3rd Annual Adaptation Showcase at Lifeline Theater

For the third year in a row, Lifeline Theatre supports BIPOC playwrights and writers in adapting literary works for the stage. The selected writers this year have undergone a comprehensive process, including up to six development/feedback sessions, regular readings with experienced Lifeline ensemble members, administrative support, and a final reading Showcase for an invited audience.

Timonia @ Nashville – Fri., July 19, 7:30; Sat., July 20: 2:30

Rabbits in Their Pockets – Sat., July 20 – 7:30; Sun, July 21, 2:30

Tickets: Adult $15.00; Student $10.00

Direct Ticket Link: https://ci.ovationtix.com/36647/production/1194098?performanceId=11480033 

Info Link: https://lifelinetheatre.com/performances/2023-2024/3rd-annual-adaptation-workshop-showcase/ 

Following each reading, there will be an interactive discussion session with the playwright aimed at fostering developmental and investigative feedback.

Timonia @ Nashville

By Mildred Inez Lewis
Based on ‘Timonia At Athens’ by William Shakespeare
Directed by Dr. DeRon Williams

Public Showcase Performs: Friday, July 19, 7:00pm and Saturday, July 20 at 2:30pm

Synopsis: After selling her multi-million dollar catalogue, hip hop producer/mogul Timonia Young decides to transition into a full-time philanthropist. She pledges to rebuild the Nashville slum she grew up in with the enthusiastic support of the “friends” and hangers on who’ve been using her. At a critical point, a trusted advisor, friend, former lover,  and son of one of Nashville’s founding families asks Timonia for a large short-term loan. He then refuses to pay her back. This forces her to abandon her rebuilding project at a tremendous loss.

Mildred Inez Lewis: Dramatist Guild member Mildred Inez Lewis writes with the Antaeus, Ensemble Studio Theatre-LA, PlayGround LA and Towne Street theatres. She is a 2023 AGE Legacy Award winner for JUKED, an adaptation of Sophocles’ ELECTRA. JUKED was commissioned by A Different Myth (Asheville, NC) and will be in its 2025 season. She is completing a commission from the Lucille Lortel’s Alcove project for FANTASMAS CROSSINGS. WE FOUR is part of The Road Theatre’s 2023-24 Under Construction project. SECOND FLAME will be read in the Workshop Theatre’s annual Out of the Hat.  Mildred has also received commissions from Ohlone College and a joint project of the Harlem9, Lucille Lortel and National Black Theatres. Last year THE MUSEUM ANNEX, a comedy inspired by George C. Wolfe’s THE COLORED MUSEUM was produced by Central Works (Berkeley, CA). WE JUMP BROOM was part of the 2022 Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival. It was also produced by Towne Street Theatre and was a Best of PlayGround-LA winner. She has received readings and productions of short and full length works from Ensemble Studio Theatre-Los Angeles and Company of Angels. Two of her plays are published by Broadway Play Publishing. Her short plays are published by NextStage Press and in the Applause (2021) and Smith & Kraus (2023) anthologies.

Rabbits in Their Pockets

By Kimberly Dixon-Mays
Based on African Folktales
Directed by Gabrielle Randle – Bent

Public Showcase Performs: Saturday, July 20 at 7:00pm and Sunday, July 21 at 2:30pm

Synopsis: Rabbits In Their Pocket Follows two siblings who are trying to engineer Black Joy. They wrestle with which approach is more effective, and face unforeseen personal consequences from manufacturing, and even commodifying, Black Joy.

Kimberly Dixon-Mays is a poet, playwright, and sometimes performer. Her work was featured in Congo Square Theatre Company’s 2019 August Wilson New Play Initiative, and a semi-finalist for the 2019 Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. Kimberly was also a semi-finalist for the 2020 National Black Theatre I Am Soul Playwright Residency and recipient of NBT’s Soul Series Lab Playwriting Micro-Development Session, nominated for a 2021 3Arts Award, selected for Goodman Theatre’s 2022 Future Lab series, and a 2023 finalist for American Blues Theater’s Blue Ink Award. In 2023 she also developed work with Shattered Globe Theater’s Global Playwright Series and Stage Left’s Playwright Residency Program and received an Illinois Arts Council fellowship. Kimberly was a 2018-20 Russ Tutterow Fellow with Chicago Dramatists, and is currently one of CD’s Resident Playwrights, and she serves as an Associate Editor for RHINO magazine. She holds a B.A. from Yale, an M.A. from UCLA, and a Ph.D. from Northwestern.