The African Company Presents Richard III at Soul Rep Theatre Company

Written by Carlyle Brown

Directed by Lisa Cote

“…the personal and the historical, the comic and the angry propels THE AFRICAN COMPANY…theatrical and social concerns entwine with powerful resonances to today…Mr. Brown is a writer with a distinct voice and a powerful story to tell.”

—Washington Post.

This powerful historical play is inspired by a true story of the first Black theatrical group in the country, the African Grove Company of New York. Forty years before the Civil War, the African Grove Theatre Troupe in New York sets about staging a production of Richard III to which black and white audiences flocked. But when a major (and white) New York company scores a big name star to be featured in their own production of Richard III, they are determined to shut down the African company's show at any cost. The play ends with the Company, surviving, its integrity intact, and about to launch an equally progressive new chapter in the American theatre: They’ll soon be producing the first black plays written by Black Americans of their day.

Carlyle Brown is a playwright/performer, curator and artistic director of Carlyle Brown & Company based in Minneapolis. His plays have been produced at theatres across the country and internationally. He is an alumnus of New Dramatists and a Life Time Core Writer at the Playwrights’ Center. A scholar and historian, Brown has been an artist in residence or visiting professor at several colleges and universities, and has worked as a museum exhibit writer and story consultant. He serves on the board of directors of The Playwrights’ Center and is a trustee of The Camargo Foundation. He is currently an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Playwright-in-Residence at Illusion Theater in Minneapolis.