Trans History Project commissions five more playwrights
The Trans History Project has named its second cohort: Ty Defoe, Justice Jamal Jones, Youri Kim, Nico Pang and K.T. Peterson. Each playwright receives a 10,000 dollar commission and development support. Created at Baltimore Center Stage, the national initiative supports plays centring transgender and gender-nonconforming histories, with partner theatres developing the selected works.
Arts··Evening
Five writers receive commissions and theatre support
The five selected writers are Ty Defoe, Justice Jamal Jones, Youri Kim, Nico Pang and K.T. Peterson.[1], [2]
The Trans History Project, a US play-commissioning initiative created by Baltimore Center Stage artist-in-residence Bo Frazier, has named its second cohort. The programme develops work centring transgender and gender-nonconforming histories and experiences. Each writer receives a 10,000 dollar commission. American Theatre reports that 100 submissions were narrowed to 12 finalists before the five selections.[1]
Historical archives become material for new plays
Defoe’s Trans World Chapter 0 – Obsidian, developed at Native Voices in Los Angeles, follows an artist in 1976 Philadelphia who encounters erased ancestral histories. Jones’s La Prophétesse will be developed at Chicago’s About Face Theatre. Based on Terry Rey’s The Priest and the Prophetess, it examines Haitian revolutionary and mystic Romaine La Prophétesse. Kim’s SABANGJI.EXE, assigned to Baltimore Center Stage, draws on a line in the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty recording a person named Sabangji six centuries ago.[1]
Partner theatres develop the selected works
Pang’s Stone Maiden will be developed at East West Players in Los Angeles. It links a court record from Qing Dynasty China with a trans Chinese musician in the future. Peterson’s Everybody’s Total Pal! goes to Actors Theatre of Louisville in Kentucky, combining a public-access show and cabaret aboard Shackleton’s ship. Across its two cohorts, the project commissions and develops ten new plays. The first cohort included four individual playwrights and a theatre ensemble.[1]
