FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Diane Richards’ Spellbinding  New Hit Stage Play,

SOWA’S RED GRAVY

Inspires Rave Reviews from Theater Critics

Film /TV Actress Lonette McKee Heads Stellar Cast

With NFT Founder and Producer, Woodie King, Jr.

in Director’s Chair

NEW YORK, NY  January 2013--SOWA’S RED GRAVY STORIES for Broken Hearted Girls, a book of spellbinding short stories published in 2003 by Author/Playwright and Songwriter, DIANE RICHARDS, has been  adapted for the stage  as SOWA’S RED GRAVY and has received  rave reviews!

“Diane Richards’s script is near-poetry... directed by Woodie King Jr.  An irresistible, lusty celebration of passions.  Ms. McKee is charming as Sowa, but the whole cast is impressive, charged with good-natured attitude. Kene Holliday, wearing a garish red suit as if it were Savile Row bespoke, is a standout as Belozah.” (Anita Gates- NY Times)

“It is a lot more fun than some of the more polished comedies one might see for a lot more money on Broadway.” (Paulanne Simmons-Curtain-up.com)

“Sowa’s Red Gravy is an expertly written, wildly entertaining celebration of the tall tales and colorful personalities that make humans so wonderfully unpredictable.”(Matt Roberson-NY Theater.com.

“The play, written by new playwright Diane Richards (also a song and screen writer), a member of the Harlem Writers Guild, brings together southern folklore and vivid figures, especially the females.” (Sandy Durell-Examiner.com)

SOWA’S RED GRAVY produced from October 18^th through November 18th was selected as one of the artistic works to be presented by The New Federal Theater (NFT) in association with Castillo Theater ((543 West 42nd Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues.) this season.  Performances continue through November 18^th .  Richards is considered by literary circles as a new voice in American Theater as well as one of the stage’s most promising and emerging new women playwrights

Film/TV Actress Lonette McKee (Sparkle, Jungle Fever, and Women of Brewster Place) has been tapped to head the cast with NFT Founder and Producer Woodie King, Jr. directing a stellar cast that features Toni Seawright ,Aaron Fried, Jonathan Peck, Kimberly Q, , Gary E. Vincent, Iris Wilson, David D. Wright and Kene Holliday (Streamers, Matlock, The Josephine Baker Story, G.I. Joe: The Movie). Sowa's Red Gravy has a magnificent set design by John Scheffler, costume design by Niiamar Felder, lighting design by Antoinette Tynes, and sound design by Bill Toles.  Bruce Heath created the eye catching  choreography.

Sowa’s Red Gravy is a play filled with humor and insight by a master storyteller of Southern folklore. The six character play with music captures the sound, heart, and fury of African-American culture. The play is similar in style and content to the works of the Harlem Renaissance writers Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes.   Sowa’s Red Gravy is a play of southern “mulebone” folklore and unforgettable characters like Windy Willow, Sapphire and Luwanna.   Narrated by Sowa, a 110-year old wise woman, who resides in Harlem in quantum time, Sowa recounts her life before the emancipation and claims to have lived many lives as varied as a White Hollywood film star, an African Warrior and a Louisiana Voodoo Queen.  Sowa’s storytelling is so captivating that you are sure to be convinced she is telling the truth and you will delight in the other characters as well.