QUICK SILVER THEATER COMPANY
4WORDS - QSTC
"Within a flash life changing moments may occur."
MISSION STATEMENT
Quick Silver Theater Company (4WORDS) QSTC was established in response to the overwhelmingly male, Eurocentric dynamic of contemporary American theater to provide a counterweight, localizing our storytelling in a specificity of culture/race, class, gender, and sexuality that allows for a different kind of uncovering of truth, broadening the scope of our understanding, empathy, and engagement both as theater creators as well as theater consumers. Quick Silver Theater Company
is a sponsored project of
Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization.
Since our founding in 2013, QSTC has been dedicated to amplifying the collective voice, individual potential, and overall presence of people of color, women, and other marginalized groups within the American theatrical landscape. Whether onstage, backstage, or in the various areas of production, our mission is and has always been to cultivate space for the creative endeavors, artistic excellence, and intellectual exploration of BIPOC playwrights, directors, designers, stage-managers, and administrators.
Quick Silver Theater Company (QSTC) - 4WORDS
A Black theater company.
Our collective is made up of eleven active members:
Tyrone Mitchell Henderson-Founder-Artistic Producer, Lizan Mitchell-Co Founder,
Pascale Armand, Candyce Adkins, Inga Ballard,
Sergei Burbank, Rachel Leslie,
Jody Reynard, Jasmine Rush, Keith Randolph-Smith,
and Curtis Wiley.
Quick Silver Theater Company's
2023 in person Summit, in collaboration with
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
and the community of Geneva, N.Y.
was a huge success.
QSTC would like to thank our supporters and donors from the Finger Lakes region.
Today, we announce that our New York staged reading series formally known as the
Citizen One Reading Series,
has been renamed in honor of
QSTC's premiere donor.
Henceforth, the series will don the name:
The Nozomi Williams Reading Series
QSTC Solidarity Statement
QSTC will continue to focus our efforts as a producing entity. It is time for us to renew our support of underproduced playwrights, firmly establish our NYC footprint, and easefully transition from virtual to live theater, or some combination therein.
Every single donation, no matter how big or small, that is invested in this Black owned business, will support the work of Black theater-makers.
Your donations will be supporting our BIPOC playwright’s retreat, our student mentoring projects, and our dream of mounting a production. Please consider an investment in our continued ability to make work that matters! QSTC is a fiscally sponsored project of Fractured Atlas.
Together, we have the collective capability to manifest a world in service to the gift of life. We ask for your support in evolving new theater scenarios, that allow our hearts to open and soar. Informed and strengthened by the past, motivated by our power to succeed, let us forge a future that boldly probes the mystery of existence, which unveils insights just waiting to be discovered.
We are Quick Silver Theater Company. QSTC - 4Words
We are dedicated to an artistic process deeply rooted in freedom. Freedom to soar beyond the limited imaginations that have traditionally surrounded Blackness and the myriad of Black experiences in the American Theater; freedom from the racism, oppression, and white supremacy that permeate the halls and stages of the most lauded theatrical and cultural institutions in our nation; freedom from the constraints and restrictions
continually placed on our abilities, talents, and potential.
We appreciate the statements of support from various theaters across the country, throughout our city, and we encourage and challenge those institutions to follow through with action.
We take pride in the fact that, since the beginning, we have never been neutral. Black Lives Matter is the backbone of QSTC. We have always valued Black Lives. We have always exemplified tenacity, beauty and strength in adversity both on and offstage.
For theaters seeking to do the work of BIPOC creatives and artists to elevate and cultivate a culture of equity and value, we have worked with and mentored many with which we would love to put you in contact. You need only ask; we can bridge you to them.
Moving forward, one thing is certain if it wasn’t clear before: You cannot tell our stories if you don't respect our lives. For creatives and artists who are seeking a place to be seen, heard, and valued DAILY, we are excited to work with you.
QSTC Playwrights of Color Summit Playwrights:
2016: Sergei Burbank, Guadalìs Del Carmen, and Shashone Lambert
2017: Sergei Burbank, Christina Nieves, and B.J. Tindal.
