Theatre in the X presents
The OG Reading Series: The Bookstore by Nancy Marie, Directed by Richard Bradford
Location: Painted Bride - 5212 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19139
Theatre in the X is excited to bring back its Staged Reading series in 2024! This year all of our featured playwrights are OG members of the Philadelphia theater community and we’re excited to showcase their stories. Each reading will showcase a staged reading performance of a play, a talk-back with the playwright, and food!
About the play:
A young man's attempt to fulfill a dream deferred leads him to a bookstore in Harlem. Three years later, he becomes an unwilling participant in the COINTELPRO operation launched against it.
About the playwright:
Nancy Marie Gilliam is an award-winning performing artist, producer, educator, & author. Her writing is featured in numerous publications including Blacks Behind the Scenes in Film & Television and six Chicken Soup for the Soul titles, most notably the 2004 Black Book Award Winner for Non-Fiction and New York Times Bestseller, Chicken Soup for the African American.
Her story, There Will Be No Graduation, was performed by Lanman Rucker in the Billie Holiday Theater’s virtual production, 50in50: Love in the Time of Corona. She was honored to perform her spoken word piece, What Ntozake Said, in Rahnda Rize’s documentary, We Sing a Black Girl’s Song. She was a co-writer and topliner on The Gate Called Straight, a gospel adaptation The Wiz. Other plays include Reality Patrol, Cries for Love, and Born.
She first performed with Theatre in the X in May of 2019, when she appeared in the Spoken Word Chorus during The African & Diasporic Cultures Festival led by The Colored Girls Museum. She returned later that year for the staged reading of American Nigga Zoo by Misty Sol. Her 2022 performance as Queen Elizabeth in their production of Richard III garnered one of her two Broadway World nominations.
She is overjoyed and grateful to have The Bookstore included in the OG Reading Series.
https://linktr.ee/the_nancy_marie
Other upcoming readings:
Monday, January 22 | 6pm
Salt Water Oasis by Ed Shockley
Directed by Carlo Campbell
Theatre Exile (1340 South 13th St, Philadelphia, PA 19147)
Food from: Atiya Ola’s
Monday, February 12th | 6pm
Ordinary People by Richard Lamont Pierce
Directed by Walter DeShields
Location: Theatre Exile - 1340 South 13th St, Philadelphia, PA 19147
Monday, March 11th | 6pm
57 by Karen Smith
Directed by: Eric Carter
Location: Atiya Ola’s Spirit First Foods - 1435 North 52nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19139
Food From: Atiya Ola’s
Monday, April 15th | 6pm
Will Write for Food by Renee Lucas Wayne
Directed by LaNeshe Miller-White
Painted Bride - 5212 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19139