American Negro Theatre News

Lyric Hammersmith Theatre has announced the full cast and creative team for the UK premiere of Alice Childress’ Wedding Band:  A Love/Hate Story in Black and White, directed by Stage Debut Award winner Monique Touko, who returns to the Lyric after the smash-hit production of School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play. 

Actor and Producer Malik Yoba and Playwright David Heron are celebrating another successful staged reading production of Heron’s award winning courtroom drama Against His Will, presented at City Center Stage II on Monday, November 13. Check out photos and video clips from the event here!

The Lyric Hammersmith Theatre has announced its Spring/Summer 2024 Season, opening April 2024 with Minority Report. Learn more about the full season and how to get tickets here!

Hartford Stage has announced the cast and creative team of the relevant revival of Alice Childress' watershed play Trouble in Mind. A powerful backstage drama-comedy that's sure to resonate with audiences today as it did in the 1950s, Trouble in Mind will run May 25 through June 18 at Hartford Stage in downtown Hartford, CT.

Classic Stage Company has announced complete programming for their 2023-2024 Season. See what shows are in the lineup, who is starring, how to purchase tickets, and more!

TimeLine Theatre Company has announced he addition of two matinees to the current run of the company’s critically acclaimed revival of Trouble in Mind on Thursday, December 8, and Thursday, December 15, at 2 p.m.

The Icon Tribute comes on the heels of the documentary film Sidney, which had its world premiere during a Gala Presentation at the Toronto International Film Festival and has since won Best Biographical Documentary at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards while also receiving nominations for Best Director and Best Biographical Documentary.

Academy Museum presents DOROTHY DANDDRIGE AND RUBY DEE: A SHARED CENTENNIAL, November 3-25. Presented in conjunction with Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898–1971on view through April 9, 2023.  

TimeLine Theatre Company’s 2022-23 season will continue this fall with the landmark classic Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress, directed by TimeLine Company Member Ron OJ Parson, running November 2 – December 18, 2022.

Philadelphia Artists’ Collective (PAC) will launch their 12th season with a production of Wine in the Wilderness by Alice Childress, performed at Poth Brewery. Presented in collaboration with TheBlackBestFriend as part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, the show will run for a limited engagement from September 22 through October 9, 2022. 

The Dramatists Guild of America has announced further recipients for their 2022 Awards. The Awards for both 2021 and 2022 recipients will be presented at Joe’s Pub on Monday, July 25, 2022.

Concord Theatricals has announced that it has secured exclusive worldwide English language stage licensing rights to Alice Childress’ Trouble in Mind for its Samuel French imprint.

After celebrating its 25th Anniversary in residence at Theater Wit—a season that featured the world premiere, acclaimed hit Relentless, which went on to an extended run at Goodman Theatre—the company will return to its longtime home in Chicago’s Lakeview East neighborhood, located at 615 W. Wellington Avenue, for three productions.

To commemorate the life of prolific actor, director and cultural icon Sidney Poitier, the Committee of Theatre Owners will dim the lights of Broadway theatres in New York for one minute on Wednesday, January 19 at exactly 7:45PM.

The legendary life of Academy Award-winning actor, filmmaker, activist and human-rights trailblazer Sidney Poitier set to be a new Broadway play produced by Ron Gillyard (Born for This, Mr. Soul); Poitier's daughter, filmmaker Anika Poitier; and Barry Krost. 

The Lewis Center for the Arts' Program in Theater at Princeton University will present A Past Becomes a Heritage: The Negro Units of the Federal Theatre Project, an evening of play readings and a panel discussion in collaboration with New York City-based collective CLASSIX, on March 30 at 7:30 p.m.

Roundabout Theatre Company just announced that the current theatrical season will resume in Spring 2021, and has added the Broadway debut of Alice Childress's Trouble in Mind, directed by Charles Randolph-Wright, to its roster of upcoming shows. Childress was a Founding Member of the American Negro Theatre and the first African-American woman to be produced professionally in New York (Gold Through The Trees in 1952); Randolph-Wright is a celebrated director and writer whose play Blue had an acclaimed run at Roundabout in 2001. Trouble in Mind will premiere on Broadway at the American Airlines Theatre in Winter 2021/22.

We've rounded up 10 MORE books about Black theatre to read and educate yourself while in quarantine. 

The Wilma Theater has announced its 2019-2020 Season, featuring a lineup of new and innovative plays from some of the most exciting emerging voices in the field of theater. The season begins with a limited run of a world premiere stage adaptation of Etel Adnan's famous poem There, which will be co-presented with FringeArts in the 2019 Fringe Festival, co-created by Wilma Artistic Director Blanka Zizka and world-renowned visual artist Rosa Barba.

Producer Ken Davenport (Once on This Island, Spring Awakening) has obtained the Broadway stage rights to the life story of the great American singer, songwriter, actor and activist, Harry Belafonte.