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Ironically, these very qualities helped develop the flexibility that enabled ACT to endure for three decades and survive when, as with so many other artists, the COVID-19 pandemic forced ACT to pivot to virtual presentations.īut in-person performances before a live audience are where the magic of theater really occurs. Those minimal resources inevitably led to a signature barebones style that focused audience attention on the scripts and the talented performers. And although DC has always been ACT’s primary base, they’ve also performed in New York, Philly, Baltimore, Louisville, and Atlanta.”Īny funding has come from ticket sales, the occasional playwrighting grant, and Sharpe’s own threadbare pockets. “But year-in and year-out, those friends have gathered to rehearse and perform - not just during DC Black Pride weekend but throughout the year.
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“ACT has no board, no by-laws, no Alan SharpeĬonsistent performing space, no nonprofit status, and frequently no funding,” Sharpe continues. So whenever I put out a call to see my work performed, they answered that call and brought my efforts to life. The one quality they all shared in addition to talent was generosity. There has never been any particular interest in my plays among producers and/or theater companies, but being an acknowledged theater geek, I am blessed to have a large pool of friends who were actors. I am a struggling playwright who simply wanted to have his work seen before audiences. “First of all,” Sharpe speculates, “we are not a theater company per se.
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Those origins probably suggest some of the answers to the question of ACT’s relative obscurity, despite a clear, unwavering identity and mission. ACT’s annual “DC Black Pride Weekend LGBTQ+ Theater Showcase” has since become a spring tradition on the last Sunday in May - during both DC Black Pride weekend and Memorial Day weekend - for residents and visitors to the District alike.
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It’s the latest installment in a series of performances that began back in 1992, inspired by the previous year’s first DC Black Pride Festival. In the Flesh - the vehicle for that return - is a reader’s theater–style program of short, original, LGBTQ+-themed plays written and directed by Sharpe. Featured plays in ‘In the Flesh’ (clockwise from top left): Antwain Cook-Foreman and Zukeh Freeman in’ Bad Date’ Abbey Asare-Bediako, Adrianne Foster, and Ashley Nicole Lyles in ‘A Visit to the Ladies Room’ Moses Princien and Ameirah Neal in ‘After Ours’ Gregory Ford and Larry Hull in ‘One Day in the Park.’ Sharpe is the founding artistic director of African-American Collective Theater (ACT), which celebrates its 30th anniversary with a return to live public performance on Sunday, May 29, 2022. That’s a question playwright Alan Sharpe gets asked a lot - one he also asks himself a lot - so it’s not surprising that he has accumulated more than a few answers. How can a Washington, DC, theater group exist for three decades, and yet practically no one has ever heard of them?