Philadelphia Artists' Collective and theBlackBestFriend

Philadelphia Artists' Collective/TheBlackBestFriend

The Philadelphia Artists’ Collective (PAC) creates vibrant theatrical events that challenge the expectations of classical theatre. This diverse cohort of theatre artists stages rarely produced texts with visceral clarity in intentional spaces, PAC unearths essential stories, expands the classical canon , and inspires audiences to lean in and engage with our shared human experience.

BlackBestFriend is part fantasia, part group therapy, part messy revenge play about a group of Black Femmes recruiting an army of like minded Black Femmes who need to break up with their white best friends. Playwright and creator Alexandra Espinoza thought she was going to write a producible two hander about a Black Femme and her white best friend who had just finished reading White Supremacy and Me, but the twin pandemics of Covid-19 and ongoing violence against Black lives inspired her to think bigger. To think about healing, to think about building, to think about revolution. Developed by a cohort of Black Femme theatre artists through zoom rooms and freewrites, BlackBestFriend is a product that honors its process and elevates Black friendship and ingenuity in the fight against white supremacy culture, tokenism, and erasure.