New Route Theatre's BLACK VOICES MATTER Festival Starts Thursday

Inspired by the national #BlackLivesMatter movement, New Route Theatre has created a three-day theatre festival they're calling "Black Voices Matter: New Voices, New Plays, New Directions." "Black Voices Matter" showcases new work written, directed and performed by African-Americans from Bloomington-Normal and Chicago.

First up will be the play Shades written by Leola Bellamy, performed on Thursday, February 18th at 7:30 pm. That will be followed by Black, by Kamaya Thompson, scheduled for Friday, February 19th at 7:30 pm. Glass Half Black, by Matty Robinson, takes center stage on Saturday, February 21st, with a matinee at 2:30 pm and and an evening performance at 7:30 pm.

New Route will offer discussions following each performance to give audiences a chance to talk about what they've seen with the casts,  playwrights Leola Bellamy, Matty Robinson and Kamaya Thompson, and directors Jamelle Robinson and Gregory D. Hicks. Because there are three different plays and each post-play discussion will be different, New Route is encouraging audience members to attend every performance.

Although the shows are free, New Route suggests a $5 donation at the door. Performances will take place at the First Christian Church, 401 West Jefferson Street in Bloomington.

Here's the complete schedule:

SHADES
By Leola Bellamy
Thursday, February 18 at 7:30 pm

BLACK
By Kamaya Thompson
Friday, February 19 at 7:30 pm

GLASS HALF BLACK 
By Matty Robinson
Saturday, February 21 at 2:30 and 7:30 pm.

For more information about New Route Theatre or the "Black Voices Matter" project, please contact Don Shandrow, Artistic Director or Jamelle Robinson, Development Director at new.route.theatre@gmail.com or check them out on Facebook.

New Route Theatre Offers Two New Festivals for Black and LGBTQ Playwrights

New Route Theatre has two exciting projects coming up, with a playwriting competition aimed at producing staged readings of winning works written by LGBTQ authors and a second program of fully staged works by African-American playwrights from Illinois under the banner "Black Voices Matter: New Voices, New Plays, New Directions."

As of January 14, New Route is looking for new plays by Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender, or Queer playwrights for a LGBTQ festival of staged readings scheduled for April. New Route will select three plays to be presented in readings April 22 through 24 in Bloomington-Normal. They are asking for submissions to be in by February 20, 2016, and they'd like to see materials submitted by email at new.route.theatre@gmail.com.

Duane Boutté

If you're submitting, you are asked to include "Attention: Duane Boutté" on your email. Duane Boutté , who is acting as the curator of this series, is a member of the faculty at Illinois State University's School of Theatre and Dance. A performer, director and playwright, he has appeared on Broadway and off-Broadway, at theaters across the United States, including the Goodman in Chicago and Arena Stage in Washington DC, and in film and television, as well. In 2015, Boutté directed Cabaret and Fences at ISU.

This festival of LGBTQ voices is presented in partnership with Bloomington-Normal's Prairie Pride Coalition.

Also coming up in February for New Route is their "Black Voices Matter: New Voices, New Plays, New Directions" festival, which has been created to showcase brand-new work written, directed and performed by African-Americans from Bloomington-Normal and Chicago.

New Route's three-day event will feature original poetry and plays, intended to "give voice to the current #‎BlackLivesMatter‬ movement." The pieces that form the "Black Voices" festival are Shades by Leola Bellamy, Black by Kamaya Thompson, and Glass Half Black by Matty Robinson. Dates and times are:

SHADES
By Leola Bellamy
Thursday, February 18 at 7:30 pm

BLACK
By Kamaya Thompson
Friday, February 19 at 7:30 pm

GLASS HALF BLACK 
By Matty Robinson
Saturday, February 21 at 2:30 and 7:30 pm.

Performances will take place at the First Christian Church, 401 West Jefferson Street in Bloomington. Audiences will be offered an opportunity to interact with actors, playwrights and directors Jamelle Robinson and Gregory D. Hicks following each performance. New Route is encouraging audience members to attend all three shows to experience the full spectrum of voices. They're are presented free of charge, with a suggested donation of $5 at the door.

New Route Theatre’s mission -- to present "professional-quality theatre using a broad spectrum of artists who represent the community in all of its diversity" -- is clearly reflected in both festivals.

For more information about New Route Theatre or either of these projects, please contact Don Shandrow, Artistic Director or Jamelle Robinson, Development Director at new.route.theatre@gmail.com or check them out on Facebook.

Who'll Be at the Discovery Walk, Part 1: Bellamy, Bowen, de Veer and Lovell

The McLean County Museum of History is gearing up for next weekend's Discovery Walk at Evergreen Cemetery, organizing all the volunteers and rehearsing the actors and getting out all the signs and programs and tables and chairs and... Well, all the details they have to add up every single year.

As part of that Getting Ready effort, the Museum is also releasing the names and bios of the actors who will be playing Bloomington-Normal's historic personages this year. So far, we've seen four of them, which is half of the acting corps required to get this show on the road. Or in the cemetery.

So who's who this year?

Fresh off her performance in New Route Theatre's Fabulation, Leola Bellamy will be joining the Discovery Walk in the role of Sophia Huggins, a psychic who advised a variety of clients in the late 19th Century, when spiritualism was all the rage across the country. Bellamy is new to the Discovery Walk, although she is involved with several area theaters. She's also a mother and grandmother and a member of the World of Life Ministries. She describes herself as "a passionate performer who hopes to pursue a career in theatre."

John Bowen is also happy to be performing with the Discovery Walk for the first time. He notes that the script for the role he will be playing -- fashionable man about town William C. Handy -- was written by Michael Pullin, to whom this year's Walk is dedicated. Bowen is a familiar face on area stages -- you may've seen him as the preacher in Heartland Theatre's The Diviners, or as Charles Lindbergh in Hauptmann at Community Players.

Gwen de Veer is returning to the Walk for the second straight year. Last year, she played Frances Ela, a young wife anxious to get her husband home from the Civil War. This time out, she will again be in a paired scene, as her character, Madame Annette, a pseudonymous columnist for the Daily Bulletin, will interview Leola Bellamy's supposedly clairvoyant "Aunt Sophia" Huggins. Gwen has most recently been seen in Electra in Chicago, and she did Sirens and Proof (opposite John Bowen) at Heartland Theatre before that.

And the fourth actor just revealed to be back in the Walk is Rhys Lovell, who has played a variety of characters over the years, ranging from injured Civil War vet Lewis Ijams to baseball great Hoss Radbourne. This year, he'll be Jerry Wunderlich, a dashing race car driver who became a stuntman in Hollywood and cozied up to movie stars. Did he secretly marry the screen siren who starred opposite Rudolph Valentino in "The Sheikh"? Maybe. Maybe not.

Lovell is currently teaching and directing at Eureka College, where his production of Harold Pinter's Other Places opens in November.

If you'd like to see Bellamy, Bowen, de Veer and Lovell and get acquainted with the colorful characters they're portraying, you have a choice of 11 am and 2 pm performances on Saturdays and Sundays, September 29-30 or October 6-7.  The Walk part of the name means it is a walk, and you should be prepared to be on your feet for about two hours as you follow a tour guide among the eight actors stationed throughout Evergreen Cemetery.

For more information on the characters in Discovery Walk 2012, click here. For ticket information and general details, click here.