A4 feature story


AWARD-WINNING WORDS READ BY PLAYWRIGHTERS AT HUDSON VALLEY WRITERS' CENTER


Hudson Valley Writers’ Center (HVWC) has announced the first in a series of readings by winning playwrights who grasped the attention of judges in the 2012 HVWC New Play Reading Series, Setting the Stage. On June 3, Joslyn Nicole Housley will read her play, The Silver Thread at the HVWC. This reading, beginning at 4:30pm, will be followed by a brief Question and Answer panel discussion, as well as a reception with the playwright and the artistic team behind the production.


Based on true events, The Silver Thread follows the story of a Confederate doctor who opens his lab to “a young slave woman and an eager medical apprentice who fight to hold onto their humanity in the brutal world of early medicine.”


In February, HVWC set out to find new, talented playwrights whose careers it hoped to develop by bring attention to them. Setting the Stage was launched, and more than 75 writers nationwide submitted plays to be “blindly” reviewed by three theater professionals. Finalist scripts were read and selected by Jane Dubin (Tony Award-winning producer), Howard Meyer (founding Artistic Director of Axial Theatre), and Josh Hecht (Drama Desk award-winning director).


No stranger to the stage, playwright Housley has performed the works


“a young slave woman and an eager medical apprentice who fight to hold onto their humanity in the brutal world of early medicine.”


of Shakespeare, as well as crafting her writing. The Silver Thread was previously developed with Liberation Theatre’s Black Playwright’s Group. She, along with the contest’s other two winners, Jason Odell Williams and Robert Lawrence Nelson, was awarded a cash prize of $1,000, as well as the opportunity to read at the Center.


The first Setting the Stage reading,


Housley’s The Silver Thread, will take place on June 3, at the Hudson Valley Writers’ Center, 300 Riverside Drive, Sleepy Hollow NY 10591. Readings taking place later this year include


those by Jason Odell Williams’ Significant Others, September 23, and Robert Lawrence Nelson’s Sweet Pea’s Mama, December 2. Readings will include American Sign Language interpreters, made possible by an ArtsWestchester grant. For more information and tickets, please visit: www.writerscenter.org; 914-332-5953.


Westchester County Business Journal • ARTSWNEWS


JUNE 2012


Joslyn Nicole Housley


NEW ROCHELLE CENTENNIAL


runs at the College of New Rochelle’s Mooney Center Gallery through July 9, will feature art that spans the history of the NRAA.


Founded with the purpose of establishing an educational standard in the fine arts, its early members included an impressive list of renowned artists, including Norman Rockwell and Joseph Leyendecker.


Then and Now explores the work of current NRAA members in context of the work of its original members and will display work from the time NRAA was formed to the present.


New Rochelle Art Association (NRAA) is celebrating a century’s- worth of local talent, famous alums and historical depth this summer. A June 16 centennial exhibition


commemorates its 1912 formation, as well as the vibrant art scene that has flourished in the 100 years since its development. The exhibition, Then and Now: 100 Years of Art, which


President of the NRAA, Jesse Sanchez, reiterated the importance of art on the makeup of our local towns by adding her thoughts on the founding members: “They were motivated to help the city they lived in by advancing the cause of art with public exhibitions. We hope to continue their good work and thereby contribute to the cultural climate of the city.”


Public displays of art by early members of the NRAA still adorn the streets of New Rochelle from World War I and the Spanish American War, including a Norman Rockwell- designed sign at the border of Pelham and New Rochelle. The sign welcomes guests to the town where he lived for nearly two decades.


Sanchez adds: “I think it is remarkable that through depressions, World Wars, and other countless social upheavals, we have been able to survive and thrive…As the times change and new challenges present themselves, we feel it is important to look back and be encouraged by our legacy.” A public reception will take place on June 24 from 2-4pm in the Mooney Center. For more information, visit: www. nraaonline.com


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