Actress and North Carolina native Pauletta Pearson Washington, wife of Denzel Washington, stars with Roscoe Orman (Gordon on “Sesame Street”) in a celebrity staged concert reading of Power Play, at the 2013 National Black Theatre Festival this summer in Winston-Salem, and is one of five productions with ties to North Carolina among the more than 40 productions presented.

The festival, organized by the N.C. Black Repertory Company and held every other year, will be held from July 29 to Aug. 3 with 120 performances of new works and black classics presented by professional black theatre companies from throughout the United States as well as Brazil, Bermuda and Canada.

This award-winning play explores passion, politics and the power of God through the story of a powerful politician and four women who find themselves caught in a whirlwind of personal and political intrigue. Pauletta Washington grew up in Catawba County and is a graduate of the UNC School of the Arts.

Power Play has a two-fold North Carolina connection, in that it was written by Lorey Hayes, a native of Wallace and graduate of NC A&T University. Hayes is a Broadway and film actress-turned-writer whose credits include The Dragonfly Tale, winner of the 2007 Alabama Shakespeare Festival’s Southern Writer’s Project. Power Play is presented by the New Heritage Theatre Group of New York. Helmed by Andre Robinson, Power Play also featuring Lia Chang, Phynjuar and Marcus Naylor, will have 4 performances at Shirley Recital Hall at Salem College Fine Arts Center, Stadium Dr, Winston-Salem, NC, 27108, on Tuesday, July 30th at 8pm, Wednesday, July 31st at 3pm and 8pm, and Thursday, August 1st at 3pm.

COAH Enterprises of Charlotte will present The Evolution of Black Gospel Music, a crowd-pleasing musical that retraces the roots and evolution of black gospel music. Through key characters and vignettes, the play shows how the music helped shape our culture and sustain a people.

Another crowd-pleasing production, Crowns, explores black history and identity as seen through the eyes of a young black girl who goes south to stay with her grandmother after her brother is killed in Brooklyn. Crowns is based on the book of the same name by Greensboro’s Craig Marberry and will be presented by the N.C. Black Repertory Company.

Mama Juggs, a one-woman show presented by Anita Woodley of Chapel Hill, is an intimate performance about women’s health, motherhood and living with breast cancer as told through the voices of three generations of women. A tale of life in all its wonderful and difficult moments, Mama Juggs surprises the audience with a story that has universal appeal.

For Brothers and Sisters Who Chose Life – When Death was not an Option is a mash-up of two separate works, the choreopoem For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, by Ntozake Shange; and For Black Boys Who Have Considered Homicide When the Streets Were Too Much, by Keith Mason. Presented by NC Central University, this intriguing play examines how men and women forge a path to discovery, self-worth, mutual respect and interdependence.

Show times and tickets to these and all the performances presented during the 2013 National Black Theatre Festival are available at www.NBTF.org. Group rates are available by calling the festival office at (336) 723-2266.

NBTF is proud to be in partnership with the following sponsors this year: City of Winston Salem, The Millennium Fund, Reynolds American, Visit Winston-Salem, Hanesbrands, Inc., Twin City Quarter, Branch Banking and Trust (BB&T), Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County, N.C. Arts Council, Truliant Federal Credit Union, Inc., Wells Fargo Bank, Winston-Salem State University, Novant Health, Duke Energy Foundation, American Express, Verizon Wireless and The Marvtastic Society.

The NBTF is the international outreach program of the North Carolina Black Repertory Company. The festival has been held biennially since 1989 and attracts thousands of national and international patrons, theatre professionals and scholars to Winston-Salem for six consecutive days of professional theatre, film, poetry, workshops, seminars and outreach programs to develop the next generation of Black theatre.