There will be a special pair of New York-based producers honored during the opening night gala awards dinner at this year’s annual National Black Theatre Festival (NBTF), occurring Aug. 1-6 in Winston-Salem, N.C. They are twin sisters Yvette Heyliger and Yvonne Farrow-founders of Twinbiz, a production company they have had for 20 years, through which they have produced over 25 plays, many written by Heyliger, including “What Would Jesus Do?” “Hillary and Monica: The Winter of Her Discontent” and “Autobiography of a Homegirl.” The festival will present them with its first-ever Emerging Producer Award.

“It’s quite an honor. I feel very grateful to the National Black Theatre Festival because of its prestigious image nationally. It puts Twinbiz on the map as a producer and me personally as a playwright,” Heyliger told the AmNews. Receiving this award will give a validation to what we have been doing, which carries a recognition and weight that will propel us as theater artists.

“This is like that stamp-‘these girls are working hard, they’re doing good work, pay attention.’ Yvonne loves producing. It’s an art and she’s really good at it. I’m more into the playwriting and producing. I think women are producing now more because they have to, and it would be nice if they did it because they wanted to.”

Heyliger and Farrow gained their love for the arts from their mother, Marcieta Hinton, and their stepfather, pianist Frank Hinton. “As children, our mother exposed us to the arts by going to museums, ballet and theater. When my mom married our stepfather, he brought the music side to our lives,” Heyliger recalled.

The twins attended the Duke Ellington School of the Arts-Yvonne focused on dance, while Yvette focused on theater. While the sisters are both producers, Heyliger’s career has also included acting and playwriting.

Considering how her career began, Heyliger remarked, “Being an artist felt like the natural thing to be doing. It feels like it was the calling we had. I was a good English student and writer, so when I went into the theater department, I loved reading plays and doing them.

“I started writing in my master’s program at New York University. I had to write a theater piece and present it. I wrote a play about a relationship I was having with a guy and I performed it. The guy hurt me. He left me for a white woman, whose father was part of the Klan. I could explore race, color, beauty, how you pick your mates-those types of issues. Creating the play was my therapy to get over the relationship, but it also helped me understand America, and the racism and the pressure we feel as Black women. So that’s how I started writing.

“I started Twinbiz in 1986, but I didn’t know what it would become,” Heyliger continued. “We were in a couple of New York festivals with my play, ‘Autobiography of a Homegirl.’ Yvonne played lead, and I directed and I produced it there. It was this runaway hit, it got great reviews. Then we started producing the plays I was writing.”

Commenting on why this was necessary, Heyliger explained, “Women of color get less than 10 percent of the production opportunities in all 50 states. It’s been as low as 1 percent at times-that’s why you have to get your plays up yourself. As a playwright, you want to see your work on the stage, living and breathing.”

To Heyliger, getting the Emerging Producers Award is like the NBTF saying, “‘These twins had chutzpa. They got up and made things happen.’ The NBTF gave us a chance as producing artists and carried our plays in its festival. We were put in the best theaters at the festival. And that says, ‘We believe in you guys. We know you’re going to bring a good product,’ so it’s doubly sweet for us,” Heyliger said.

“Yvonne and I work very hard, and we put our own money and our husbands’ money into producing our work. I’ve also won grants, but I wish that more grants were given to women. I wish that the government could…produce programs for women to level the playing field,” Heyliger remarked.

Discussing Twinbiz’s mission, she shared, “I’m very interested in social awareness. My plays are about HIV/AIDS, sexual abuse, race and beauty in America and sex scandals in the White House. My newest play, ‘White House Wives: Operation Lysistrata!’ is an antiwar comedy about the White House wives.”

Demonstrating their social concerns, Twinbiz launched the National Black HIV/AIDS Theatre Initiative, held annually on Feb. 7, National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, featuring readings and productions on the subject of HIV/AIDS and sexual health.

In addition to the Emerging Producer Award, Twinbiz looks forward to going to the festival because “it’s an opportunity for Black theater artists and producers to come together and commune with each other and celebrate their art. It’s a rejuvenating period. There’s a sense of community and coming together, replenishing the spirit of getting back out there and to keep fighting the good fight,” the producer said.

To learn more about this family business, go to www.twinbiz.com.