The other evening I found myself at The National Arts Club attending the 13th annual Valentine Benefit  for the Theater for the New City. This special Valentine Benefit was held to support Theater for the New City, Emerging Playwright’s Program   The evening’s festivities began at 6:00 p.m. and included cocktails, dinner, performances and awards. The evening was also being held to celebrate the legacy of Betsy Von Furstenberg as well as to  honor the work of Donn Russell. In addition, the evening’s special performance called Love N’ Courage featured The Yip Foundation Rainbow Troup, The Human Kinetics Movement Arts, Cha-Lee Chan, Eric Yves Garcia along with many other very talented artists.

Now Theater for the New City nurtures and develops writers for the American stage and I was lucky enough to have an engaging conversation with playwright Tommie J. Moore (see below photo) who as an emerging playwright just had his play Dare to Be Black: The Jack Johnson Story end its successful three week run.  The play tells the story of Jack Johnson, who in 1908 was the first Blackman to win the Heavyweight Title and who also overcame the pervasive levels racism of his time. Tommie J. Moore’s goal for the play is to now take it on tour and then to get Jack Johnson’s story seen on Broadway for the entire world to appreciate.

Playwright Tommie J. Moore

But what I really like about Theater for the New City is that I learned that not only do they produce an emerging playwright but that they will continue to produce a playwright more than once, as the playwright continues to develop his playwriting craft.

So that as a result of this particular process Theater for the New City produces 30 to 40 new American plays by both emerging writers, established writers and theater companies that have no permanent home.

Now, over the years some of the awards given to Theater for New City have been The Edgar Award for Excellence in Theater, from The Irondale Theater Company, The Ibero Americano Festival DE Teatro Award for Excellence in Theater, The Acker Award for Avant-Garde Excellence and The NYU Community Fund Award for Community Service in the Arts.

So if you enjoy supporting the arts then check out Theater for the New City and buy tickets to their wonderful performances today!!!