Billie Holiday News

An encore performance of American Captives: Lena Baker & Sandra Bland, written and performed by Connie Winston and directed by Rhonda a?oePassiona?? Hansome, will be presented during  the  10th anniversary season of the  United Solo Theatre Festival in New York City on Sunday October 6, 2019 at 4pm.

Beginning production in early October in Montreal, Lee Daniels will direct and produce THE UNITED STATES VS. BILLIE HOLIDAY, a new feature film about the legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday. In 2010, Daniels received an Academy Award nomination for Best Director and was the first African American to receive a Director's Guild of America Nomination for Best Director for his critically acclaimed film PRECIOUS. Daniels also helmed the global box-office hit, THE BUTLER in 2013, grossing over $175M worldwide.

Birdland will kick-off their exciting month of programming with the following acts:

In honor of the hundredth anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment, The Human Race Theatre Company's season-long theme is a?oeWomen of Influence: Their Power, Passion, and Pitfalls.a?? In that spirit, they've partnered with The Neon for a companion film series, a?oeWomen of Influence in the Movies.a?? Each of The Human Race's five mainstage productions will be paired with a thematically-related film, shown at The Neon on a Monday evening during the production's run.

Turn back the hands of time for an intimate evening with legendary jazz songstress Billie Holiday when International City Theatre presents an acclaimed musical portrait of one of the greatest jazz and blues vocalists of all time. With Karole Foreman(ICT's award-winning production of Fences) in the title role, music direction by Stephan Terry and Ebony Rep producing artistic director Wren T. Brown at the helm, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill by Lanie Robertson gets a three-week run Oct. 18 through Nov. 3.

Hackney Showroom today announce the full cast for the world première of for all the women who thought they were Mad by Zawe Ashton. Associate Director of Hackney Showroom's Jo McInnes directs Layo-Christina Akinlude (Angela), Mina Andala (Joy), Jennifer Dixon (Kim), Joy Elias-Rilwan (Margaret), Jumoké Fashola (Ruth), Michael Fitzgerald (Boss/Doctor), Janet Kumah (Rose), with Elena Coleman, Chiamara Nwosu and Rae Ann Quayle sharing the role of Nambi. The production opens at Stoke Newington Town Hall on 17 October, with previews from 14 October, and runs until 9 November a?" marking Hackney Showroom's a new partnership with the London Borough of Hackney to bring theatre to Stoke Newington Town Hall.

Tony and Emmy Award winning actor André De Shields was the grand marshal of Baltimore's 2019 Pennsylvania Avenue Cadillac Auto parade held on August 31.

The Billie Holiday Theatre Artistic and Executive Director Dr. Indira Etwaroo announced the line-up today for The Billie Holiday Theatre's Fall 2019 Season and 2019 a?" 2020 Season Highlights at their newly-renovated home at Restoration Plaza on 1368 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216. This historic landmark theater a?" theater home to the largest community of African Americans in the nation: Central Brooklyn a?" encompassing a 199-seat theater, state-of-the-art studio spaces, a gallery space, and outdoor plazas, has been home to world-class storytelling for 47 years. Forged in the sociocultural and aesthetic kiln of the Civil Rights and Black Arts Movements, The Billie Holiday Theatre continues to celebrate the diversity, intersectionality, and complexity of the African diaspora from around the corner and around the world with an almost-five decade, keenly honed consciousness for social justice through narrative.

The Frank Silvera Writers Workshop kicks off its forty-seventh annual reading series this Monday September 9th at 7pm with David Davila's immigration drama, Aztec Pirates And The Insignificance Of Life On Mars. The reading, directed by Nilsa Reyna, features Ollie Corchado, Cory Alexander, Lillian Andrea De Leon, Julia Botero, Selina Michelle Fonseca, Gerard Lucero, Alexandra Castro, and Jatnna Marte.

Billy Crystal and Tiffany Haddish are set to star in the independent comedy “Here Today,” according to Variety. The duo will also produce the comedy, with Crystal directing from a screenplay he co-wrote with Alan Zweibel.

For the second year, the Peace Center invites audiences to dive deeper into the artistic works heading to the main stage through Peace Interludes. These FREE musical happy hours hosted by Peace Center Artist-in-Residence Igor Begelman pair a musical facet of an upcoming performance with a featured beverage for a multi-sensory sip, listen and learn experience. The featured beverages are available for purchase.

First performed 10 years ago, SONGS FOR NOBODIES will tour to Geelong Performing Arts Centre from Friday 13 December, Arts Centre Melbourne from Wednesday 18 December and Sydney Opera House from 23 January. This spellbinding one woman play, is a tour de force of imagined encounters between five mid 20th-century divas, Judy Garland, Patsy Cline, Billie Holiday, Edith Piaf and Maria Callas, and five ordinary women.

In 1959, Billie Holiday, or a?oeLady Daya?? as she was called, performed one of her final shows in a run-down bar in South Philly. In Robertson's award-winning play, Holiday engages the audience with salty, often humorous reminiscences of her troubled life as a travelling performer in a segregated south. With the help of her piano man, Jimmy Powers, she lets music tell her story, sharing soulful, heart-wrenching and bawdy songs from her memorable canon including: a?oeStrange Fruit,a?? a?oeGod Bless the Child,a?? a?oeWhen a Woman Loves a Man,a?? and a?oeTaint Nobody's Business If I Do.a??

The SideNotes Cabaret Series celebrates the 60TH Season of Sunset Playhouse with a tribute to the dazzling divas who reigned supreme in America's original art form. CROWN JEWELS OF JAZZ runs from September 26-29, 2019 and features award-winning vocalists MARCYA DANEILLE and ELLEN WINTERS. The duo will present jazz standards by Ella Fitzgerald, Anita O'Day, Billie Holiday, June Christy, Nina Simone, Diana Krall, and others.

Today, Feinstein's at the Nikko announced an exciting lineup of artists who will take the stage at San Francisco's premier intimate nightclub this fall.

RestorationART at Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation facilitates a call to rally the NYC arts community to come together as one voice at the non-partisan event, SPEAK FREEDOM on Sunday, August 25 - the actual day when the first slave ship, the White Lion, made the first Trans-Atlantic voyage 400 years ago to bring a?oe20 and odda?? people of Africa to the shores of Jamestown.

Playwright Samuel Harps discusses the story behind his latest play CLOVER

Good Egg Creative today announced an exciting new charity concert for Sydney, HIGH STANDARDS, which will be held at the City Recital Hall on Monday 28 October, and raise much needed funds for the Actors Benevolent Fund NSW.

Hailed as 'the best party in town,' by New York's Cabaret Scenes Magazine, The Nitz/ Howe Experience marks a major milestone on Saturday, September 7th.

Klein and Alvarez Productions, LLC is proud to present an electrifying homage to African-American divas for IndyFringe Festival Aug. 15-25, 2019. This year marks the 15th anniversary of Indianapolis' premier theater event. This production will be equally as special, as three accomplished local artists celebrate The Supremes, Aretha, Whitney, Beyoncé and other icons, alongside some of the city's most talented musicians. 'Les Chanteuses' is a tribute to black divas, who have not only made major contributions to the entertainment world, but have also blazed trails for African-American women.