ON THE RUN: The Night We Met Beyoncé at Frenchy’s Chicken Set for Atlanta

Award-winning Off-Broadway playwright and choreopoet Bryan-Keyth Wilson has announced the development of his bold new play, “ON THE RUN: The Night We Met Beyoncé at Frenchy’s Chicken,” presented in conjunction with King Productions and The Southern Soul Theatre Ensemble.

Set against the charged cultural backdrop of Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour, ON THE RUN follows four young people on a road trip that becomes a spiritual and emotional pilgrimage through the American South. What begins as a quest for music, freedom, and joy transforms into a reckoning with identity, race, queerness, faith, love, and chosen family—culminating in a mystical, unforgettable encounter at Houston’s legendary Frenchy’s Chicken.

The work blends heightened realism, poetic language, movement, and magical realism in Wilson’s signature style, capturing a generation navigating visibility, politics, intimacy, and self-definition in a world on fire. “In speaking about the inspiration for the piece, ON THE RUN is described by its creator as a deeply personal love letter. “I wrote this play as an offering to the South and to the blood memory that lives in me. My family is from New Orleans and the surrounding cities, and that lineage runs through everything I create—the music, the faith, the food, the humor, the survival, the joy. And like so many of us, I hold a deep adoration for Beyoncé, whose artistry feels ancestral, prophetic, and healing. This work honors the ancestors who taught us how to endure and how to dance at the same time, and the icon who reminds us that Black brilliance is divine, unapologetic, and forever evolving. It celebrates the South not just as geography, but as spirit, as home, as a place where culture, queerness, and community rise, rejoice, and refuse to disappear,” said Bryan-Keyth Wilson, playwright.

A script developmental workshop and staged reading will take place in early February 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia. The project will offer a travel stipend and seeks bold, emotionally available actors for this first public incarnation of the piece.

CASTING BREAKDOWN

JADA THOMAS– Bi-racial woman, early 20s. A communications major and budding influencer. Fiercely intelligent, political, funny, tender, visionary. Strong comedic timing and emotional depth.

MALIK CARTER – Black man, early 20s. A business major with the soul of a painter. Grounded, quietly intense, emotionally transparent. Torn between stability and artistry.

MESSI MARIE (MALCOLM BOUDREAUX) – Non-binary, Black / Afro-Creole, early–mid 20s New Orleans native. Fashion designer. Ballroom spirit. Prophet energy. Funny, wounded, radiant, spiritual. Gender-nonconforming performers are strongly encouraged.

TRAVIS COLLINS – White man, late 20s– Tulane law student raised in Houston’s Third Ward. Queer, empathetic, politically awake. Also doubles as: Police Officer and MAGA Redneck. Requires strong transformation and range.

WOMAN ONE (The Presence / The Many Faces of the South) – Black woman, 40s–60s (flexible) A shape-shifter of the journey who embodies the community, the ancestors, and the divine witness. She appears as the Hotel Manager, Clerk, Chanel, Quanesha, and the Silhouette—an iconic, wordless embodiment of Beyoncé. Warm, authoritative, humorous, and grounded, with the ability to command space through both language and stillness. Strong dialect work, emotional range, and a powerful physical presence required..

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Please submit:

• Headshot

• Résumé

• Links to reels, past performances, or self-tapes (if available)

• Indicate role(s) of interest

For submissions, please email southernsoultheatre@gmail.com with the subject line: ON THE RUN Reading Workshop – [Your Name / Role] by Jan. 31, 2026. This reading centers Black, Afro-Creole, queer, and allied voices, and welcomes artists called to this story of liberation, pilgrimage, and chosen family. For more information about the company and its mission, visit www.southernsoultheatre.com