Wren T. Brown News

Ebony Repertory Theatre will present 2021 Pulitzer Prize Finalist Zora Howard’s STEW as its first production of 2024. 

Ebony Repertory Theatre will present 2021 Pulitzer Prize Finalist Zora Howard's STEW as its first production of 2024. See who is starring, and learn how to purchase tickets.

Billie Holiday is a superstar jazz musician though often her tremendous talent is sometimes eclipsed by the more sensational exploits of her life. LADY DAY AT EMERSON’S BAR AND GRILL, now playing at Cygnet Theatre through February 18th, invites you to a cozy neighborhood bar, to enjoy the vocal stylings of the marvelous Lady Day in 1959 and learn more about her life in this intimate portrait of a gifted jazz musician.

Cygnet Theatre has revealed the cast and creative team ofLady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill by Lanie Robertson.

Check out production photos from Rubicon Theatre's production of THE WORLD GOES ‘ROUND, running through December 23, here!

Rubicon Theatre Company will present 'THE WORLD GOES 'ROUND,' a Kander & Ebb Musical Revue directed by Wren T. Brown. Get all the details about the opening night on December 9th at the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura!

freeFall Theatre Company’s 2023/2024 season opens with an all-new musical revue that celebrates the hits of such legendary artists as The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Jackie Wilson and many others.

freeFall Theatre Company's 2023/2024 season opens with an all-new play with music written by and starring Rose Weaver (freeFall debut) as the one and only Ethel Waters.

Cygnet Theatre has announced its full line up for the 2023/2024 Season. The organization's 20th Anniversary Season will also be its last full season in Old Town before the milestone move to the ARTS DISTRICT Liberty Station, whose projected opening is in 2025. The 20th season features all musicals as a way to capture the theatre's past, present and future in a celebratory way.

Ebony Repertory Theatre (ERT) will begin their 15th anniversary season with the Tony Award winning Ain’t Misbehavin’ opening May 4, 2023.  ERT’s producing artistic director Wren T. Brown directs the cast of Yvette Cason, Wilkie Ferguson III, Connie Jackson, Marty Austin Lamar and Natalie Wachen. Wren found some time from his many ERT duties to answer a few of my queries.

Ebony Repertory Theatre will present the Tony Award-winning musical AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ as its 15th Anniversary Season Opening Production. 

The latest standings as of Monday, December 19th, have been released for the 2022 BroadwayWorld Tampa Awards! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favorites.

The latest standings as of Monday, December 12th, have been released for the 2022 BroadwayWorld Tampa Awards! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favorites.

The latest standings as of Monday, December 5th, have been released for the 2022 BroadwayWorld Tampa Awards! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favorites.

Rubicon Theatre Company has released production photos for the fifth show of its 2022-2023 “Welcome Home” season, the 1978 Tony Award-winning musical celebration, AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’, featuring the music of Thomas “Fats” Waller, conceived by Murray Horwitz & Richard Maltby, Jr., musical direction by William Foster McDaniel, choreography by Dominique Kelley and directed by Wren T. Brown.

The first live standings have been announced for the 2022 BroadwayWorld Tampa Awards! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favorites.

Just in time for the holidays, Rubicon Theatre Company has announced the fifth show of its 2022-2023 “Welcome Home” season, the 1978 Tony Award-winning musical celebration, AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’.

Subscriptions and single tickets are now on sale for freeFall's 2022/2023 season. Two world premieres, the return of a holiday favorite, A Sherlock Holmes adventure, A Neil Simon romantic comedy and an exciting co-production with our friends at Ebony Rep in Los Angeles makes up just some of the exciting programming Tampa Bay audiences can experience for as low as $29 a month.

Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill is a play with music written by Lanie Robertson and this production is directed by Wren T. Brown. The musical premiered in 1986 in Atlanta, Georgia and its story recounts some events of Billie Holiday’s life leading up to this performance at Emerson’s four months shy of her death in 1959. Emerson’s is a small bar in South Philadelphia and the time is a midnight performance by Lady Day. Set to the backdrop of a piano center stage and a few cocktail tables around the space, we relive some events of Ms. Holiday’s life as told through stories found deep in her memory but living on the surface as if they just happened yesterday.

The time is 1959. The place is a seedy bar in Philadelphia. The audience is about to witness one of Billie Holiday’s last performances, given four months before her death. More than a dozen musical numbers are interlaced with salty, often humorous reminiscences to project a riveting portrait of one of the greatest vocalists of all time.