2018: Inés Del Castillo, Shelley Fort, and Quick Silver Theater Company Collaborative
2019: Solo Female Artists, Mia Y. Anderson, Ayesis Clay, Rhonda Khan, and Liz Morgan
2022: Michael Mobley, Dorcas Sowunmi, Reynaldo Piniella
2023: Thomas Brazzle
QSTC Playwrights of Color Summit Directors:
2016: Justin Emeka, Awoye Timpo, and LA Williams
2017: Rebecca S’Manga Frank, Caesar Williams, and LA Williams
2018: Kevin R. Free, Timothy Johnson, and Tyrone Mitchell Henderson
2019: Niccolo Aeed, Danielle Drakes, Bianca Laverne Jones, and Taylor Reynolds
2022: Kevin R. Free, Reynaldo Piniella
2023: Kevin R. Free
QSTC 2020/2021 Virtual Summit participants:
Playwrights: Cynthia Robinson's 'In This Life', went on to Atlantic Theatre Company in 2022 as part of The Committee in collaboration with director Awoye Timpo.
Phillip Christian Smith's play 'Minding Miss Mae Mae', received a 29 hour reading at The Adirondack Theater Festival in 2021.
2020/2021 Michael Bradford Residency Playwrights:
Playwrights: Pascale Armand, Renee’ Flemings, and Myxolydia Tyler
Dramaturgs: Taylor Barfield, Michael Bradford, A.J. Muhammad, and Arminda Thomas
2022 - Michael Bradford Residency
Cris Eli Blak, Michael Jones & James Anthony Tyler
2023 Michael Bradford Residency participants:
Michael Jones, James Anthony Tyler, and Desi Moreno-Penson
Nozomi Williams Reading Series - Playwrights and Directors:
Thomas Brazzle – ‘Turner’ Tyrone Mitchell Henderson – Director
Dwight R. B. Cook – ‘A Prayer’ Tyrone Mitchell Henderson – Director
Jimonn Cole – ‘Organization of Dunsinane’ Caesar Williams – Director
a.k. payne - ‘On Rayton’ Awoye Timpo – Director
Kamilah Bush – ‘What.’ Rachel Leslie – Director
Timothy Johnson – ‘Listening to the Trees’ Tyrone Mitchell Henderson – Director
A. Emmanuel Leadon – ‘Short Rib’ Timothy Johnson – Director
Cynthia G. Robinson – ‘When Night Falls’ Caesar Williams – Director
Guadalìs Del Carmen – ‘My Father’s Keeper’ Awoye Timpo – Director
Marco Antonio Rodriguez – ‘Bloom’ Rebecca S’Manga Frank – Director
Lisa Strum – ‘She Gon’ Learn’ Candis C. Jones – Director
Michael Mobley - 'Monsters' Kevin R. Free - Director
Reynaldo Piniella - 'Son of an Unknown Father' Reynaldo Piniella - Director
Dorcas Sowunmi - 'Safe Ride' Nicole A. Watson - Director
Alejandro Rodriguez - 'Alba's Tatyana-Marie Carlo
2019 Episcopal Actors Guild
Thomas Barbour Award
a.k. payne – ‘BURNBABYBURN: AN AMERICAN DREAM Joniece Abbott-Pratt – Director
Kareem M. Lucas – ‘A Boy & His Bow’ Zoey Martinson – Director
Reynaldo Piniella – ‘Black Doves’ (Award Recipient) Emily Lyon – Director
COVID ERA DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
Virtual reading of Kamilah Bush's play
'Nick and the Prizefighter'
In 2023 Kamilah's play is a part of Williamstown Theatre Festival's Fridays@3Series
2021 Virtual Workshop
Tom Minter's play 'By Me You'll Never Know
Directed by Timothy Douglas
QSTC is a recipient of a matching grant from the GE Foundation
Quick Silver Theater Company
is a fiscally sponsored project of Fractured Atlas.
Quick Silver Theater Company is a 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 recipient of the
NYSCA-A.R.T./New York Creative Opportunity Fund
(A Statewide Theatre Regrant Program)
Quick Silver Theater Company
has been the recipient of the EAG
Open Stage Grant & Thomas Barbour Award participating theater company
QSTC is a proud recipient of a 2021/2022
Leon Levy Foundation COVID-19 Relief Fund Grant
