THE FESTIVAL IN DA BACK Comes to The Flea Theater
Performances run April 9, 2026 - April 12, 2026.
On the heels of being announced as a co-producer for the new musical Imitation of Life by Lynn Nottage, Liesl Tommy and EGOT winner John Legend, National Black Theatre has revealed cast and ticket availability for the public presentation of playwright Brian Egland’s The Festival in Da Back, directed by Nic Ashe (Queen Sugar, The Lion King, Choir Boy). Brian, a Louisiana native, was part of the 2022 cohort of NBT’s I Am SOUL Playwright residency, where The Festival in Da Back was originally developed with the institution’s support.
In Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, the crawfish capital of the world, they say there’s two festivals: the one out front, and the one in da back. But it’s what happens on the front lawn of 318 Dorset Street that cracks open a family legacy. Ghosts hum through the zydeco, dreams rattle in the cooler, and everyone’s waiting for someone who might never come home. The Festival in da Back is a richly textured, fiercely funny play about who we crown, what we bury, and whether the music that once moved us can still bring us home.
Performances run April 9, 2026 - April 12, 2026 at The Flea Theater, 20 Thomas St, New York, NY 10007.
The cast includes theater stalwarts including: Charles Wallace (The Gospel Woman, Smokey Joe's Cafe); Charles Hudson III (A Raisin in the Sun, Daredevil: Born Again); Ebony Marshall-Oliver (Chiaroscuro, Ain’t No Mo); Elijah Jones (CONFEDERATES, Fat Ham); Joshua Hendricks; Nora Cole (Jelly’s Last Jam, The World According to Micki Grant); and Reginald L. Barnes (Wu-Tang: An American Saga, THE BLEEDING CLASS).
The creative team includes Ray Archie, Sound Designer (Notes to the Soul, Brooklyn Sound Lab); DeShon Elem, Costume Designer ((pray), BOWL EP); Hao Bai, Lighting Designer (Arden, Waterboy and the Mighty World); Marcelo Martínez García, Scenic and Props Designer (Manhatta, The Wind and The Rain). Casting by Sujotta Pace, CSA + Erica A. Hart, CSA.
Access cast headshots and full bios here: Headshots & Bios
About National Black Theatre
Founded in 1968 by Dr. Barbara Ann Teer, an award-winning performer, director, visionary entrepreneur, and champion of the Black Arts Movement, National Black Theatre (NBT) is a Tony and Emmy-nominated institution with a groundbreaking legacy: the country’s first revenue-generating Black art complex, the longest continually run Black theater in New York City, and one of the oldest theaters founded and consistently operated by a woman of color. Since its inception, NBT has invested over $10 million in 350+ original works by Black artists and earned accolades including a Tony and Emmy nominations, NYTimes Critics’ Picks, Obie Awards, Lortel Awards, Audelco Awards, and a Drama Desk nomination. NBT is also part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and is a part of the National Portrait Gallery.
More than five decades later, NBT’s mission endures. Today, it expands that vision to educate, enrich, entertain, empower, and spark national dialogue around the needed narrative change to shift the impact and complexity surrounding social justice topics within our society. In 2023, NBT made Broadway history with the transfer and co-production of James Ijames’s Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony-nominated FAT HAM, becoming only the third Black theatre company ever to do so. The following season, NBT won its first Tony Award for the revival of Purlie Victorious.
Grounded in the principles of ownership, self-determination, and human transformation, NBT continues to champion Black artists and break new ground, including a partnership with the National Black Theatre of Sweden. Its achievements have secured its place at the forefront of theatre innovation and advocacy, leveraging its voice for sector-wide reform, local policy, and funding equity. NBT is an AEA Equity house and a proud member of Theatre Communications Group, A.R.T./New York, Harlem Arts Alliance, and the Coalition of Theatres of Color.
Under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer Sade Lythcott, daughter of NBT’s founder, and Executive Artistic Director Jonathan McCrory, NBT remains rooted in its Liberationist spirit, alive to the pulse of the present, and committed to catalyzing a collective creative future.
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