Renee Rivon News

The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts will continue to expand its ExxonMobil Discovery Series to serve an estimated 20,000 students in the 2024-25 season, doubling the number of performances previously offered.

Season highlights include a new Global Voices Music Series celebrating traditions from around the world and a limited engagement with illusionist Scott Silven that will transform the Eldorado Ballroom into an immersive Scottish Victorian dinner theater.

Loft Ensemble in North Hollywood is presenting the world premiere of Power to the Queendom by ShaWanna Renee Rivon. Check out photos here!

Loft Ensemble in North Hollywood has announced its next production in Sawyer’s Playhouse, the world premiere of Power to the Queendom by ShaWanna Renee Rivon. 

Loft Ensemble in North Hollywood has announced its 11th anniversary season. The slate of plays, chosen by the company’s member-elected artistic committee, represent a desire to celebrate new voices while re-examining the fundamentals of theatrical storytelling. Learn more about the lineup here!

Do you ever watch a film and think about what you do in the conflict? Does your concept of that conflict change? How would you react if you were in Thano's snap or your father said you couldn't interact with the human world because you live underwater? Now add those ideas and mix them with thoughts of race. These contemplations are at the heart of Jackie Sibblies Drury's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Fairview, which is currently open at 4th Wall Theatre Co. 

4th Wall Theatre's production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece, FAIRVIEW runs through June 17, 2023. FAIRVIEW, which ran at Theatre for a New Audience in NYC to SOLD OUT audiences and with multiple extensions can FINALLY be seen right here in Houston, TX at the home for 'Extraordinary performance, up close,' 4th Wall Theatre Company. Check out production photos here!

4th Wall Theatre will close its 2022-2023 season with the Pulitzer Prize winning masterpiece, FAIRVIEW from May 26 – June 17, 2023.

The School of Theatre & Dance at the Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts at the University of Houston has announced its 2022-23 season. Featuring 10 productions, the season promises to be one of the school's most ambitious in recent memory.

Where to begin to explain Alric Davis' semi-autobiographical play Bashful, and the Noize. Equal parts Michael R. Jackson's A Strange Loop, Pasek and Paul's Dear Evan Hansen, and Simon Stephens A Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Davis' play is an amalgamation of storylines that are equal parts celebratory of black American life, but also is a play that needs some improvement. While I know this has been a 9 year journey for young Davis, this play has the guts to one day truly be outstanding. There is some polishing that can be done to have the play truly excel and eventually become as iconic and discussed as James Ijames Fat Ham, or Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Gloria.

With the classic comic Boom! and Pow!, Stages continues its excellent season with Inda Craig-Galvain's Black Super Hero Magic Mama. Hot off the heels of the epic jukebox musical, You Are Cordially... by ShaWanna Renee Rivon, Black Super Hero Magic Mama truly represents the magnificence of Houston theatre. 

The Alley Theatre announces the line-up for the 2022 Alley All New Festival, June 16 - June 26, 2022. The Festival will feature five new plays including readings, workshop performances, and an early draft preview. Festival playwrights include Monet Hurst-Mendoza, Austin-based Kirk Lynn completing a Thornton Wilder work, Kemp Powers, Don X. Nguyen, and Alley commissioned artist and Houstonian ShaWanna Renee Rivon. 

The story goes that Stages staff member, Eboni Bell Darcy, was part of the discussion for the theater's reopening season. Ideas evidently floated around in the zoom call. It was Eboni's idea for Stages to commission their own jukebox musical. This excellent idea led to the creation of ShaWanna Renee Rivon's YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO SIT IN. One would think that a musical highlighting Houston's generational social justice problems would be what some call a 'downer.' Instead, Rivon's creation has become, at least for me, the crowning achievement of the 21-22 Houston theater season.

This spring, Brendan Bourque-Sheil's story of a woman dealing with life's impossible changes is one of Houston's best plays. Set in the fictional town of Buxtop, Texas, the protagonist, Hallie (Susan Koozin), wakes up after an overdose and the resultant story is about how a person copes with almost impossible odds.

The annual tradition of STAGES THEATRE's Christmas PANTO comes roaring back with a jolly great time in Shawanna Renee Rivon's and Elizabeth A.M. Keel's PANTO LITTLE MERMAID. Set in the beach town of Galveston, TX, the story is a great time for all as audience members are integral parts of the production.

The Catastrophic Theatre presents the premiere of Historic Third Ward Virtual Tour created by Houston playwright, ShaWanna Renee Rivon. The tour is a virtual historical documentary: a collection of interviews, historical information, and storytelling by artists, activists, and community elders. To experience the tour, one does not even need to leave the comfort of their own home; the entire project can be accessed online and will be available to audiences outside Greater Houston.

Playwright José Rivera will be the subject of a career tribute during the 19th annual Black and Latino Playwrights Celebration, Aug. 30-Sept. 5 at Texas State University.

Stages' 2021-2022 Season will resume in-person performances at their new campus, The Gordy, this October! The 2021-2022 Season celebrates comedies, musicals, and various joyful projects providing an opportunity to explore and experience humanity from many different perspectives.

 The Alley Theatre will present a variety of contemporary plays as a part of the Alley’s Spring 2021 Digital Season. Written by Alley All New alumni and a Houston-based author, the plays include El Chuco Town Forever by Isaac Gómez (April 2 – May 2, 2021), Man. Kind. by Don X. Nguyen (April 9 – May 9, 2021), and more.

The Alley Theatre has announced the cancellation of all in-person performances of the 2020-21 season. The following shows are affected by the cancellation: Born with Teeth by Liz Duffy Adams (January 22 – February 14, 2021), Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (March 5 – 28, 2021), and more.