Coco Queens
by Overtime Theater
Feb. 10, 2022
Thursday
Set in a small town called Helena, Alabama, Coco Queens is a riveting play that forms an unbroken bond between four women as they navigate their way through deep-seated, sometimes painful challenges of love, forgiveness, and Black womanhood in the 1970s.
“Coco Queens” by LaDarrion Williams as an official selection of the 2022 New Play Development Series. Former District 2 Councilwoman Jada Andrews-Sullivan is slated to perform in the staged reading at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 10.
Williams’ full-length play will receive two rehearsals, a public staged reading and an audience feedback session. The four-member cast will include Danielle King, Shania Thomas, former D2 Councilwoman Jada Andrews-Sullivan, and Denise Swain. Aisha Love will direct.
The series’ inaugural program titled “Black Voices” will present new works from Black playwrights in celebration of Black History Month. In January, the Overtime opened submissions and ultimately received over 60 applicants. “For a playwright, a staged reading is an important preparatory step in the creative process,” said Jade Esteban Estrada, artistic director of the Overtime Theater. “Over the course of the year, I invite all San Antonio actors and directors to take part in what I hope will be an artistically rewarding program at our theater.”
Williams is a Los Angeles-based playwright, filmmaker, and screenwriter. His play Coco Queens was part of the 2019 Sundance Institute’s Playwriting Intensive. The following year, the play was a semi-finalist at the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. Williams is currently a resident playwright and co-creator of The Black Creators Collective.
“People turn their noses up at the South but Black Culture, Black History, and the Black Future is the South,” wrote Williams in an acceptance statement. “Every Black American soul is just a few generations from a Southern migration. This play is for my mama, a Black woman, who lives and exists, and my sister, a Black woman who believes love should be without struggle. This play is about heritage and the beauty and complexities of Black womanhood who had to keep on keepin’ on. I’m so excited to share this with San Antonio audiences for Black History Month.”
Devoted to producing new and original work, the Overtime is particularly interested in bold, innovative plays that are both challenging and entertaining. The New Play Development Series is an on-going initiative. “The purpose of this program is to bring more fully developed plays to our stages,” said Estrada. “When a great, meaningful play has an opening night, it is likely that the play had a table reading, a staged reading, and one or more workshop development performances. In my own experience as a playwright, I get a better picture of what my play is about after I present it in front of a live audience.”
Coco Queens
by Ladarrion Williams
Overtime Theater
February 10, 2022
Feb 10, 2022
Thursday at 7 p.m.
The Overtime Theater’s Gregg Barrios Theater
5409 Bandera Rd, Ste 205
San Antonio, Texas 78238
(210) 577-7562
