AMERICAN THEATRE: Chicagoan and English professor Melda Beaty started writing plays in 2011 and sent them out to readings, festivals, and theatres, with limited response. Then she submitted to a contest—and won. Her life changed when the International Black Theatre Festival (IBTF) awarded her play Coconut Cake the Sylvia Sprinkle-Hamlin Rolling Premiere (SSHRP) Award, presented at the IBTF July 29-Aug. 3 in Winston-Salem, N.C. Named after the co-founder of the IBTF, the SSHRP award includes “rolling premieres” at several Black theatres. For Beaty, the second SSHRP recipient, this meant having Coconut Cake produced in five theatres over the course of two years, starting in 2024, including North Carolina Black Repertory Company, which is also the sponsor of the IBTF.
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