By Marlow Wyatt
Directed by Joy Nesbitt
Common Crow Theatre presents a staged reading of Marlow Wyatt’s play “Listen, A Black Woman Is Speaking”, an outspoken exploration into the complexity of Black womanhood. Just two days before she is to speak at a White conservative women’s luncheon, playwright Penelope Weintraub’s characters empower her to finally speak her truth.
Centred around the hypocrisy of rampant physical and psychological violence against Black women in America, Wyatt’s play echoes across the African diaspora, breaking the culture of silence around suffering that so many women carry.
Following the reading, there will be a talkback hosted by Esosa Ighodaro to discuss the intricacies of Black femininity and solidarity between the Black Irish Community and the greater African diaspora.
Cast
Tishé Fatunbi as The Writer
Siobhán Matshazi as Black Woman 1
Leah Minto as Black Woman 2
Colleen Keogh as Black Woman 3
Creative Team
Director: Joy Nesbitt
Stage Manager: Ross Smith
Design: Jess Kane
Talkback Panelist: Esosa Ighodaro
Biographies
Marlow Wyatt is a playwright and actor. She received her BFA (magna cum laude) from Howard University College of Fine Arts. She is a 2022/23 LA New Play Project grant recipient, a 2022 Lower Depth Commission Fellow, 2022 AGE Legacy Grant recipient, Antaeus 2021 NEXT Commission Artist, Support Black Theatre’s 2021 As We Grow We Sow Awardee, 2021 SBT New Works Pipeline Artist, 2016 Long Beach Playhouse New Works winner and a CTG/Humanitas Playwrights Prize finalist. Selected works include: SHE (2023 World Premiere/Antaeus Theatre); Robbin, from the Hood (2024 Road Theatre World Premiere, Eugene O’Neill semi-finalist); Listen, A Black Woman Is Speaking (2023 Common Crow Theatre/Dublin, Ireland, Third Rail Repertory, CoHo Theatre readings, 2022 Plays In Motion Moving Arts workshop); Red Ribbons (2022 Voices for Victory Reading Series, 2021 Headwaters New Play finalist); Bread and Circus (2023 No Noise Reading Series – A Noise Within/Lower Depth Theatre Co. Cycle of Poverty Fellowship) and The Things We Leave Behind (NEXT Commission/Antaeus Theatre Company). For more information visit marlowwyatt.com or follow her on IG @marlowwrites.
Joy Nesbitt is a director, writer, and musician originally from Dallas, Texas. Joy is inspired by stories of Black Femininity and postcolonial imagination. In 2022, Joy attended the Theatre Directing MFA at The Lir National Academy of Dramatic Arts. She is a 2021 recipient of the Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts for the sum of her artistic activities at Harvard University. Joy is currently a 2023 Director SEED for Rough Magic Theatre Company and a member of the 2023 Rachel Baptiste Programme at Smock Alley Theatre.
Joy’s directing credits include The King of All Birds by Martha Knight (2023), endings. by Fionntán Larney (2023), Appropriate by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (2022), Reflections by Joy Nesbitt and Pedro Pacheco (2022), Reasons to be Pretty by Neil LaBute (2021); R+J: An Ultramodern Fantasia by William Shakespeare (2020); God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza (2020); Dreamgirls by Henry Krieger and Tom Eyen (2020); Mamma Mia (2019); and A Very Potter Musical (2018). She has assisted on productions by Ronan Phelan, Dan Colley and Tom Creed. Joy has also written three full plays: Good (2023), Julius Caesar Variety Show (2022), and Meditations on Somebodiness (2021).
Ross Smith is a Stage Manager based in Dublin working primarily in theatre and opera. Most recently he was Assistant Stage Manager on Faust with the Irish National Opera in the Gaiety Theatre. He also worked on Don Pasquale which went on a national tour and William Tell in the Gaiety Theatre both with the Irish National Opera.
Ross was Assistant Stage Manager on Piaf which ran in the Gate Theatre throughout 2022 and 2023.
He has worked all the major Irish theatre festivals including Dublin Fringe Festival and Scene and Heard with shows in Smock Alley Theatre, Mermaid Arts Centre, and the Project arts centre.
In 2018 Ross Collaborated with the Abbey Theatre and Actor and Writer Noelle Brown to develop and write a play, titled It’s The Not Knowing That Hurts which ran in the Mill Theatre.
He has just finished a run in Bewley’s Café Theatre, where he was Stage Manager on Of a Midnight Meeting, directed by Jeda de Bri. It had a successful run throughout October and November.
Ross will be Assistant Stage Manager on Landmark Productions upcoming 20 th anniversary show which will run from December to February inclusive. He will also return to the Irish National Opera as stage management for their 2024 Season which includes a National and UK tour.
Ross is really looking forward to working on what he thinks is a very important production in Project.
