To celebrate Black History Month, Loyola’s Theater For The Culture club has been hosting special events throughout February. The Black Play Reading series, which had an event on Feb. 19, was created for students to gather and listen to Black playwrights’ works and enjoy them together.
All types of artists are welcome, whether they are actors, writers, playwrights, or students simply looking to meet other creatives.
The club was started in March of 2024 as a way to join Black storytellers and makers together, as well as to share their work here at Loyola.
“The event pays homage to not only Black stories, artistry, and community, but more importantly advocates for appreciation of Black playwrights that studied the hardships and unique beauty of the Pan-African Diasporic experience,” said junior musical theater major and Black studies minor and TFC’s Vice President, Yeva Guthrie.
Junior musical theater and liberal arts physics major Gabrielle Stanfield, the club’s president, said that each week has a different theme to showcase different aspects of Black artistry, “ranging from comedy, abstract, fantasy, and love, which are not always showcased in mainstream media.”
The readings help highlight some of the unique elements of Black plays, such as whimsy, resilience, love, musical influence, and cultural perseverance. The plays read at each event include In the Red and Brown Water and Choir Boy by Tarell Alvin McCraney, as well as Purlie Victorious by Ossie Davis.
“It is important to tell black stories, because if we don’t tell them, who will? If we don’t stand loud and proud in the minority, the marginalized side lines, our stories will lose power,” Guthrie said. “Most importantly, without sharing our stories we are doing an injustice to the younger generations of black creatives, who desire to see themselves in Black playwrights.”
Stanfield is proud to have the Black Play Reading series here at Loyola because of its importance to the community and the change it can bring.
“Not only does this initiative foster community within the niche population of theater folks but also brings in people who may not be familiar with theater and script reads. It promotes literacy awareness of different text structures, and in Black lense,” she said.
Stanfield herself wrote and produced a play last year in the theater department’s New Works Festival titled Nothing but Bliss, and the club hosted a Latin Cabaret for Hispanic Heritage Month back in September.
The club hosts a variety of different events throughout the school year, as well as highlighting opportunities in the New Orleans community, such as casting calls and workshops.
