Drama Mamas! Moves its Spotlight on Black Women Theatre Directors

to the 2005 National Black Theater Festival!

                  
(New York, NY) – Following its standing-room only private screening of the trailer at the Magno Sound Screening Rooms New York, the documentary film, Drama Mamas! takes its crew to this year’s National Black Theater Festival (NBTF) in Winston-Salem, NC from August 1-6 to follow the work of it’s featured Directors’ and flush out new faces still hidden behind the curtain.

                  
With product-sponsors like Iman Cosmetics, Sharper Image, Uptown Magazine, Hairstyling by Joseph of New York and The Body shop “…our first screening was a huge success and we thank our sponsors, advisors and the project’s new investors for making the movie possible! We want to continue that exciting momentum at the National Black Theater Festival. The Festival is the first stop for the national/regional segments of the film...” says Drama Mamas! Director/Producer Rhonda Passion Hansome.

Beginning with the New Federal Theatre’s pre-Festival event Sunday July 17^th at 292 Henry Street honoring Larry Leon Hamlin, founder of the NBTF, Drama Mamas! will offer its own homage by preserving the Festival’s history,  documenting the Festival production-process, attending the galas, and covering the many workshops, readings, parties, reunions, brainstorming-sessions, main-stage and off-stage events that have made the Festival famous.

“The National Black Theater Festival has been a platform for the voices of black artists and Black Female Directors since its creation,” says Passion. “This festival offers them national exposure and a unique opportunity to showcase their work.”

The NBTF is a biennial event that attracts an international audience of more than 55,000 people over a six-day period. Larry Leon Hamlin Executive/Artistic
Director  of the North Carolina Black Repertory Company, founded the National Black Theatre Festival in 1989. His goal was to unite black theatre companies in America and ensure the survival of the genre for future generations. With the support of Dr. Maya Angelou, the Festival's first chairperson, the NBTF was born.

- end -

Drama Mamas!, a feature-length documentary, chronicles the professional and personal lives of some of America’s  most accomplished Black Women Theatre Directors. Drama Mamas! premiers in 2006.

- end -