Silverthorne Theater Company presents the second in its 2024 Theater Thursdays Play Reading Series:
New Soul by Leanna James Blackwell
directed by Michael Ofori
Thursday, March 28, 2024, at 7:00 p.m.
at The LAVA Center, 324 Main Street, Greenfield, MA.
Mixed race architect Jake, adopted at birth by Jewish parents, launches a search for his biological family when his wife Liz becomes pregnant with their first child. As Jake’s hunt for answers to the questions of his race and background threatens to take over his life, Liz begins a search of her own, facing a defining trauma from her past that she’s kept secret from Jake which causes her to question her marriage and her life.
Moving in alternating scenes between France in 1962, where Jake’s birth parents meet and fall in love, to Boston in the year 2000, New Soul grapples with the problems of origins, identity, culture, and belonging in the lives of four very different people, each of whom must confront a fundamental question: How far are we willing to go for another human being?
Our Theater Thursday readings are offered free (donations welcome!) and open to the public. Registration for New Soul is strongly encouraged due to limited seating and may be made at
Following the reading, audience members are invited to engage in facilitated conversation with the playwright to help support the continuing development of the script.
This reading is made possible by the generous support of the Greenfield Cultural Council and the West Springfield Arts Council, local agencies which are supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.
Leanna James Blackwell (playwright) is a theatre artist, writer, and professor. She is the former associate artistic director of The Inner Stage in Berkeley, California and the former artistic director and resident playwright of TKO Theater, a performing company of recovering teenage addicts. A member of the Northampton Playwrights Lab, her full-length plays include New Soul, Grimm Women, Curtain Call, and TKO I, II, III, andIV, and have been presented in theaters in California, Nevada, Mexico, and Massachusetts. She is a professor of creative writing and the director of the MFA in Creative Nonfiction program at Bay Path University; the editor-in-chief of Multiplicity Magazine; and the author of numerous published essays, articles, and stories. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Mills College and has just completed a new novel, The Sinners of Santa Ava.
Michael Ofori (director) is an artist and educator at Mount Holyoke College’s Film Media Theater Department. With a BFA in Theater and Dance from the University of Ghana, an MA in International Affairs from Ohio University, and an MFA in Theater from Boston University, Michael brings a wealth of experience to his work. He’s a founding member of Kotoko Brass and Azaguno Inc., and has performed with prestigious groups like the Ghana Dance Ensemble. As a director, Michael has led productions such as The Wolves and Exit Strategy. Excited to join Silverthorne this season, Michael looks forward to contributing to their vibrant lineup of plays.
