Indianapolis Black theatre festival plays now streaming for free for the month of February, 2024 submissions being accepted Indianapolis

The plays are now streaming through the end of February on the BAEC platform. They can be accessed without charge at https://flyrail.butlerartscenter.org/onyxfest. 

The 2023 season featured the works of Black playwrights from Indianapolis, Detroit, Atlanta and Memphis, and was held at the IndyFringe Theater and the iconic Crispus Attucks High School Auditorium. The screening collaboration with the BAEC Center and the Jordan College of the Arts extends the production well beyond Indianapolis to a worldwide audience. 

2023’s lineup features the following plays: 

• “5 MOODS OF BLACK ANGUISH” by Josiah McCruiston (Indianapolis, IN). Inspired by the works of Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and August Wilson. Spoken word, prose and sermonettes explore the pain and glory of a people with unconquerable spirits. 

• “BABE” by Delores Thornton (Indianapolis, IN). Based on a true story. Therapy helps reveal the buried truths of an 82-year African American woman who reaches inner depth of self- realization. 

 • “RIGHT BEHIND YOU” by Deborah Patrick (Detroit, Michigan). Generations of women reflect on contrasting experiences as the elder of the family is dying of COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic. 

• “TIGONIE” by Levi Frazier Jr. (Memphis, Tennessee). A man whose checkered past comes back to haunt him. A tale of regret, repentance, and reconciliation. Religion and hypocrisy surface. 

• “THE HEART OF A MAN” by Ardre Orie (Atlanta, Georgia). An all-male cast stage production that reveals the eye-opening and sometimes harsh truths on dating, marriage, sexuality, domestic violence, and love from the male’s perspective. 

Callout for 2024 play submissions Play submissions for OnyxFest 2024 are being accepted until 11:59 pm, Friday, March 1st at onyxfest.com. 

 The Butler collaboration provides a platform to reach a broad audience 

The BAEC serves Butler University, Indianapolis, and the larger Central Indiana community by hosting more than 300,000 patrons annually for a variety of presentations that provide shared experiences in the performing and visual arts. 

In the three years of streaming OnyxFest on the BAEC platform, approximately 45% of the viewing audience came from central Indiana. The national audience stretched into Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Antonio, Atlanta, Phoenix, Denver, and Houston. Global viewership included Austria, Brazil, Finland, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Hong Kong, India, Mexico, Nicaragua, Netherlands, Singapore, and France. 

OnyxFest 2023 is a project of the Africana Repertory Theater of IUPUI and was made possible by funding from IUPUI, IUPUI Division of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, IndyFringe, Barnes & Thornburg, LLP, the Africana Studies program in the IU School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI, and the Indianapolis Recorder.