Lou Bellamy News

Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, launches the Legacy Leaders of Color Video Project (LLCVP). Working with MOPED, a video production company, and with support from Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, TCG filmed a series of interviews chronicling the stories of founding leaders of theatres of color.

Due to a high demand for tickets, Penumbra Theatre will be extending its run of Jitney through Sunday, November 13, 2016. Directed by Lou Bellamy and featuring an all-star cast of company members and Wilson veterans, Penumbra Theatre's production of Jitney has been met with critical acclaim from both press and audiences alike.

Milwaukee Rep closes a successful season in sublime style staging a production of August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize winning play Fences on the Quadracci Powerhouse stage. Lou Bellamy, who worked extensively with the acclaimed African-American playwright at St. Paul, Minnesota's Penumbra Theatre Company, directed the spellbinding Rep performance. On a stunning, realistic set courtesy of Vicki Smith, the Pittsburgh brownstone with a comfortable wood porch, “lays in the lap of the audience on the thrust stage” according to the Rep In Depth, and places Wilson's flawed characters directly near the seats of the theatergoers, Seats where Wilson's portrait of humanity, seen through the African American experience, exposes compassion and struggle.   

Milwaukee Repertory Theatre's 2015/16 season comes to a close with August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play FENCES. The production, which is a co-production with Arizona Theatre Company and Indiana Repertory Theatre, is helmed by legendary American theater director Lou Bellamy and features an all-star cast. FENCES plays in the Quadracci Powerhouse from tonight, April 26, through May 22, with Opening Night today, April 29. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Milwaukee Repertory Theatre's 2015/16 season comes to a close with August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play FENCES. The production, which is a co-production with Arizona Theatre Company and Indiana Repertory Theatre, is helmed by legendary American theater director Lou Bellamy and features an all-star cast. FENCES plays in the Quadracci Powerhouse from tonight, April 26, through May 22, with Opening Night on Friday, April 29. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

In one of those strange theater-going coincidences, the night after I saw two one-act plays at the Guthrie, I attended opening night of Penumbra's presentation of two one-act plays. Both paired plays by different playwrights linked by a common theme. But unlike the theater comedies THE CRITIC and THE REAL INSPECTOR HOUND, THE DUTCHMAN and THE OWL ANSWERS are dense and meaty dramas dealing with heavy issues. They might not make you laugh (except, occasionally, uncomfortably), but they will definitely make you think. Written in the '60s as part of the Black Arts Movement, these plays take an unforgiving look at the racism, sexism, and classism of the day, that still have implications in today's world. A stellar ensemble cast and top-notch production design tie the two very different plays together and highlight the playwrights' messages. Though they are not easy to watch and I can't say I understood everything that was going on, I certainly came away with much to chew on, and a greater understanding of our shared history. Which is pretty much a given at Penumbra Theatre.

When discussing August Wilson's Pulitzer-Prize and Tony Award winning play, Fences, it is most applicable to say that the Arizona Theatre Company's cast hits this poignant performance out of the park.

Arizona Theatre Company celebrates the new year with a great American classic in August Wilson's stunning, Pulitzer-Prize winning play, Fences. A vivid, heartfelt exploration of the African-American experience set in the 1950's, the story remains strikingly relevant today.  Performances begin at the Herberger Theater Center, 222 E. Monroe, on Friday, Feb. 11 and continue through Sunday, Feb. 28. I. Michael and Beth Kasser are Arizona Theatre Company's 2015-16 Season Sponsors. The Stonewall Foundation is the Production Sponsor.

Friends, it's been a rough week. With devastating news here at home (the Children's Theatre lawsuit) and around the country (yet another senseless and horrific mass shooting, this time in San Bernadino, CA), on top of all the other painful things we've been dealing with lately, it's almost more than anyone can take. It was under this cloud that I saw Penumbra Theatre's annual production of BLACK NATIVITY for the first time. Yes, even though this is their 28th year, I've never seen BLACK NATIVITY before. I'm not sure how that happened, but this was the perfect time to first experience this truly joyful celebration. The story, the music, the dancing, the feeling of joy and faith and togetherness in that room, was a balm to my soul and did much to restore my faith in humanity. Maybe in times like this, the first and best response is to 'be the light,' and let that light lead us into appropriate action to heal the wounds of society and prevent things like what happened this week from happening again (and again and again) in the future.

The Old Globe presents William Shakespeare's delightful and romantic Twelfth Night, directed by Rebecca Taichman, whose production of the time-traveling Time and the Conways fascinated audiences last April, as part of the 2015 Summer Shakespeare Festival. The Old Globe engagement runs through July 26, 2015, with opening night tonight, June 27 at 8:00 p.m., in the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre.

Single tickets for Arizona Theatre Company's 49th season go on sale in Phoenix beginning June 15.  All shows will be performed at the Herberger Theater Center, 222 E. Monroe.

The complete cast and creative team have been announced for The Old Globe production of William Shakespeare's delightful and romantic Twelfth Night. Rebecca Taichman, whose production of the time-traveling Time and the Conways fascinated audiences last April, is back to direct the first show of the 2015 Summer Shakespeare Festival. The Old Globe engagement will begin performances on June 21 and run through July 26, 2015, with opening night on Saturday, June 27 at 8:00 p.m., in the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre.

Milwaukee Repertory Theater announces directors, creative teams, and initial casting for 2015/16, a season featuring a Tony Award-winning musical, a play by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Milwaukee playwright Ayad Akthar, and three world premieres.

Artistic Director Mark Clements announced Milwaukee Repertory Theater's 2015/16 Season last night to an enthusiastic group of Rep Subscribers and Donors.

Artistic Director Mark Clements announced Milwaukee Repertory Theater's 2015/16 Season this evening to an enthusiastic group of Rep Subscribers and Donors.

Arizona Theatre Company's 2015-16 season brings the return of master entertainer Hershey Felder, a mind-bending new comedy from the producer of HBO's Real Time With Bill Maher, the provocative 2013 Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play, an August Wilson masterpiece, John Steinbeck's classic American tale Of Mice and Men and a new musical from Stephen Schwartz of Wicked and Godspell fame.

In BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK, now playing at Penumbra Theatre as part of their 'Womansong' season, the title character is a black actress in 1930s Hollywood who gets her big break playing a loyal slave in an antebellum Southern melodrama. She imbues the stereotypical role with as much humanity and depth as possible, and so begins a long and successful career, until she mysteriously disappears from the spotlight. Vera is a controversial figure because on the one hand her characters perpetuate the stereotypes seen in movies, but on the other hand she makes her characters as real as possible and has built a successful career for herself and opened doors for black actors in Hollywood. The play examines these issues in a funny, entertaining, innovative way, jumping across time and using video of Vera's first movie.

The 10th Anniversary Ivey Awards announced today that Mu Performing Arts Artistic Director Randy Reyes will return as event co-host along with new co-host actor-singer Christina Baldwin, 'a staple in the Twin Cities theater community' (Minnesota Original).

For all his hard work and talent, Nat 'King' Cole was treated to segregated concert halls, burning crosses and slurs. We know what he did do. We know what he didn't do (ask the NAACP). We know Kimye's wedding menu. But we don't know Nat 'King' Cole. This is what I WISH YOU LOVE seeks. To push through the mystique of this enigmatic performer to discover the flesh and blood underneath. I had the privilege of speaking with actor Dennis Spears, Mr. Cole himself.