Jackie Taylor News

Theatre Communications Group (TCG) and Project1VOICE (P1V) have announced a screening series tour for the #LegacyLeaders video of Douglas Turner Ward coming to three cities this fall.

Black Ensemble Theater Founder and CEO Jackie Taylor continue the 2017 Season (The Dance Theater Season) with the world premiere musical Last Dancer Standing (More Than Hip Hop), written, directed, and choreographed by Black Ensemble Theater Associate Director Rueben Echoles. Last Dancer Standing (More than Hip Hop) will be performed at the Black Ensemble Theater Cultural Center, 4450 N. Clark Street in Chicago, July 22 - September 3, 2017.  

A petition urging Chicago theater companies to stop inviting Weiss to productions was posted on Change.org on June 13th by the Chicago Theater Accountability Coalition. As of this writing, the petition has received more than 3,690 signatures.

Theatre Communications Group announces a special, one-night-only event to screen the #LegacyLeaders video of Muriel Miguel, founder of Spiderwoman Theater. The event will be hosted by La MaMa ETC- The Downstairs (66 East 4th Street) in New York City, Tuesday, May 2nd, 2017 at 7:00pm.

Castillo Theatre presents a special community screening in honor of New Federal Theatre Founder Woodie King Jr., as part of the Legacy Leaders of Color Video Project (LLCVP). The event will be held at the Castillo Theatre, 543 West 42nd Street in Manhattan, on Tuesday, April 18, 2017 at 7pm with a panel discussion, film screening, audience Q&A, followed by a reception.

Black Ensemble Theater has announced a special, one-night-only event to screen Legacy Leaders of Color Video Project (LLCVP), which features interviews with BE Founder and CEO Jackie Taylor.

Black Ensemble Theater Founder and CEO Jackie Taylor opens the 2017 Season (The Dance Theater Season) with the world premiere musical My Brother's Keeper-The Story of The Nicholas Brothers, written and directed by Black Ensemble Theater Associate Director Rueben Echoles. My Brother's Keeper (The Story of The Nicholas Brothers) will be performed at the Black Ensemble Theater Cultural Center, 4450 N. Clark Street in Chicago, February 11 - March 26, 2017.  The official press opening is Sunday, February 19, 2017 at 3:00pm. 

Black Ensemble Theater proudly announces a special, one-night-only event to screen Legacy Leaders of Color Video Project (LLCVP), which features interviews with BE Founder and CEO Jackie Taylor. The event will be held at the Black Ensemble Theater Cultural Center, 4450 N. Clark Street in Chicago, on Monday, February 27, 2017, with a reception at 6pm and film screening and panel discussion at 7pm. The event is free and open to the public.

Black Ensemble Theater Founder and CEO Jackie Taylor opens the 2017 Season (The Dance Theater Season) with the world premiere musical My Brother's Keeper-The Story of The Nicholas Brothers, written and directed by Black Ensemble Theater Associate Director Rueben Echoles. My Brother's Keeper (The Story of The Nicholas Brothers) will be performed at the Black Ensemble Theater Cultural Center, 4450 N. Clark Street in Chicago, February 11 - March 26, 2017.  

Black Ensemble Theater Founder and CEO Jackie Taylor opens the 2017 Season (The Dance Theater Season) with the world premiere musical My Brother's Keeper-The Story of The Nicholas Brothers, written and directed by Black Ensemble Theater Associate Director Rueben Echoles. My Brother's Keeper (The Story of The Nicholas Brothers) will be performed at the Black Ensemble Theater Cultural Center, 4450 N. Clark Street in Chicago, February 11 - March 26, 2017.  

Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, launches the Legacy Leaders of Color Video Project (LLCVP). Working with MOPED, a video production company, and with support from Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, TCG filmed a series of interviews chronicling the stories of founding leaders of theatres of color.

The cast of The Other Cinderella includes Mark J.P. Hood, best known as a finalist on The Voice Season 10, as the Prince, with Jessica Seals (Cinderella), Rhonda Preston (Stepmother), Melanie McCullough (Stepsister Geneva), Miciah Long (Stepsister Margarite), Kylah Frye (Fairygodmama), Dwight Neal (King), Shari Addison (Queen), Kyle Smith (Page), Brandon Lavell (Groundhog), Henri Slater (Peanut Butter),Trequon Tate (Attendant), and Paige Hauer (Dorothy).

Alison C. Vesely, Artistic Director and Co-Founder of First Folio Theatre, passed away Friday at the age of 59 of ovarian cancer.

Black Ensemble Theater Founder and CEO Jackie Taylor continue the 40th Anniversary Season (The Season of Greatest Hits) with the family-friendly, holiday favorite The Other Cinderella, written by Jackie Taylor and directed by Jackie Taylor and Rueben Echoles.

Black Ensemble Theater Founder and CEO Jackie Taylor continue the 40th Anniversary Season (The Season of Greatest Hits) with the family-friendly, holiday favorite The Other Cinderella, written by Jackie Taylor and directed by Jackie Taylor and Rueben Echoles.

Jarrod Spector began performing at three years old. A film of his singing 'Toot, Toot, Tootsie' with emphatic gestures shows the talented artist preternaturally polished. We're then treated to a clip from Ed McMahon's Star Search in which the six-year-old, pint-sized pretender performs Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weill's 'Mack the Knife.' His parents, he explains, favored Bobby Darin to the extent that they overlooked the song's subject was 'a serial killer.' Tonight's version is brass-centric, Las Vegas swing. JUKEBOX LIFE, presented at Feinstein's 54/Below, is the most recent iteration in a series of biographical shows. ('Time to move on.') It adds Spector's marriage and his role as songwriter Barry Mann in the Carole King musical BEAUTIFUL to that of playing Frankie Valli in JERSEY BOYS and early aspirations. (Interestingly, he was unaware of both the men into whose shoes he has stepped.) Its title was inspired by a fan who asked, 'What's it like to have this incredible jukebox life?'

Black Ensemble Theater's Founder and CEO Jackie Taylor announces the 2017 Season: A Theater Season of Dance. All productions will spotlight African American dance and artists in different times in history including The Nicholas Brothers, Josephine Baker, The Harlem Renaissance, and Sammy Davis Jr., as well as an historical look at Hip Hop. Performances will be held at the Black Ensemble Theater Cultural Center, 4450 N. Clark Street in Chicago.

Black Ensemble Theater Founder and CEO Jackie Taylor continue the 40th Anniversary Season (The Season of Greatest Hits) with I Am Who I Am (The Story of Teddy Pendergrass), written by Jackie Taylor and directed by Daryl D. Brooks.

Jackie Taylor, founder and CEO of Black Ensemble Theater, will be honored with the Fifth Star Award from the City of Chicago and Allstate Insurance Company, at Millennium Park tonight, September 14 at 7 pm.

The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) will honor four Chicago artists and arts advocates and one iconic cultural institution at the 3rd annual Fifth Star Awards presented by Allstate Insurance Company today, September 14 at 7pm-at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park.