Black book

by Austin Ashford


About the Play:
Freshly returned from multiple national recognitions at the 2018 Kennedy Center ACTF, Austin Ashford, writer of 2017’s (I)sland T(rap), presents his newest one-person play: a tour-de-force dramedy at the intersection of Speech and Debate. At Tolson High School, students are reeling from a recent incidence of violence—and a former Great Debater has arrived to teach a master class on public speaking.

About the Playwright:

Austin Ashford returns to TheatreSquared, having recently appeared in All The Way, The Champion, and T2’s Arkansas Schools Tour with his one-person play, (I)sland T(rap), which was also featured at the 2017 Arkansas New Play Festival. In 2018, he received the Harold and Mimi Steinberg National Student Playwriting Award, the Hip-Hop Theatre Creator Award, and earned a certificate for Distinguished Achievement by the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award for (I)sland T(rap). He has earned 21 national titles in Forensics in such events as dramatic interpretation, poetry interpretation, prose interpretation, and impromptu speaking. He holds the three-year running title 'Most Valuable Performer' from the Denzel Washington/Melvin B. Tolson Forensics Society. He was also the winner of HBO's Brave New Voices—Individual World Poetry Slam. Originally from Oakland, Ca., he holds a BA from Wiley College in Marshall, TX and is an MFA candidate in acting at the University of Arkansas.


Performances
Choose a performance time to purchase individual tickets:

6/10 At 11:00AM at crystal bridges
6/17 at 1:00pm at Theatresquared