F!RE Summer Play Lab
The F!RE!! summer play lab was a 6-week theatre residency hosted by a historically black college or university, that provides development resources for the under-produced stories that center the experiences of Black LGBTQIA+ writers and communities.
The 2022 residency was hosted by the Howard University Department of Theatre Arts.
Inspired by award-winning costume designer Reggie Ray and the first Black Queer literary magazine of the Harlem Renaissance, F!RE!! was developed to provide a process for Black LGBTQIA+ playwrights to develop and present new work alongside a dynamic approach to social practice that sparks deeper resource-sharing and dialogue between HBCUs and the broader community.
Program Elements
The inaugural residency took take place from June 21 - August 1, 2022, and included the following components
-
The Summer Play Lab partnered with a committee-chosen Black LGBTQI identified writer. For a 6-week commitment, the program provided the selected artist an honorarium, round trip travel, housing, and ground transport to the residency site, along with a residency per diem. The writer committed to completing a work-in-progress commission while participating. The 2022 Writer-in-Residence is Nick Hadikwa Mwaluko.
-
The Play Lab for our Writer-in-Residence was accompanied by the Black & Queer Storytelling F!RE!! Summer Playwriting Practicum, June 27 - July 31, 2022. This practicum was for emerging artists from HBCUs and those with theatrical interests ages 18-25. This practicum was developed to:
Develop pathways for undergraduate theatre practitioners and other community members to cultivate relationships with Black queer theatre professionals in an immersive learning environment.
Create opportunities for undergraduate theatre artists to engage in a rigorous play development process that will allow them to network and share their work with professionals in the field.
Practicum Elements
F!RE!! Summer Play Lab: The F!RE!! Summer Playwriting Practicum participants had the opportunity to engage with Mwaluko’s developed play, and observe the Play Lab process for our writer-in-residence, gaining exposure to the mechanics of producing a play.
Community Conversations: A reading of our guest’s work followed by a Q&A conversation hosted by the Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Arts (MoCADA).
Community Connections: Resources were provided to participants to assist and facilitate building connections with stakeholders and safe spaces for creative work to be developed, broadening the participants’ options for their community art share.
Practicum Focus
Queer Artistic Visibility
Community Art Sharing & Site Responsive Work
Dramaturgical Activism
Nurturing Conceived Ideas
Expanding the Creative Process
Play Analysis
Playwriting
WAAFRIKA 1-2-3 Staged Reading
The 2022 F!RE Summer Playwriting Practicum was able to bring our resident Playwright’s work to life with an elevated staged reading.
Click the program to read about our showing of the play; written by Nick Hadikwa Mwaluko, Directed by Eric Ruffin, and brought to life by our wonderful cast and crew.
Meet the Team
-
Nick Hadikwa Mwaluko.
2022 Writer in Residence
-
Catherine Frost
Program Management and Teaching Fellow, F!RE!! Summer Play Lab
-
Ahdis Beruk
Undergraduate Producing Fellow, F!RE!! Summer Play Lab
-
Nijeul X. Porter
Advising Producer, F!RE!! Summer Play Lab
Nick’s Spotlight Series
As a part of the community engagement aspect of F!RE, Nick was featured as a part of Woolly Mammoth Theater Company’s Spotlight Series. The Spotlight Series brings together artists with a relationship to Howard and current Howard students to supplement classroom learning with real-world insights from local practitioners.