Cheryl L. West News

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer will run through April 2, 2023 at Lucie Stern Theatre. Greta Oglesby, who starred in last season’s critically acclaimed Gem of the Ocean, reunites with TheatreWorks Artistic Director Tim Bond, who will direct this stirring musical play about the famed civil rights activist. Check out production photos here!

BroadwayWorld speaks with acclaimed actor Greta Oglesby about playing a civil rights icon in Cheryl L. West's 'Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer' running at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley through April 2.

Ford's Theatre Society has announced that Sheldon Epps will be joining the creative team of the musical SHOUT SISTER SHOUT! as the Production Supervisor.

Inspired by Gayle F. Wald's book Shout, Sister, Shout!, this new musical tells the story of Sister Rosetta Tharp-one of America's most influential rock, R&B and gospel crossover singers and guitarists. Ambitious, courageous and uncompromisingly public, Tharpe became a pioneer of the women's movement for racial and sexual equality and musical legend who redefined the national and international music scene in the 1930s and 40s and beyond. Dive into Cheryl L. West's spirited, authentic and emotionally charged story about a charismatic music forerunner and the authentic roots of rock & roll.

Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO of the Hermitage Artist Retreat, announced that composer and theater artist Imani Uzuri has been selected as the third recipient of the Hermitage Major Theater Award.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley will present Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer, starring award-winning actor Greta Oglesby in the title role. Oglesby reunites with TheatreWorks Artistic Director Tim Bond, who will direct this stirring musical play about the famed civil rights activist.

The August Wilson African American Cultural Center, City Theatre Company, and DEMASKUS Theater Collective will co-present the story of voting-rights icon Fannie Lou Hamer in the Pittsburgh premiere of FANNIE: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer by Cheryl L. West.

Seattle Rep has announced the complete cast and creative team for the upcoming world-premiere holiday production, Mr. Dickens and His Carol to be directed by Braden Abraham, who recently announced that this will be his last production as the theater's Artistic Director.

After 20 years with the company, Artistic Director Braden Abraham will depart Seattle Rep this winter to join Writers Theatre in Chicago as their new Artistic Director. 

Nationally-recognized as one of the nation's leading producers of new works of theatre for young people and their families, The Coterie Theatre announces its 44th Season will entertain, engage, and serve as memorable experiences that all generations of the family can share.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley announced its 52nd season, featuring six plays and musicals to be presented November 2022 through August 2023. Three of the season's productions will be mounted at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, and three will be staged at Palo Alto's Lucie Stern Theatre. Subscriptions are now available; single tickets will be available in the coming months at TheatreWorks.org.

Ford’s Theatre has announced the Ford’s Theatre 2022-2023 season will include Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful, directed by Michael Wilson and featuring Nancy Robinette, Tom Story and Kimberly Gilbert; the return of the music-filled full stage production of A Christmas Carol with Craig Wallace reprising the role of Ebenezer Scrooge, and more.

Two adjustments to the season schedule at Goodman Theatre shifts the 2021/2022 “Homecoming” Season line-up in the months ahead. The world-premiere production of Swing State by Rebecca Gilman directed by Robert Falls, previously announced for this spring, has been repositioned as this fall’s Owen Theatre opener.

Metro Theater Company has announced jazz legend Denise Thimes will star as Nana in the MTC's next 2021/22 Season production, the musical Last Stop on Market Street. Thimes, who began her career as a stage actress before launching her international career as a jazz sensation, marks her return to the theatrical stage with this production.

Children's Theatre Company has announced the cast and creative team for the CTC commissioned world premiere production of Something Happened in Our Town, written by Cheryl L. West (Broadway's Play On!, Last Stop on Market Street, Akeelah and the Bee) and directed by Timothy Douglas (Round House, The Kennedy Center, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Great Theatre of China, and more).

First Stage, one of the nation’s leading theaters for young  people and families, returns to live performances this January with a heartwarming production  of THE WATSONS GO TO BIRMINGHAM – 1963 at the Marcus Center’s Todd Wehr Theater. 

Dear Readers, before I talk about the current Seattle Rep production of Cheryl L. West’s, “Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer” I need to step up on my soapbox for a minute. And if what I’m about to talk about offends, then something tells me you wouldn’t want to see the show anyway, so you can just move on. But I need to address the lack of advance knowledge I had about Fannie Lou Hamer and the struggle for black people to get to vote in this country. A struggle that sadly still exists today, making this show quite timely. But the fact that this stain on our history, among others, are not readily taught in our schools is appalling and why the inclusion of Critical Race Theory needs to be included in our curriculum. We’re more than happy to talk about the atrocities of other countries but when it comes to our own, we look the other way. And I doubt I was the only one last night who wasn’t familiar with the works of Hamer and the horrors she endured. Something we all should think about. OK, off the soapbox, let’s talk about Fannie.

 First Stage will return to live performances this January with a heartwarming production of THE WATSONS GO TO BIRMINGHAM - 1963 at the Marcus Center's Todd Wehr Theater.

Happy New Year! Seattle Rep is thrilled to be preparing for their first production of 2022, Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer, a play with music by award-winning local playwright Cheryl L. West (Pullman Porter Blues, Shout Sister Shout!), and directed by Goodman Theatre Artistic Associate Henry Godinez.

Tony Award-winner Robert Falls marks 35 years as Goodman Artistic Director—a position from which he will step down at season’s end—by directing the world premiere of Rebecca Gilman’s Swing State, his sixth play by his longtime collaborator, in the Owen Theatre.