History
Freedom Train Productions was founded in September 2006 and commissioned and staged five new plays at Fire! New Play Festival 2007. This promising set of new work put black queer protagonists in stories about religious tolerance and reincarnation, freedom of transgender identity, slavery, and violence directed at the black queer community. That year over 500 audience members including 50 theatre producers attended the festival. At this year's festival we expect an equally enthusiastic audience.
Freedom Train Productions is a member of The Alliance of Resident Theatres of New York, The Audre Lorde Project's Leadership Roundtable for Queer People of Color-Led Organizations, and is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions in behalf of Freedom Train Productions may be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extend permitted by law.
Major funders include The Union Square Arts Awards, Stonewall Community Foundation, NYU Wagner School of Public Service, OSI Foundation, and Brooklyn Arts Council.
More recent achievements here.
Artistic Director’s Vision
In the United States, few groups of identity receive the wrath of hegemony like people of African descent or members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community. So in a sense black queer folks can be seen as our society's canaries in the mine. If it's that bad for these groups, then the rest of society should take heed. It is from this philosophical framework that we center our theatre around black queer protagonist stories.
Freedom Train's new play commissions impact society on multiple levels. Our work shows that, yes, black queer characters can carry protagonist stories that are universal in their societal influence. Stories of war, political upheaval, democracy, prison industrial complex, fascism, capitalism, love, family, and patriarchy can and in fact must be told from diverse perspectives.
Artistic & Managing Director Andre Lancaster [bio]
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