'... About 26 years ago, I was in New York playing a gig at Nel's on 14thStreet. Late night, the 5 Train would stop running and you would have to catch a shuttle from 180thStreet, which ran really infrequently, so I decided to catch the 4 Train uptown to Gun Hill Road and walked down to the corner of Bainbridge and Gun Hill to catch the BX 28 (which used to be the BX 15). So here it was, about 3:00 in the morning and I'm standing across the street from Montefiore Hospital, watching a Black squirrel dart in and out of the sparse shrubs next to the building, when suddenly, an old man popped out from behind the parking garage, just behind the bus shelter where I was standing. The man was about 5'5', wearing slacks, a collared shirt, fall coat and a Totes hat. In his left hand, he carried two shopping bags stuffed with collard greens. There was something in the way he walked... a rather slew-footed stride, that told me he was from the islands.'
Steppenwolf Theatre Company will host two bold visiting companies as part of LookOut, a year-round series that presents the work of artists and companies across genre and form. Steppenwolf's 1700 Theatre will be the home to two productions from impressive Chicago storefront theatres next year: First Floor Theater and Definition Theatre.
The Town Hall today announced the inaugural Lena Horne Prize for Artists Creating Social Impact, the first major entertainment award to be named after a woman of color, honoring excellence at the intersection of arts and activism. The award, named after the celebrated actress, singer and activist Lena Horne, will recognize today's leading artists that are using their platform to promote awareness and create social change, and will be presented to the soon-to-be-announced recipient at an event at The Town Hall, a national historic landmark, in February 2020. The recipient of the Lena Horne Prize was selected by an advisory board that includes Lena Horne's daughter Gail Lumet Buckley, as well as an esteemed list of entertainers and philanthropists including Harry Belafonte, Billy Porter, Judy Collins, Deesha Dyer, Roxane Gay, Bob Santelli, Bruce Cohen, Jose Antonio Vargas, and more. The recipient will receive a $100,000 donation to be directed to a charity of their choice.
Two-time Tony Award and two-time Olivier Award winner Patti LuPone has donated a portion from her personal archive to Columbia University's Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Henry Lombino and Those Guilty Creatures are thrilled to announce a new production of DUTCHMAN by LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka will play at Access Theater (380 Broadway) for three performances on November 7, 8, and 9 at 8:00pm.
Art House Productions has announced the 2019-2020 cohort of its INKubator Program. INKubator is a year-long generative process for a select group of 6 playwrights in residence at Art House Productions. This year's playwrights are Kev Berry, J. Julian Christopher, Alyssa Haddad, Christopher-Rashee Stevenson, Leila Teitelman, and Colin Waitt.
Drawing tense parallels between Black Lives Matter and the Civil Rights Movement, Amiri Baraka's Dutchman asks how much change, if any, has occurred? Dutchman challenges the progress of racial equality in the last 50 years, revealing contemporary race relations.
Tempe Center for the Arts kicks off its 2019-20 TCA Presents season with the regional premiere of DUTCHMAN, an emotionally fraught and incendiary play, by LeRoi Jones / Amiri Baraka, Oct. 4a?"19, 2019.
National Sawdust curator and Grammy-winning writer, actor, and artist Black Thought (Tariq Trotter) will broaden the scope of new music and hip hop curations by programming four multimedia events at the performing arts institution in Williamsburg, Brooklyn from October 7 a?" 10.
The 2019 National Black Theatre Festival has ended with memories of grandeur and spectacular stage plays. Here is my review of the productions I attended.
A Noise Within (ANW) is proud to announce the return of its Words Within Resident Artist Reading Festival from July 26 through July 28, 2019. ANW will partner with three Los Angeles-based theatre companies, Lower Depth Theatre Ensemble, East West Players, and Latino Theater Company, for the free reading festival, titled inVision. A Noise Within and its festival partners will produce eight staged readings over the course of three days at ANW's East Pasadena campus. This is the second reading festival ANW has produced. ANW's first reading festival, The American Dream, launched the classic repertory theatre company's 25th anniversary season when it premiered in summer 2016. The festival is an extension of ANW's popular Words Within reading series, which began over 10 years ago and to date has produced 46 staged reading performances by the company's resident artists.
Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour is a playwright with a difference. His work requires no rehearsals and no preparation - just a sealed envelope and a different actor each night on hand to read a script for the very first time.
Tempe Center for the Arts (TCA) is venturing into an exciting, collaborative approach to subscription ticket sales this season. A true partnership with local presenters, the Mix & Match program saves patrons 25% on tickets and gives them the flexibility to choose from TCA 19-20 Season AND Resident Artist offerings. "We are grateful for the relationships we have with our resident companies and the support of the arts community. Collectively, our goal is to create equity by providing diverse, inclusive and accessible art to the Tempe community," says Ralph Remington, Tempe Center for the Arts' Producing Artistic Director and Deputy Director for Tempe Arts & Culture.
Tempe Center for the Arts (TCA) is venturing into an exciting, collaborative approach to subscription ticket sales this season. A true partnership with local presenters, the Mix & Match program saves patrons 25% on tickets and gives them the flexibility to choose from TCA 19-20 Season AND Resident Artist offerings. 'We are grateful for the relationships we have with our resident companies and the support of the arts community. Collectively, our goal is to create equity by providing diverse, inclusive and accessible art to the Tempe community,' says Ralph Remington, Tempe Center for the Arts' Producing Artistic Director and Deputy Director for Tempe Arts & Culture.
Odyssey Theatre Ensemble has announced "Circa'69!" an 18-month retrospective beginning in June, 2019 that will celebrate its founding, 50 years ago, by artistic director Ron Sossi, who has remained steadily at the helm since the company's first production in 1969.
"There's probably no frame wide enough to encompass the creative output of the pianist Vijay Iyer," The New York Times observed. His Ph.D. in cognitive science from UC Berkeley is just the start. He's been recognized as a bona fide "genius" by DownBeat magazine and was named by GQ India as one of the 50 most influential Indians. The jazz pianist is also a prolific recording artist and his quintet will play the final Jazz Club performances of The Soraya's 2018/19 season on May 10 and 11.
Harvey Williams, Founder and Executive Director of KC Melting Pot Theatre (KCMPT) in Kansas City announced that Dr. Nicole Hodges Persley has been appointed as Artistic Director. After three years as Associate Artistic Director, Hodges Persley has helped to position KCMPT as a theater company to watch in the Kansas City regional theater landscape. Under her creative influence, the company has produced timely and thought-provoking shows such as the revivals of Angelina W. Grimke's 1916 anti-lynching play Rachel and Amiri Baraka's 1964 Obie award-winning play Dutchman as well as cutting edge new American voices such as Pulitzer Prize winner Dominique Morriseau and emerging playwright Lewis J. Morrow. Hodges Persley draws season inspiration from an eclectic array of sources from historic social and arts movements to #Black Lives Matter and African American music genres.
