The annual Atlanta Black Theatre Festival takes place Labor Day Weekend from August 28th - August 30th. The event is being held at Spelman College’s LaTanya Richardson Jackson and Samuel L. Jackson Performing Arts Center, with some activities at the Hilton Atlanta Airport Hotel. This event includes works from new artists, with a day of readings to fully produced shows and multiple workshops. One of my high school classmates, Todd Pickens, is participating as a new playwright with a staged reading of his play “Communion.”
This story about a family facing their past is compelling. The reading will take place on Friday, August 29th, at 1PM at the Hilton. Additionally, I’m reading the part of Aunt Thomasenia.
I asked Pickens how he chose to tell this story in the form of a play. He mentions that this is his first time writing a play; he’s written screenplays and used other formats in the past. For him, writing is like watching a movie or a dream, and he begins to write.
Pickens explained that he looks forward to the collaboration that comes from producing a play. It makes the work an actual communion. He goes on to speak about the team he is working with, who have sacrificed time and energy to bring his story to life. He goes on to share that Communion is an American Drama, but the story is universal. He uses a tag line that “drama can be good for you!”
Tickets for the readings taking place on Friday, August 29th, can be obtained at atlantabtf.org
For more information on Todd Pickens