On today's Bring It On!, hosts, Clarence Boone and Vernon Williams, present the lineup for this year's OnyxFest. OnyxFest will present five never-produced one-act plays. Presented by the Africana Repertory Theatre of IUPUI (A.R.T.I.) in conjunction with IndyFringe, productions will be staged November 3-5 at IndyFringe Basile Theater and Crispus Attucks Auditorium from November 10-12. These plays are:
TIGONIE by Levi Frazier Jr. is about a young psychologist, who after years of searching, finally meets the “man of her dreams” on a bench in a public park, but the meeting ends up being anything but a dream for the young lady, and the man whose past comes back to haunt him.
Levi Frazier, Jr. is a published author, actor, playwright, director, and producer. He is co-founder of Beale Street Repertory Company and Blues City Cultural Center in Memphis, TN, where he now serves as Artistic Director. Levi was an instructor for the Department of Theatre and Communication Arts at the University of Memphis and for the English Department at the State Technical Institute at Memphis.
5 MOODS OF BLACK ANGUISH by Josiah Ray McCruiston is inspired by the works of Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and August Wilson and is an excerpt of a larger work entitled “5 Moods of Black Anguish”, an awe-inspiring theatrical masterpiece. It weaves a tapestry of storytelling, love for Black deities, and profound poetic expression.
Josiah Ray McCruiston is a multifaceted artist, spiritual leader, and teacher from Gary, IN. For several years, he worked as a gallery interpreter and actor at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, where he brought exhibits to life and engaged visitors of all ages with his dynamic storytelling and performance skills. He has also directed productions at the Fonseca Theatre and worked with the Christian Youth Theater (CYT), helping to shape the talents and skills of young performers. He currently serves as a Worship Leader and Minister at the Historic Witherspoon Presbyterian Church and as an effective arts educator.
THE HEART OF A MAN by Ardre Orie is an all-male cast stage production that reveals the eye-opening and sometimes harsh truths on dating, marriage, sexuality, domestic violence, and love, from the male’s perspective.
Ardre Orie is a celebrity ghostwriter, book publishing expert, playwright, film director, and CEO of 13th & Joan Publishing House. Orie has written for a host of clients including VH1, MTV, WETV, BRAVO, CENTRIC, YouTube, Grammy Award-winning artists, the NFL, and entertainment industries as well as a bevy of entrepreneurs and everyday heroes.
In 2015, Orie founded 13th & Joan, a multimedia publishing agency to provide a vehicle for aspiring authors, playwrights, and film directors to tell their stories and distribute them on a large scale with her support and guidance. Ardre Orie currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and two daughters and a loving son in college.
RIGHT BEHIND YOU by Deborah Patrick is a play about generations of women reflecting on contrasting experiences as the elder of the family is dying of COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic. This play asks questions about what we owe one another and what we owe ourselves.
Deborah (D.L.) Patrick is a native Detroiter who holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from New York University. She has studied with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Charles Fuller and OyamO. Her play, ECLIPSED: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF GLADYS ATKINSON SWEET, was selected by The Playwrights Group, NYC, for a public reading in 2022. A monologue from her play, SALLIE’S CRYING TREE, was selected for Barter Theatre for Black Stories, Black Voices festival, and was performed in 2023 on the Gilliam Mainstage. She is a 2023 finalist for Think Tank Theatre’s TYA Play...