Debbie Allen News

Steppenwolf Theatre Company welcomes renowned directors Phylicia Rashad and Jess McLeod to their highly anticipated 2023/24 season. Get the latest updates and insights into the exciting additions to this acclaimed theater company's lineup.

Award-winning performer Melba Moore will be honored on August 10, with the 2,760th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star will be unveiled at 1645 Vine Street near the historic corner of Hollywood & Vine. Moore will be awarded her star in the category of Live Theatre/Live Performance.

Get all the details about the U.S. opening of AMERICA'S VOICES AGAINST APARTHEID at the prestigious Kennedy Center. Find out when and where this powerful event will be taking place.

The International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD) announces Natasha R. Moreland Spears as their new Co-Executive Director, ushering in a new era of leadership. Learn more about the IABD's exciting future under the joint leadership of Spears and Omar Ingram.

Wendie Malick and Pamela Adlon are set to host Echoes in the Forest, a gala fundraising event for Will GeerTheatricum Botanicum in celebration of the company’s 50th anniversary summer season. 

In FETCH CLAY, MAKE MAN, Will Power investigates the friendship as a fascinating dual study in individual character and cultural identity. Under Debbie Allen’s rocking direction at the Douglas, the play is as exciting as it is thoughtful.  THE BEAR’s Edwin Lee Gibson and Ray Fisher act the daylights out of it.

Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts will present sweeping array of bold and diverse programming for the fall/winter of its 2023/2024 Season.

Will Power’s Fetch Clay, Make Man (a co-production of Center Theatre Group and The SpringHill Company) will open June 18, 2023, at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Debbie Allen, in her CTG directorial debut, directs this account of the unlikely (but real life) friendship between the great Cassius Clay and the controversial Stepin Fetchit; with the cast of Ray Fisher, Edwin Lee Gibson, Wilkie Ferguson II, Alexis Floyd and Bruce Nozick. I managed to spar with Will over a few behind-the-scenes queries.

YoungArts, the national foundation for the advancement of artists, is now accepting applications for its prestigious annual competition.

Known for its Broadway-caliber productions, Musical Theatre West (MTW), Long Beach’s premier theatre company, will debut its summer musical, The Wizard Of Oz.

SUMMER: The Donna Summer Musical begins rehearsals and will run at The Gateway Playhouse from June 16 – July 16, 2023, to continue the 74th season.

2022 Golden Globe nominee and Obie Award winner Edwin Lee Gibson (The Bear) will star as Stephin Fetchit (a stage name for Lincoln Perry) in Will Power's Fetch Clay, Make Man at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City, California via the Centre Theatre Group and LeBron James' The SpringHill Company.

Drama Desk nominee Ray Fisher will put his gloves on again to play the role of heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali in Will Power’s “Fetch Clay, Make Man,” after previously performing the role Off-Broadway.

Debbie Allen, critically acclaimed director, producer, and choreographer will be a special guest at upcoming, 30th annual 'Sista's Are Doin' It For Themselves' Short Film Showcase Opening Night Celebration, May 19th at 7:30pm.

Center Theatre Group will work alongside The SpringHill Company’s Emmy Award-winning studio team to bring Will Power’s “Fetch Clay, Make Man” to the Kirk Douglas Theatre in June. Learn how to purchase tickets!

Boston Conservatory at Berklee Interim Executive Director Lucinda Carver will present an honorary doctorate in person to acclaimed concert pianist Awadagin Pratt and virtually to Emmy-, Grammy-, and Tony-winning actress, singer, author, and producer Cynthia Erivo at the Conservatory's commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 13.

New Federal Theatre will present 'Telling Tales Out of School,' a new play by Wesley Brown, from May 2 to 7 as a work in progress at Castillo Theatre/ASP.

It was a like coming home with Chita Rivera full circle and approaching a kind of comfortable closure when I attended the Signature Theatre’s Sondheim Award Gala 2023 honoring the Broadway legend Chita Rivera at the Italian Embassy in Washington. DC.  The iconic legend of theatrical music and dance (What a dancer she is!) was feted with the prestigious award from Signature Theatre and a warm response from a very “Chita-friendly” roster of performers and an audience of patrons, fans and supporters. (Rivera has also won about every award in the book including two Tony Awards, a special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Kennedy Center Honor).

 On Thursday, May 4, 2023 at 7:30pm and Saturday, May 6, 2023 at 8:00pm, The Cleveland Orchestra will present the world premiere of flutist, composer, and producer Allison Loggins-Hull’s Can You See? at Mandel Concert Hall in Severance Music Center.