Liberty City, an off Broadway hit at New York Theatre Workshop (creators of Rent, Once the Musical) received a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for 'Best Solo play'. April was nominated for 'Best Solo Performance' by Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, won Jeff Award for Best Solo Performance (starring Anna Duazvardis) and AUDELCO awards. Liberty City has been touring since it's 2008 premiere. Stay tuned for a Chicago premiere in 2015.
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Liberty City, a multi-character solo play performed by April Yvette Thompson, directed by Jessica Blank, is inspired by April’s childhood in 1970s Miami and her family’s journey through the end of the Black Power movement. Co-written by April Yvette Thompson and Jessica Blank (The Exonerated), it is the story of April’s Miami: a place where colonized people from throughout the African diaspora have gathered, intermarried, bought homes, raised families, vote and still see themselves as immigrants. a place where the big city and the islands rub up against each other, where some immigrants wrestle their way up into the corridors of power while others continue to struggle, where histories and countries coalesce and intermingle to make a new American story.
Enter April Yvette Thompson, the daughter of a Bahamian and Cuban father and an African American mother, but not just any old Afro-Cuban Caribbean-American mix. Her parents were children of the sixties in every way: young militants, free thinkers, movement people and sometimes just plain poor. April spent her days on scholarship as the only black girl at Miami's most exclusive prep school and her nights and mornings in liberty city, the site of Miami's infamous 1980s riots. As the hope of the sixties and seventies gave way to the disintegration and violence of the eighties, April's family struggled to survive and stay together, and April learned to pick up the pieces where her parents left off. April 's story is the story of the children of children of the sixties who were not quite all American. It's a story of a sprawling family marked by tragedy and bound by fierce love, a history cross-pollinated by six different cultures, a patchwork of old feuds and surprising alliances. It is the story of her Miami: a place shaped by immigrants and islands, by intermarriage and rebellion, by history and struggle and love. |
Liberty City Excerpts & an Interview with Liberty City Creators, Jessica Blank & April Yvette Thompson
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PLAYWRIGHT BIOS
April Yvette Thompson is a Tony-winning producer, writer, actor and coach working across media. April’s acting credits include the feature film The Teacher (dir. Jeremy Engle) opposite Hunter Parrish (Weeds) and Clarke Peters (The Wire) filming in NYC now. Recently April guest starred on "Gotham" (FOX) and "Blue Bloods" (CBS). April starred in the smash Broadway hit, Clybourne Park, (Pulitzer & Tony for Best Play); as well as the revival of The Exonerated (dir. Bob Balaban) with Stockard Channing, Delroy Lindo & Roger Waters. Her off-broadway credits include Medea, King Lear, Macbeth, Antigone, Light Raise the Roof and many others. April’s Film/TV credits include The Exonerated, Accidental Husband, Blue Caprice, Backwards, Babylon Fields, “Law & Order” & “Third Watch, etc.”
As SimonSays Entertainment Director of Development, April produces award-winning indie films. Her Sundance films have been in theatres nationwide and are currently available On Demand, NETFLIX & Amazon: Blue Caprice (starring Isaiah Washington), Mother of George (starring Danai Gurira), Gun Hill Road starring (Esai Morales & Judy Reyes). Blue Caprice was nominated for an Independent Spirit award for best first feature and . opened the prestigious New Directors/New Films festival at MoMA. Mother of George was named “best motion picture of the year” by Indiewire and won Best Cinematography at Sundance. In the broadway producing world, April was on the Tony-winning producing team of the longest-running Broadway production of Porgy & Bess(Tony for Best Musical Revival) starring Audra MacDonald (Best Actress Tony).
As a playwright, April is developing her second play in The Miami Trilogy, Good Bread Alley, with support from NYSF, NYTW, Arsht. Her first play, Liberty City (co-written with Jessica Blank) was an off Broadway hit at New York Theatre Workshop (creators of Rent, Once the Musical) and was nominated for Drama Desk, Outer Critics, Lortel & AUDELCO awards Liberty City has toured the United States and has it's Chicago premier in June 2015.
