DYPF 2024 Performance and Recognition Night at 7:30 p.m.

This event is free and open to the public. Seating is general admission.

2023-2024 Dypf Theme:

“Historical moments are created by historical opportunities.”

Coach Benjamin “Pops” Coffey, from Layon Gray’s Kings of Harlem

Playwright Layon Gray was inspired by the story of the New York Rens, an African-American-owned, all-Black men’s basketball team that dominated the game in the 1920s and 1930s during the Jim Crow era.  In Gray’s play Kings of Harlem, basketball Coach Pops Coffey speaks the words, “Historical moments are created by historical opportunities” to motivate his team of Black athletes when they are given the unprecedented invitation to compete in the World Championship of Professional Basketball against the champions from the whites-only league.   The team recognizes that their play on the court makes them both a target of criticism and racial discrimination as well as an inspiration to others, demonstrating to all races that Blacks are able to compete and win at the highest level.

Whether fighting injustice, seeking a solution to a problem, using imagination and innovation to create a pathway to a better life for others, or taking other risks to improve their own or others’ circumstances, men and women have made history—family history, community history, or world history-by taking action when the opportunity or need presented itself.  Often the taking of action added a great burden to their lives or the lives of their loved ones, yet this burden was offset by these individuals’ vision for a better tomorrow.  This year’s DYPF theme is as follows:  Write a play about a character or characters who encounter(s) a challenge or opportunity and must make a difficult choice to take action, even when a positive outcome is not guaranteed.*  The play must be a two-character play that is 5-10 pages in length.

Though not a requirement, playwrights are welcome to use real figures from history, or create fictional characters who take part in a real historical event, as part of their play.  DTC encourages playwrights who do use historical events or figures in their play to use research as a support for their writing.

Date: March 21, 2024

Time: 7:30pm

Location:

Delaware Theatre Company -

200 Water Street

Wilmington, DE 19801

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