Jess Fitzsimons Kane is a Dublin based theatre practitioner, gold medal recipient and graduate of Drama and Theatre Studies from Trinity College Dublin, where she was also Technical Manager from 2019-2020 of Dublin University Players. She works in a variety of disciplines and has worked with companies such as Pan Pan, Company SJ, and the Gaiety School of Acting. Recent lighting design credits include The Body That Breathes (Jane Hackett & Dublin Theatre of the Deaf, 2023), The Dead House (The New Theatre, Dublin Theatre Festival, 2023), Retch (Bewley’s Café Theatre, Dublin Fringe Festival, 2023), In Heat (The New Theatre, Dublin Fringe Festival, 2023), The King of All Birds (Project Arts Centre, Dublin Fringe Festival, 2023), and Spear (Dublin Fringe Festival, 2022). More info and her full portfolio can be found on www.jessfkane.com
Esosa Ighodaro is a British/Nigerian/Irish writer/director, vocalist and actor. She makes work for stage and screen. Her work aims to highlight black talent and tell more varied stories of the black experiences in Ireland, using humour to explore more serious themes.
Her farce, DOWN WITH JAZZ received Arts Council Agility Award funding in 2021, and Theatre Project Award funding in 2022. And in 2023, a Screen Ireland Spotlight Stage to Screen award with which she will be adapting the play for the screen. Her play, LET ME IN, was developed through Smock Alley’s Rachel Baptiste programme in 2022. It is currently being developed with The Everyman Theatre, Cork.
Esosa was an Axis Assemble artist 2021, and a 2023 Resident Artist at Axis, during which time she has been developing 3 short form pieces featuring artists of colour. Esosa is an Associate Artist with Civic Theatre, Tallaght.
Her work for screen has been screened at film festivals across Ireland, US and Southern Africa, winning an audience choice award. Esosa currently has original TV projects in development with Deadpan Pictures and Tri Moon pictures.
As a vocalist, Esosa works in a wide range of styles, in particular earning acclaim for her soulful renditions of traditional Irish music – soul ceol! She recorded her debut album “You Won’t Believe It” after touring extensively as a solo artist as well as a guest and backing vocalist.
Esosa sits on the board of NCP (New Communities Partnerships), The Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny and The Lir Academy, Dublin.
Cast Biographies
Tishé Emmanuella Fatunbi (as The Writer) is a Dublin-based actor, writer, and theatre maker as well as a co-founder of a newly launched black-run theatre company named ArinolaTheatre. As an actor, Tishé has starred in productions such as We Dance, a love letter to black women, a role for which she was awarded Best Performer at the 2022 Irish Student Drama Awards. She played Saint Joan in a 2022 amalgamation of the work of George Bernard Shaw titled GBS which was shot in the National Gallery of Ireland, directed by Kellie Hughes, one of two historical pieces she has performed in at the National Gallery. She starred in Re: Joyce a 2022 short film imagining the life of a young modern, gender-bent James Joyce at UCD. She holds a collection of other credits from her time as an overly active member of UCD Dramsoc.
Tishé is currently completing a master’s in Psychological Sciences at UCD where she holds a performing arts scholarship that allows her to practice her craft while in academia. Tishé is passionate about theatre that challenges the status quo and tells stories that are sometimes lost to time.
Siobhán Matshazi (as Black Woman 1) is a Dublin based actress, writer and musician. Born and raised in Galway, Siobhán discovered her love for acting from a young age. After her theatre training in Galway, she relocated to Dublin and attended Bow Street Academy where she studied screen acting. She has continued to hone her craft, developing a deep appreciation for the art of storytelling and has since worked on various theatre and film projects around the country. Most recently, Siobhán returned to the stage in Smock Alley Theatre for the production of We Dance, a play written and devised by herself and five other talented women. Prior to this Siobhán was cast in the feature film production of “Trad” which is set to
be released in 2024. She is passionate about telling stories that are closely related to her own personal identity and experience, being a Black Irish woman and is eager to create art that resonates with audiences that often feel underrepresented. Beyond the stage and screen, Siobhán continues to write, perform and explore the different avenues her artistry can take her.
Leah Minto (as Black Woman 2) is a Dublin born actor. She graduated from the MA course in the Oxford school of Drama in 2019. Her television roles include Redrock, Normal People, Netflix’s Fate: The Winx Saga, Harry Wild and the Inheritance. Her film roles also include Dublin Old School and God’s Creatures.As a theatre maker, Leah has performed in productions such as Playboy of the Western World, Corn Exchange’s Dubliners and Absent the Wrong (winner of Best Production in the Dublin Fringe 2022).
Colleen Keogh (as Black Woman 3) is originally from Scotland. A graduate of the full time programme at Bow Street Academy – The National School of Screen Acting in 2022. Her theatrical debut was in ABSENT THE WRONG directed by Veronica Coburn and written by Carys D. Coburn performed on The Peacock stage at the Abbey Theatre as part of Dublin Fringe Festival 2022 which won Best Production. Screen credits include series regular Anna MacShane in RTE’s FAIR CITY. Feature films DUBLIN CRUST dir Baz Black. WOLF produced by Feline Films. Can also be seen in Season 2 of Irish crime drama KIN. Upcoming: Channel 5 series THE HUNTED and new thriller series THE CUCKOO also for Channel 5. Short films SERIAL DATERS dir Baz Black and MY LAST SONG dir Dylan Aubrey.
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