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"SISTAS ON FIRE! A NEWSICAL" -- A MUSICAL REVUE THAT EXAMINES PRESSING SOCIAL ISSUES FROM A BLACK WOMAN'S PERSPECTIVE
New York, NY -- The personal becomes the political when passionately-opinionated African American women speak their minds on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Black Lives Matter, missing Black women and girls, Black-on-Black crime, and male/female relationships in a soul-stirring mix of song, dance, poetry, and prose. The interrelated dramatic monologues range from tragedy to comedy in a "newsical" revue that examines pressing social issues from an African-American female perspective. Sistas on Fire! A Newsical uses theatre to provoke thought, encourage social activism, and build bridges that cross race, class, gender and culture. In short, it's For Colored Girls for the new millennium.
The play opens at the East Village Playhouse from February 22nd to March 17th.
Sistas on Fire! A Newsical was written by Professor Marcia McNair and Professor Anissa D. Moore. Actress, singer and dancer Kwamara Thompson is the Producer. The music is by Marcia McNair, Natalie "Ne'Richa" Richmond, and Juson Williams.
About the Sistas on Fire! A Newsical Cast and Production Team:
Director
Marquis Smalls was born and raised in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. He went on to graduate from The Pennsylvania State University, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in African/African-American Studies and a minor in Sociology. Upon graduating from Penn State, he enrolled in New York University's Continuing Education Screenwriting program.
In 2005, he started Homegrown Productions. Since that time, he has written eleven feature screenplays, written, directed and produced 14 short films that have won various awards and have screened at over 50 film festivals including, the Cannes short film corner, American Black Film Festival, Urbanworld, Pan-African, IBFF Nashville, HBO NYLatino, Athena, Reel Sisters, Gene Siskel Black Harvest, BHERC in LA, Langston Hughes in Seattle, Run & Shoot Filmworks in Martha's Vineyard and internationally in Amsterdam, South Africa, London, Jamaica and Abu Dhabi.
As a 2013 New York Foundation of the Arts Screenwriting Fellowship recipient, Marquis won a grant for his screenplay Mommas Boy. In 2014 Marquis directed his first feature length “docu-tainment” film Hating Obama, which was released in May 2015 by Moguldom Studios and was available on the STARZ channel, iTunes, Google Play, and Amazon Prime.
