For the fourth year in a row, OnyxFest – the state’s only live theatre festival for Black playwrights, and partner IndyFringe Theater are collaborating with the Butler Arts and Events Center (BAEC) to stream all five shows of OnyxFest 2023 in celebration of Black History Month.
The plays are now streaming through the end of February on the BAEC platform. They can be accessed without charge at https://flyrail.butlerartscenter.org/onyxfest.
The 2023 season featured the works of Black playwrights from Indianapolis, Detroit, Atlanta and Memphis, and was held at the IndyFringe Theater and the iconic Crispus Attucks High School Auditorium. The screening collaboration with the BAEC Center and the Jordan College of the Arts extends the production well beyond Indianapolis to a worldwide audience.
2023’s lineup features the following plays:
- “5 MOODS OF BLACK ANGUISH” by Josiah Ray McCruiston (Indianapolis, IN). Inspired by the works of Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and August Wilson. Spoken word, prose and sermonettes explore the pain and glory of a people with unconquerable spirits.
Directed by Josiah Ray McCruiston. Performed by Angela Wilson-Holland, Byron Holmes, Stephen Martin Drain, Clarissa Todd, and Jetta Vaughn.
- “BABE” by Delores Thornton (Indianapolis, IN). Based on a true story. Therapy helps reveal the buried truths of an 82-year African American woman who reaches inner depth of self-realization.
Directed by Trease Sears. Performed by Gene Howard, Kimberly McMurray, Leondra Radford, Chris Sears, Dr. Cheryl Talley Black, and Delores Thornton. Crew members include LaTosha Walker (IT Specialist) and Denetia Woodruff (Stage Manager).
- “RIGHT BEHIND YOU” by Deborah (D.L.) Patrick (Detroit, Michigan). Generations of women reflect on contrasting experiences as the elder of the family is dying of COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic.
Directed by Megan Simonton. Performed by Beverly Harney, Faye Holmes, LaToya Jay, Kaitlynn Nailon, Alicia Sims, and Tamara Taylor.
- “TIGONIE” by Levi Frazier, Jr. (Memphis, Tennessee). A man whose checkered past comes back to haunt him. A tale of regret, repentance, and reconciliation. Religion and hypocrisy surface.
Directed by Lawrence Blackwell. Performed by Lawrence Blackwell and Michelle E. Mitchell.
- “THE HEART OF A MAN” by Ardre Orie (Atlanta, Georgia). An all-male cast stage production that reveals the eye-opening and sometimes harsh truths on dating, marriage, sexuality, domestic violence, and love from the male’s perspective.
Directed by Rasheda Randle. Performed by Joshua Bruton, KJ Dullen, Jay Fuqua, Trent K. Hawthorne-Richards, Montez Lafayette, and Tijideen Rowley.
Callout for 2024 play submissions
Play submissions for OnyxFest 2024 are being accepted until 11:59 pm, Friday, March 1st at onyxfest.com.
The Butler collaboration provides a platform to reach a broad audience
The BAEC serves Butler University, Indianapolis, and the larger Central Indiana community by hosting more than 300,000 patrons annually for a variety of presentations that provide shared experiences in the performing and visual arts.
In the three years of streaming OnyxFest on the BAEC platform, approximately 45% of the viewing audience came from central Indiana. The national audience stretched into Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Antonio, Atlanta, Phoenix, Denver, and Houston. Global viewership included Austria, Brazil, Finland, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Hong Kong, India, Mexico, Nicaragua, Netherlands, Singapore, and France.
OnyxFest 2023 is a project of the Africana Repertory Theater of IUPUI and was made possible by funding from IUPUI, IUPUI Division of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, IndyFringe, Barnes & Thornburg, LLP, the Africana Studies program in the IU School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI, and the Indianapolis Recorder.