Join us live for FSWW's Rewrite Reading of BARS OR, HOW HIP HOP SAVED MY LIFE Sunday, June 29!
- Garland Thompson
- Jun 18
- 4 min read
Join us live on Zoom for Germaine Shames
Sunday, June 29, 2025 @1:00 PM PST/4:00 PM EST!
In case you missed it the first time, Zoomcatchers, in partnership with the Frank Silvera Writers' Workshop and the Billie Holiday Theatre, are pleased to present a rewrite reading of BARS or, How Hip-Hop Saved My Life by Germaine Shames, directed by Jacqueline Springfield! Featuring Rachel F. Hirsch, Lance A. Brown, Zoe Jourdain, Melissa Grogan, and Hannibal Tabu.
Synopsis:
When an underpaid Jewish World Lit' professor in the throes of a midlife crisis lands a gig ghostwriting lyrics for a young Black hip-hop producer, racial and sexual tensions collide. In the gritty, vibrant culture of American hip-hop, an unlikely pair of strivers brave the minefield of Black-White confrontation to capitalize on the one bankable commodity they share: words.
Will their collaboration meet with success or end up one more casualty of a system that values myth over truth? Can music bridge the social barriers of race and class? Can friendship? With rhymed invective and thwarted love, BARS lays bare the personal cost of systemic racism to those, Black and White, caught in its web.
About the Playwright:
Germaine Shames is a Dramatists Guild Foundation National Fellow, a Kilroys List playwright, and recipient of her state's Literary Fellowship in Fiction. She is the author of the award-winning novels, Between Two Deserts and You, Fascinating You. Writing under the pen name Casper Silk (Hotel Noir, Echo Year), she has been compared to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Graham Greene, and P.D. James "on steroids”.
After covering world conflicts as a correspondent and witnessing firsthand the gamut of senseless tragedies behind the headlines, she realized that hard news could never convey an iota of the deeper story she was gleaning. She turned to fiction writing, learning that she could find light in the most horrific situations and leave readers (and now an audience) with hope.
As a playwright, Shames has celebrated premieres across the U.S. as well as abroad and been recognized in several festivals, including LTA Annual Playwriting Competition 2025 (First Place), Women’s Voices 2024, Fulton Theatre's Stories of Diversity 2023, Pegasus Theatre's Fresh Reads 2023 (First Place), Page to Stage 2023, ThinkTank TYA's inaugural Playwrights Festival, Cimientos 2019, and Festival of New American Theatre 2018.
There will be a moderated critique session immediately following this reading, where you can offer direct feedback to the playwright.
Join us live! Join the conversation!
Check out the entire FSWW New Play Reading playlist here!
WHAT'S COMING
We're pleased to announce FSWW's new online workshops, powered by Zoomcatchers!
Starting this June, we're offering: Building Portals Through Playwriting with Kristiana Rae Colon!
Course Summary:
The map to a new world is written by collective imagination. Writer and Producer Kristiana Rae Colón guides this intimate cohort in visioning alternate futures through storytelling and infusing characters with empathy and heart. Join us on a journey that includes generative writing prompts to start or continue a new play, mindful creativity to nurture your inner artist, and individualized feedback on your works in progress
About Kritiana Rae Colon:
Kristiana Rae Colón is a poet, playwright, actor, educator, Cave Canem Fellow, creator of #BlackSexMatters, and co-director of the #LetUsBreathe Collective. She was awarded 2017 Best Black Playwright by The Black Mall. Past works include Good Friday (world premiere Oracle Productions, 2016), Octagon (world premiere Arcola Theatre, London, 2015; American premiere Jackalope Theatre, 2016), but i cd only whisper (world premiere Arcola Theatre, London, 2012; American premiere The Flea, New York, 2016).
Her play Tilikum opened in June 2018 with Sideshow Theater and was the winner of Outstanding New Play at the ALTA Awards. She is a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists and one-half of the brother/sister hip-hop duo April Fools.
In 2013, she toured the UK for two months with her collection of poems Promised Instruments, winner of the inaugural Drinking Gourd Poetry Prize, and published by Northwestern University Press.
For all you screenwriters, we're offering: Writing for the Small Screen with Chisa Hutchinson!
Course Summary:
Have an idea for a TV series? Fab. Let’s write it. In this weekly 2-hour, workshop-style class, you will lay the foundations for your series down on the page before writing either one 60-minute pilot or 30-minute pilot plus the second episode.
About Chisa Hutchinson:
Chisa Hutchinson (B.A. Vassar College; M.F.A NYU - TSoA) has presented her plays, which include She Like Girls, Somebody’s Daughter, Surely Goodness & Mercy, Whitelisted and Dead & Breathing at such venues as Alley Theater, Atlantic Theater Company, Contemporary American Theater Fest, the National Black Theatre, Second Stage, and Arch 468 in London. Her radio drama, Proof of Love, can be found on Audible (with a boss rating). She’s been a New Dramatist, a Dramatists Guild Fellow, a Lark Fellow, a Humanitas Fellow, a NeoFuturist, and a staff writer for the Blue Man Group.
Chisa has also won a GLAAD Award, a Lilly Award, two New York Innovative Theatre Awards, a Helen Merrill Award, and the Lanford Wilson Award for her work in theater.
Lately, she’s been venturing into film and television. She’s been staffed on two television series—Three Women (Starz) and Tell Me Lies (Hulu).
Upcoming Podcast Episodes!
Coming soon, a Conversation on Aging with Professor Vera Katz!
Zoomcatchers host Kimberly Gunn talks with Vera J. Katz, Professor Emerita from Howard University’s Department of Theatre Arts, where she taught acting and directing for over 30 years.
She also successfully taught for many years at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. With decades of experience shaping the talents of notable stars like Debbie Allen, Chadwick Boseman, Phylicia Rashad, Anthony Anderson, and Taraji P. Henson, to name a few, Professor Katz brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to this immersive exploration of playwriting and storytelling. She is also an online instructor with FSWW Online teaching a class called How To Analyze A Play.
Stay tuned for updates!
Get caught up on previous episodes!
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