The Department of Speech and Theatre participated in the 72nd Annual National Association of Dramatic and Speech Arts Conference, held recently in Dallas.Eighteen members of the F.L. Sandle Players, attended workshops featuring professional playwrights such as P.J. Gibson, J.E. Franklin, and Mikki Grant.
Gibson wrote such award-winning plays as Long Time Since Yesterday and My Name My Mark. Franklin wrote Black Girl, an award-winning play that was later made into a movie. Grant wrote Don’t Bother Me I Can’t Cope, the famous musical about racial and social strife.
The Players also participated in competitions, including poetry, prose, dramatic monologue, extemporaneous speaking, duet acting, readers theatre, and one act plays.
Winners were Aigner Edgerson for prose, Destiny Miller for poetry and David Margarnza in extemporaneous speaking.
The group also placed in the Allen Williams One Act Play Festival and Readers Theatre.
The Players were treated to free tickets to a concert featuring alumnus Erykah Badu at the conclusion of the conference’s Awards Banquet.
The group was under the direction of Dr. King David Godwin and Karl Norman.
The conference, held March 12-15, was hosted by The Black Academy of Arts and Letters.