LOS ANGELES, CA -- Nancy Cheryll Davis, artistic producing director of The Towne Street Theatre, has announced that the company is the recipient of three recent grants: L.A. County Arts Commission; L.A. Cultural Affairs Department (for TST's 1999 productions); and California Arts Council; (for its acting, writing and directing conservancy).

The TST, one of L.A.'s leading African-American Theatre companies, was founded in 1993 by Davis, Nancy Renee and Nathaniel Bellamy. The company's mission is to bring "to the stage original plays by L.A. playwrights and others that are seldom told, revealing the extremely varied history of Black America past and present."

Next year TST will celebrate its 6th season and Black History Month with a reprise of its successful NAACP Award-winning production of Passing, Sheri Bailey's drama set in the Harlem of the 1920s.

In May, TST will offer its second annual New Playwrights Festival.

The theatre is located at 799 S. Towne Ave. Call (213) 624-4796. -- By Willard Manus
Southern California Correspondent