HARLEM9 Reveals Directors, Actors for 48HOURS IN…HARLEM
Oz Scott, Ken-Matt Martin and Tiffany Nichole Greene will direct new works staged at the Jacques d'Amboise Center in Harlem.
The full company for "48Hours in…Harlem" has been announced, following the announcement of the 6 playwrights and festival tickets being on sale in May. After a one-year hiatus, the Harlem9 producers return to their flagship festival in Harlem, marking 15 years of championing Black voices. As previously announced, the OBIE Award-Winning producers of "48Hours in…Harlem," "48Hours in…El Bronx," "48Hours in…Detroit," "48Hours in…Dallas," "48Hours in…Holy Ground," and most recently, "48Hours in…Baton Rouge" will celebrate this milestone with a tribute to Woodie King, Jr., who passed in late January. "48Hours in…Harlem" will take place on Sunday, August 30, at 7pm and 9:30pm.
The "48Hours in..." festivals bring together six playwrights, six directors, and 18 actors. This year's Harlem playwrights are charged with writing a new 10-minute play inspired by one of six works from New Federal Theatre's canon: In the New England Winter by Ed Bullins, Hospice by Pearl Cleage, Black Girl by J.E. Franklin, Long Time Since Yesterday by P.J. Gibson, When the Chickens Came Home to Roost by Laurence Holder, and James Baldwin: A Soul on Fire by Howard B. Simon. The new plays will be created in just 48 hours, in tribute to Woodie King, Jr.
A whirlwind 3-days of play creation will culminate with two live performances on Sunday, August 30, 2026 at 7pm and 9:30pm at the Jacques d'Amboise Center for Learning & the Arts at National Dance Institute, located at 217 W. 147th Street, New York, New York. Tickets are $30 in advance online and $35 at the door.
The six playwrights for the 2026 festival are Kristen Adele Calhoun (Relentless Award; HBO's Sula), Zachariah Ezer (Creative Capital State of the Art Prize), Kermit Frazier (Head writer, Ghostwriter; memoir First Acts: A Black Playwright Comes of Age, 2022), Mya Ison (O'Neill Conference Finalist), Naomi Lorrain (The Fire This Time Festival, The Black Motherhood & Parenting Festival), and Andres Santiago Piña (A Governors Island Artist Fellow and 2050 NYTW Playwright Fellow).
The six directors: Oz Scott (original director of for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf), Ken-Matt Martin (Baltimore Center Stage), Tiffany Nichole Greene (Hamilton, Resident Director), Clinton Turner Davis, Kimille Howard (Broadway: Ain't Too Proud), and Raecine Singletary.
The 18 actors are: Antonyio Artis (New Jack City, National Tour), Tyrese Shawn Avery (Long Way Down, The Apollo Theater, Olney), Thomas Walter Booker (TV: “FBI”, “Blue Bloods”; On Sugarland, NYTW), Mario Brown, Lamar K. Cheston (Black Angels Over Tuskegee, NAACP Award-winner), Jasmine T. R. Gatewood (TV: “Animal Kingdom”, “Cousins for Life”), Paige Gilbert (Broadway: The Skin of Our Teeth, The Rose Tattoo), Portia (TV:“Diarra from Detroit”), Marla Lou (Broadway: Hadestown, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), Aja Mahogany, Sharina Martin (Broadway: The Piano Lesson; TV: “Elsbeth”), Nadege Matteis (Julius Caesar, The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park), Jada Alston Owens (TV: “Law & Order: Organized Crime”; Romeo and Juliet, Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Greg Alverez Reid (Helen Hayes Award nominee), Celeste Sena (TV: “Poker Face”), Calvin M. Thompson (2025 AUDELCO nominee; TV: “Power Book III: Raising Kanan”), Nathan Onaje Tolliver, and Shawn Williams.
Belynda M'Baye continues as Stage Manager and is also an Associate Producer. Jacq Gregg and Bernard J. Tarver are also Associate Producers and have served over the last several Harlem and El Bronx festivals.
In 2019, the OBIE Award-Winning collective succeeded in gaining a national audience when they produced “48Hours in...El Bronx” with Pregones / PRTT, “48Hours in...Detroit” with Detroit Public Theatre, “48Hours in...Dallas” with Shades of Brown Theatre, and “48Hours in...Holy Ground” in Winston-Salem at The National Black Theatre Festival in partnership with NC Black Rep. The collective celebrated their 10th Anniversary with a digital festival in 2020 and forged a partnership with Harlem Stage and the Lortel Foundation for Consequences in 2021.
Since 2011, Harlem9 has commissioned Black playwrights to tell their stories in the annual "48Hours in…Harlem" play festival. For over a decade, the producers have continued to highlight and uplift writers, directors, and actors at various points in their careers, including Jocelyn Bioh (School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play, Nollywood Dreams, Russian Doll), Brandon Michael Hall (The Mayor, God Friended Me), Dominique Morisseau (Ain't Too Proud—The Life and Times of the Temptations, Skeleton Crew), Tonye Patano (Weeds), Tonya Pinkins (Madam Secretary, Gotham), Aurin Squire (Good Fight, Evil), Marcel Spears (The Neighborhood, FAT HAM) and Benja K. Thomas (Bootycandy, FAT HAM).
