Tony Winner CJay Phillip Talks Movement, Faith & Community in PRAY at Baltimore Center Stage
The performer describes the production as a space where anyone can find a sense of longing and belonging.
Baltimore Center Stage released a video spotlight featuring Tony Award winner CJay Phillip discussing her role in the world premiere production of PRAY, offering an intimate look at what draws her to the material and what she hopes audiences take away from the experience. Phillip speaks with evident conviction about the production's emotional and spiritual core, describing it as a work designed to resonate across backgrounds and belief systems — a space, in her words, where anyone could enter the room and feel a sense of longing and belonging regardless of their faith origins.
PRAY is a new work rooted in the intersection of movement, music, and communal ritual. Phillip, whose Tony win marked a milestone in a career built on physical storytelling and performance, brings that same embodied approach to this production, treating the stage as a site where choreography and spiritual expression become inseparable. The piece invites audiences into a shared experience that transcends denominational boundaries while remaining deeply personal.
The production runs June 13 through July 5 at Baltimore Center Stage, and Phillip makes clear that the city itself is woven into the fabric of the work. She described recognizing Baltimore's own community reflected back at her during the rehearsal process, noting that her sisters, her aunties, and younger women from the city were all present in the room — a detail that speaks to the production's investment in genuine local resonance rather than a generic touring sensibility.
For audiences drawn to performance that fuses spiritual inquiry with rigorous physical craft, PRAY represents one of the more distinctive regional premieres of the summer season on the East Coast.
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