Tony-Nominee Camille A. Brown To Return to The Joyce with Trilogy Presented in Partnership with The Apollo

The Joyce Theater Foundation will continue its long-standing relationship with in-demand director and choreographer Camille A. Brown with a historic cross-borough presentation of her trilogy of works on black identity. Two of the series' three works-Mr. TOL E. RAncEand BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play-will play The Joyce Theater from October 25-30. In an unprecedented partnership between the Apollo Theater and The Joyce Theater, Brown's third and final work in the groundbreaking trilogy on Black identity, ink, will play the famed Harlem venue from November 4-5. Tickets for The Joyce Theater performances only, ranging in price from $10-$65, can be purchased at www.Joyce.org, or by calling JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800. Please note: ticket prices are subject to change. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at West 19th Street. For more information and to read about The Joyce Theater's detailed health and safety protocols, including required face-coverings and proof of vaccination policies, please visit www.Joyce.org. For tickets to the Apollo Theater performances of ink, please visit www.ApolloTheater.org.

Created a decade ago, Camille A. Brown's first work in a series of three pieces on black identity, Mr. TOL E. RAncE, endures in revealing the perseverance of the Black performer. Inspired by a trio of works itself by Mel Watkins, Spike Lee, and Dave Chappelle simultaneously celebrates the humor of and examines the mask of stereotypes worn by Black artists throughout popular culture. Told through comedy, animation, theater, live music, and retrospective dance, Mr. TOL E. RAncE blends the historic with the contemporary to shine a light on contemporary minstrelsy and push artist and audience alike into a timely dialogue about race and culture.

Ms. Brown's second work in her trilogy, BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play, received its world premiere at The Joyce in 2015 and will once again bring its nuanced spectrum of Black female narratives to the storied Chelsea stage. From double dutch to tap to social dancing, Camille A. Brown & Dancers use the Black dance vernacular to evoke the complexity of Black womanhood in a racially and politically-charged world.

For the first time ever, all three works in The Trilogy can be seen in immediate conversation with each other through an unprecedented partnership between The Joyce Theater and the historic Apollo Theater. The third and final work, ink, will play at the Apollo Theater November 4-5 and will provide a 15% discount to ticket holders of The Joyce's presentation of Mr. TOL E. RAncE and BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Camille A. Brown is a prolific Black female choreographer who is reclaiming the cultural narratives of African American identity. Her bold work taps into both ancestral stories and contemporary culture to capture a range of deeply personal experiences. Most recently, Ms. Brown made her Broadway directorial debut for the seven-time Tony-nominated revival of for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, making her the first Black woman to direct and choreograph a Broadway show in 67 years. She garnered Tony nominations for Best Direction of a Play and Best Choreography, and the production received nominations from all of the major awards bodies for the 2021-2022 Broadway season. Ms. Brown is a four-time Princess Grace Award winner, a Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellow, Jacob's Pillow Dance Award winner, Guggenheim Fellowship recipient, and TED fellow, among other distinguished achievements. As Artistic Director of Camille A. Brown & Dancers, Ms. Brown strives to instill curiosity and reflection in diverse audiences through her emotionally raw and thought-provoking work. Her driving passion is to empower Black bodies to tell their story using their own language(s) through movement and dialogue. Through the company, Ms. Brown provides outreach activities to students, young adults, and incarcerated women and men across the country. Her Broadway and Off-Broadway credits include Choir Boy (Tony and Drama Desk nominations), Once on This Island, Toni Stone, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Fortress of Solitude, BELLA: An American Tall Tale, Much Ado About Nothing for Shakespeare in the Park, and Porgy & Bess and Fire Shut Up In My Bones, both for The Metropolitan Opera. Her TV and film credits include the Emmy Award-winning Jesus Christ Superstar Live on NBC, Tracy Oliver's HARLEM for Amazon Prime, and Netflix's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. Ms. Brown began her professional career as a dancer with Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE. She is a graduate of LaGuardia High School of the Performing Arts and received a B.F.A. from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

ABOUT Camille A. Brown & DANCERS

Committed to implementing and advancing the artistic vision of Camille A. Brown, Camille A. Brown & Dancers creates and presents performances, offers dance engagement activities, and investigates historical and contemporary cultural, personal, and social justice issues through the art of dance theater, in order to provide a multi-faceted platform for sharing and building understanding of and appreciation for the African American experience and fostering interaction and dialogue among diverse communities in the company's hometown of New York City, across the country, and globally. The company has performed at national and international venues, including The Joyce Theater, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, The Yard, American Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival, New York City Center's Fall for Dance Festival, Celebrate Brooklyn, Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, The Kitchen, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, World Music/CRASHarts, The Kumble Theater, Atlas Performing Arts Center, The Egg, The Kravis Center, White Bird, and Belfast Festival at Queen's (Belfast, Ireland). These opportunities are possible because of the serious movers and incredible performers in the company who are able to act and dance, step into the world of history, and come soaring into the present.

ABOUT The Joyce Theater

The Joyce Theater Foundation ("The Joyce," Executive Director, Linda Shelton), a non-profit organization, has proudly served the dance community for almost four decades. Under the direction of founders Cora Cahan and Eliot Feld, Ballet Tech Foundation acquired and renovated the Elgin Theater in Chelsea. Opening as The Joyce Theater in 1982, it was named in honor of Joyce Mertz, beloved daughter of LuEsther T. Mertz. It was LuEsther's clear, undaunted vision and abundant generosity that made it imaginable and ultimately possible to build the theater. Ownership was secured by The Joyce in 2015. The theater is one of the only theaters built by dancers for dance and has provided an intimate and elegant home for over 400 U.S.-based and international companies. The Joyce has also expanded its reach beyond its Chelsea home through off-site presentations at venues ranging in scope from Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater, to Brooklyn's Invisible Dog Art Center, and to outdoor programming in spaces such as Hudson River Park. To further support the creation of new work, The Joyce maintains longstanding commissioning and residency programs. Local students and teachers (K-12th grade) benefit from its school program, and family and adult audiences get closer to dance with access to artists. The Joyce's annual season of about 48 weeks of dance now includes over 340 performances - both digital and in-person - for audiences in excess of 150,000.

The Joyce Theater presents Camille A. Brown & Dancers in parts one and two of the namesake choreographer's trilogy on race from October 25-30. The performance schedule for BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play is as follows: Tue-Wed 7:30pm; Thu 8pm. The performance schedule for Mr. TOL E. RAncE is as follows: Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm & 7:30pm. Tickets for The Joyce Theater performances only, ranging in price from $10-$65, can be purchased at www.Joyce.org, or by calling JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800. Please note: ticket prices are subject to change. For tickets to ink, Brown's third and final installment in this trilogy on Black identity, please visit www.ApolloTheater.org. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at West 19th Street.For more information and to read about The Joyce Theater's detailed health and safety protocols, including required face-coverings and proof of vaccination policies, please visit www.Joyce.org.