial Aid Advisor. | Moderated by Judy Tate
Camille Thomas, a creator and activist, navigates a predominantly white institution in pursuit of an undergraduate degree through rising tuition costs, familial expectations, and her own personal aspirations. This one-woman show merges monologues, slam poetry, images and character defining moments from her past to analyze the racket that is student debt and how it affects students of color.
➤ THE HAUNTED FILES & MONOLOGUE MISSION | [WATCH]
By Judy Tate & THE LATE Michael Slade | Monologues: Elliot Babilonia & Nicaulis Mercedes
Directed by Melissa Maxwell (HF) & Judy Tate (MM)
Starring Antu Yacob & Stina Nielsen (HF) | J.D. Mollison & Kyla Garcia (MM)
Post-Show PANEL: “‘Good Genes’ and America’s Quest for Racial Purity” with Jack Tchen and Leora Fuller (the original curators of The Haunted Files exhibition) | Moderated by Judy Tate
In 1904, a young black infant named Hazel is left on a doorstep. She is taken in by a family from whom she later runs away. Thus begins an odyssey of arrests, institutionalization, and medical intervention — all in an effort to cure her of “immorality.” Characters are real people from the files of the Eugenics Records Office in Cold Spring Harbor.
By Judy Tate | Directed by Melissa Maxwell
Starring Melissa Murray-Mutch, Robert G. McKay & Brenda L. Thomas
Post-Show PANEL: “Healthcare and the Nonprofit World” with Terri Nilliasca from the WGAe (WGAe Business Agent) & Director Melissa Maxwell | Moderated by Judy Tate
Dr. Turner is a successful CEO of a non-profit foundation that helps inner-city children and he's about to announce a run for State Senate. When his most trusted employee, Lucia, shows up with a plan to unionize the office workers, the party takes an unexpected turn.
By Judy Tate | Directed by Melissa Maxwell
Starring Messeret Stroman Wheeler, Ryan Hope Travis & ED WHEELER
Post-Show PANEL: “Mental Health in the Rural Black Community” with Cynthia L. Tate, Ph.D. Psychologist & child advocate, Actress Messeret Stroman Wheeler (Mavis) & Actor Ryan Hope Travis (George) | Moderated by Judy Tate
A brother and sister in rural Illinois reconnect after many years. With help from the Tarot and possibly extrasensory skills, they piece together a mystery from their past. The play asks is mental health care only for the wealthy and connected?
ASP Partners with the NY Society of Ethical Culture for The Reverberation Plays which is made possible by grants from Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone and Creative Communities, made possible by NY Dept. of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts and distributed by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, AS WELL AS FROM The Black Seed. We thank The kitchen theatre in Ithaca, New York for partnering with us on Alexander THomas' Throw Pitchfork.