DTC's KINGS OF HARLEM Opens Next Month

Delaware Theatre Company's second production of the season is the powerful and inspiring play KINGS OF HARLEM, written and directed by Layon Gray.

On stage October 25–November 12, KINGS OF HARLEM celebrates the 100th anniversary of the first Black-owned, all-Black professional basketball team in history. The story follows seven men who overcame adversity to win more than 2,000 games.

Formed five years before the Harlem Globetrotters, the New York Harlem Rens compiled one of the most impressive winning streaks in basketball history and would change the way the game is played forever. The Miami Herald calls KINGS OF HARLEM “a compelling play.”

From the writer/director of last season's wildly popular Black Angels Over Tuskegee, this production transforms DTC's stage into a full basketball court!

“I am so excited to share this story with the Delaware community. This part of American history had been overlooked and forgotten. In 2013, while cleaning out an old footlocker, I found a crinkled sheet of paper with the message, ‘Write a play about the Harlem Rens—history deserves the right to live.' I'm excited to tell it.” —Layon Gray, Playwright, Director, and Choreographer Kings of Harlem

“Our audiences were captivated by Layon's production last season,” says Matt Silva, Executive and Artistic Director. “I knew we had to bring back this dynamic playwright with a new and exciting piece of theatre with such a rich and historical storyline.”