Jessica Blank co-wrote Liberty City with April Yvette Thompson. She also co-wrote The Exonerated with Erik Jensen, a play based on interviews they conducted with more than 40 exonerated death row inmates. In spring 2002, they co-directed The Exonerated at The Actors' Gang Theater. That production was nominated for five Ovation Awards and three NAACP Awards, won the Ovation for Best World Premiere Play, and has toured universities nationally. Bob Balaban's production of The Exonerated ran for more than 600 performances off-Broadway; toured nationally; was made into a Court TV movie for starring Brian Dennehey, Danny Glover, Delroy Lindo, Aidan Quinn and Susan Sarandon and was produced internationally in Dublin, Edinburgh, London, Japan, Mexico, and Italy. The Exonerated won the 2003 Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, Fringe First, and Herald Angel Awards. It has also received awards from Amnesty International, the American Bar Association, The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and Death Penalty Focus. . The Exonerated has been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese. Blank and Jensen also co-wrote the documentary play Aftermath based on interviews they conducted in 2008 with Iraqi civilian refugees in Jordan. Blank directed Aftermath off-Broadway at New York Theater Workshop in 2009; it was nominated for two Drama League awards and toured internationally for two years.
April Yvette Thompson is a Tony-winning producer, writer, actor and coach working across media. April’s acting credits include the feature film The Teacher (dir. Jeremy Engle) opposite Hunter Parrish (Weeds) and Clarke Peters (The Wire) filming in NYC now. Recently April guest starred on "Gotham" (FOX) and "Blue Bloods" (CBS). April starred in the smash Broadway hit, Clybourne Park, (Pulitzer & Tony for Best Play); as well as the revival of The Exonerated (dir. Bob Balaban) with Stockard Channing, Delroy Lindo & Roger Waters. Her off-broadway credits include Medea, King Lear, Macbeth, Antigone, Light Raise the Roof and many others. April’s Film/TV credits include The Exonerated, Accidental Husband, Blue Caprice, Backwards, Babylon Fields, “Law & Order” & “Third Watch, etc.”
As SimonSays Entertainment Director of Development, April produces award-winning indie films. Her Sundance films have been in theatres nationwide and are currently available On Demand, NETFLIX & Amazon: Blue Caprice (starring Isaiah Washington), Mother of George (starring Danai Gurira), Gun Hill Road starring (Esai Morales & Judy Reyes). Blue Caprice was nominated for an Independent Spirit award for best first feature and . opened the prestigious New Directors/New Films festival at MoMA. Mother of George was named “best motion picture of the year” by Indiewire and won Best Cinematography at Sundance. In the broadway producing world, April was on the Tony-winning producing team of the longest-running Broadway production of Porgy & Bess(Tony for Best Musical Revival) starring Audra MacDonald (Best Actress Tony).
As a playwright, April is developing her second play in The Miami Trilogy, Good Bread Alley, with support from NYSF, NYTW, Arsht. Her first play, Liberty City (co-written with Jessica Blank) was an off Broadway hit at New York Theatre Workshop (creators of Rent, Once the Musical) and was nominated for Drama Desk, Outer Critics, Lortel & AUDELCO awards Liberty City has toured the United States and has it's Chicago premier in June 2015.
Jessica Blank co-wrote Liberty City with April Yvette Thompson. She also co-wrote The Exonerated with Erik Jensen, a play based on interviews they conducted with more than 40 exonerated death row inmates. In spring 2002, they co-directed The Exonerated at The Actors' Gang Theater. That production was nominated for five Ovation Awards and three NAACP Awards, won the Ovation for Best World Premiere Play, and has toured universities nationally. Bob Balaban's production of The Exonerated ran for more than 600 performances off-Broadway; toured nationally; was made into a Court TV movie for starring Brian Dennehey, Danny Glover, Delroy Lindo, Aidan Quinn and Susan Sarandon and was produced internationally in Dublin, Edinburgh, London, Japan, Mexico, and Italy. The Exonerated won the 2003 Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, Fringe First, and Herald Angel Awards. It has also received awards from Amnesty International, the American Bar Association, The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and Death Penalty Focus. . The Exonerated has been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese. Blank and Jensen also co-wrote the documentary play Aftermath based on interviews they conducted in 2008 with Iraqi civilian refugees in Jordan. Blank directed Aftermath off-Broadway at New York Theater Workshop in 2009; it was nominated for two Drama League awards and toured internationally for two years.
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