The Black Pepsi Crew

Having recently formed BYRDNEST PRODUCTIONS to promote projects written himself and with co-writers, Mr. Byrd has had options, pitch meetings, and development interests with several entertainment companies. Currently, there is the completed screenplay THE INDEPENDANT, on the career of pioneer black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux, and FOREVER MPETA, an Urban/hip-hop musical update inspired by Peter Pan. Mr.Byrd is co-author with Amy Ostrower on "BRICKS & STRAW - The Booker T.

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Having recently formed BYRDNEST PRODUCTIONS to promote projects written himself and with co-writers, Mr. Byrd has had options, pitch meetings, and development interests with several entertainment companies. Currently, there is the completed screenplay THE INDEPENDANT, on the career of pioneer black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux, and FOREVER MPETA, an Urban/hip-hop musical update inspired by Peter Pan. Mr.Byrd is co-author with Amy Ostrower on "BRICKS & STRAW - The Booker T. Washington Story" and his philosophical rivalry with W.E.B. DuBois, a teleplay that was commissioned by New Images Productions and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

A QUESTION OF FAMILY explores the conflicts that arise when, through an IVF testtube mix-up, a white couple gives birth to twins-one white, one black. Things become more complicated when their estranged adult daughter, as well as the agrieved black couple of their baby seek to get to the bottom of the egg donorship mess. "LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL" (commissioned by producer John Williams: "Shrek" etc.) is a musical biopic of rock 'n' roll pioneer Louis Jordan ("Five Guys Named Moe"), co-written with Carl Arnold.

Mr.Byrd's screenplay LUCKY STARS, follows the exploits of a flamboyant black music producer angered over the 'disloyal' hit pop group he created ala New Edition. He vows to start over and becomes the starmaker of America's hottest white group, ala New Kids On The Block.

CAFE SOCIETY BLUES is the story of Barney Josephson, proprietor of the first integrated nightclub in the US. The club launched the careers of Billie Holiday (where she introduced the controversial song Strange Fruit), Jack Gilford, Lena Horne, Zero Mostel, Comden & Green, and many other jazz&folk luminaries-before being shuttered by the forces of J. Edgar Hoover and HUAC.

Mr.Byrd's stage work includes a one-man play, THE CINEMA CRUSADE OF OSCAR MICHEAUX, on the life and career of the pioneer black filmmaker in his own words. His recent work for the stage, POLES APART, tells the remarkable story of Matthew Henson, Lieutenant Robert E. Peary's black assistant, who encounters hostility and suspicion to his lectures of his adventures in the Arctic and is at issue over the estrangement of the friendship he once had with Peary -- due possibly to the fact that he may have actually been the first to reach the North Pole. In spring of 2000, Mr. Byrd was commissioned to participate in the Lightning Strikes Theatre Company's "The Playboy Stories", a production in New York of five short stories by famous authors over the magazine's 45 years of fiction. His contribution was the stage adaptation of Roald Dahl's A FINE SON. Mr. Byrd is also preparing a one-man play on the white shopkeeper who proudly boasts of his discovery of, and first recording Delta blues king Robert Johnson. He was commissioned as a play doctor on legendary entertainer Avon Long's musical book, "40 ACRES AND A MULE" for NOVAJEM Productions, Inc. Mr. Byrd is also preparing the autobiography of jazz pioneer Sam Wooding for publication, as well as a documentary "Dean of Jazz" on Wooding's career. Photos from Mr. Byrd's archival materials will soon be seen on a Danish TV documentary on the subject of early jazz in Europe.

Mr. Byrd has long credits in the theatre and films as an actor, with his early appearance on Broadway in THE GREAT WHITE HOPE, and many Off-Broadway shows. He brings to his writing career the disciplines of actor, director, and now producer, to some of the projects described. Member of Actors Equity Assn.- Writers Guild of America (East) - Dramatists Guild - Screen Actors Guild.

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