THEATER 143: Chess Master

Open-Door Playhouse

Set in 1863, just after the Emancipation Proclamation, Chess Master tells the story of a confrontation between a defiant plantation owner and a newly freed slave. The owner, desperately clinging to the old order, attempts to coerce his former servant into staying on as an unpaid laborer---a potent allegory for the continuing struggle to create a truly free society.
The cast includes Tim Powell, Tazz Yancey, and Dennis Gersten.. Gersten directs.
Braddon Mendelson is the playwright. His full-length plays include Provenance,
Gallows Falls, Rembrandt Perfected, Resisted Living, and Minor Character. He wrote the book and lyrics for a musical, The Waterway. He is the author and illustrator of a children’s book, Have You Seen the Tickle Bug? Mendelson also produced music videos for rap and R& B artists. He is a graduate of Cal State Northridge.
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Founded by playwright and filmmaker Bernadette Armstrong, Open-Door Playhouse is a Theater Podcast- like the radio dramas of the 1940s and 1950s. The Playhouse launched on September 15, 2020. At the time, Open-Door Playhouse provided Playwrights, Actors and Directors a creative outlet during the shutdown. Since its inception. Open-Door Playhouse has presented Short and One-Act plays from Playwrights across the country and internationally. In 2021 Open-Door Playhouse received a Communicator Award for Content for the Play Custody and in 2023 the play What’s Prison Like was nominated for a Webby Award in the Crime & Justice Category.
Plays are produced by Bernadette Armstrong, Sound Engineer is David Peters, sound effects are provided by Audio Jungle, and music from Karaoke Version. All plays are recorded at The Oak House Studio in Altadena, CA.
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