Frank Silvera Writers Workshop records

1973-1992

The Frank Silvera Writers Workshop (FSWW) was co-founded by Garland Lee Thompson, famed actor/director Morgan Freeman, director/actress Billie Allen, and journalist Clayton Riley, in October 1973, as a living memorial to the late actor, director, teacher, and producer, Frank Silvera (1914-1970). Its initial mission was to provide support, guidance, and developmental assistance to Black playwrights, programs that were lacking at the Actors Studio and similar organizations. While acting as a laboratory for playwrights, the Workshop gradually expanded its program to include directors and technicians. Hundreds of works have been presented by the Workshop and many of them, such as Richard Wesley's The Last Street Play, later renamed The Mighty Gents, and Charles Fuller's The Brownsville Raid, (A Soldier's Play) have gone on to achieve commercial success. Some of the programs provided by the Workshop include the Reading/Critique series, in which new plays are read, the readings are rehearsed but not staged, and the presentation is followed by a critical analysis from an audience of peers, under the guidance of a moderator; and the Writers/Directors Series of Staged Projects, which is a series of staged readings of new works and works in progress. These productions are designed to enhance directorial skills with an emphasis on the writer/director relationship. Additionally, there is the Artistic Technical Assistance Collective (ATAC), which concentrates on the development of technical and stage craft skills. It serves professional technicians while developing apprentices in all aspects of stage production and they in turn design, construct, and service the Writers/Directors Series productions. The Larry Neal Memorial Playwriting Seminar Series, in which established playwrights, such as Ed Bullins, Owen Dodson, Charles Fuller, Adrienne Kennedy, and Charles Wesley, discuss structure, characterization, and play development as well as marketing and other commercial and artistic aspects of the business. Finally, the Workshop offers the Open House series, which are orientations and open houses for the general public. Files for most of these programs are included in the collection.