by Morgan Page; BPC Staff Writer
Creative writing students watched their professor, Dr. A’ndrea Wilson, receive the Festival Favorite Award for Best Reading at the Atlanta Black Theatre Festival on Oct. 6, 2017. This was the fourth public reading of Dr. Wilson’s play, Grace Period, which was performed twice at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in May and once at the National Black Theatre Festival in August. Four of Wilson’s Creative Writing students traveled to Atlanta to witness the Oct. 6 reading of Grace Period and to develop a sense of where writing could take them.
“It’s the first full length play I’ve ever written,” Wilson shared about her experience at the Atlanta Black Theatre Festival. “I wrote it last year in a playwriting class at SCAD. Getting the award was very rewarding. It definitely adds to the feeling of seeing my work acted out when it is recognized in a manner like receiving such a reward.”
The Atlanta Black Theatre Festival has been known as the “festival of forty plays in four days.” The festival has been going on for six years, and in that short amount of time the ABTF has presented over 200 live events for over 1,000 literary artists. Each play is performed at Porter Sanford Performing Arts Center located in Decatur, GA. Porter Sanford Performing Arts Center is located merely six miles from Atlanta.
Grace Period features six characters along with a stage reader. The main character, Ricky Browne, has a troubled relationship with his father and, throughout the play Wilson used different members of the family along with Ricky’s ex-fiance, Janae, to communicate the themes of forgiveness, grace, and father-son relationships to the audience. The audience connected with the play and several asked questions or provided feedback for Wilson following the conclusion of the play. She answered questions about how she developed certain facets of the play and why certain characters responded to situations like they did. She also accepted recommendations for how she could further develop Grace Period.
The rocky relationship between Ricky and his father was a central part of the play. When asked what aspect of the play he connected with most, MaShawn Knight, one of the Brewton-Parker students who traveled to see the play said, “Grace Period made me contemplate aspects of the relationship with my own father.”
Wilson’s receipt of Best Reading at the Atlanta Black Theatre Festival is just one example of the great things accomplished by the faculty and staff at Brewton-Parker College. The students who attended the festival will now be able to translate pieces of what they saw at Porter Sanford Performing Arts Center into works of their own. Knight said, “Being able to see Wilson’s play performed in Decatur gave her more credibility as a professor.”
Knight shared that he is now able to see that the goals he has set throughout his time working with Wilson are attainable. The students who attended Grace Period feel they can be more confident in their writing because they were shown that what they learn in the classroom can be useful in life outside of school.
