Zhailon Levingston News

Every winter JAG Productions invites 30-50 artists to the snowy mountains of Vermont to develop full-length plays at their new works festival of Black Theatre, JAGfest. They put up 5 companies of early-career theatre-makers in cozy dwellings for one week to support the development of audacious and alluring works that illuminate black life and black aesthetics.

Janet Hubert, best known to television audiences as “Aunt Viv” on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, will star as Baneatta Mabry in a virtual reading of Douglas Lyons' family comedy, CHICKEN AND BISCUITS on Saturday, February 27, 2021 at 8:00p.m.

The Onassis Foundation and the TRAX podcast network for tweens from public media organization PRX today announced Live from Mount Olympus, a new podcast produced in partnership with theatre ensemble the TEAM, combining the magic of audio and contemporary theatre with the power of Greek myth.

Broadway’s Black Voices of the Future, a concert featuring the works of emerging Black artists, will premiere tonight, January 25. This special virtual concert will be produced by John Znidarsic and Zhailon Levingston.

Zhailon Levingston will be the featured guest of the third segment of Crossroads’ Emerging Artist Series hosted by Crossroads’ co-founder Ricardo Khan. The program, Emerging Artist: André’s Choice, will stream on the Home with Crossroads virtual platform January 19-31.

The Broadway Advocacy Coalition (BAC) and Columbia Law School will continue their multi-year partnership with the announcement of the first full semester course offering entitled The Theater for Change: Reimagining Justice Through Abolition.

The Gaze... No Homo will begin streaming on Friday, Nov. 20, with episodes four, five and six going online Friday, Nov. 27; episodes seven, eight and nine on Friday, Dec. 4; and the final three episodes becoming available on Friday, Dec. 11.

The Obie Award winning The Fire This Time Festival (TFTT), in collaboration with FRIGID New York, launches its inaugural Alumni Spotlight through a virtual presentation of four performance works written by award-winning queer African-American playwright/performer Roger Q. Mason (he/they) during their time as a resident of TFTT or shortly thereafter.

National Black Theatre has officially announced the cast, creative team, and ticket sales date for the institution's first produced radio play, Retreat, written by NBT I AM SOUL Playwright Resident Tracey Conyer Lee (Rabbit Summer) and directed by Zhailon Levingston (Neptune; Dixon Place and The Brooklyn Museum).

New Light Theater Project has announced an array of free virtual events this October that range from new work to radio dramas to panel discussions. Kicking off the virtual season is a presentation of songs from a new musical in development, METROPOLIS an Afrofuturist Musical, written by AriDy Nox and Brandon Webster, directed by Zhailon Levingston.

A Call for Revolutionary Theatre 2020 articles will be released every weekday for 10 days, October 19-30, 2020, on BTC's website at www.blacktheatrecommons.org. Writers include Andy Jean, Awoye Timpo, Camille A. Brown, Candace L. Feldman, Charlique C. Rolle, Claudia Alick, Harold Steward, Jamil Jude, Kamilah Forbes, and more.

New York Theatre Barn will host a free live stream of its New Works Series on Wednesday, October 7th, 2020 at 7PM EDT, featuring excerpts from the new musicals Salem and Shapeshifters: A Queer Comic Book Musical. The live 45-minute presentation will also feature a conversation with the writers and creative team.

New York Theatre Barn will continue to host weekly free live streams of its New Works Series each Wednesday evening at 7PM ET. Upcoming installments of the series include excerpts from the new musicals The King's Wife, Love and Southern D!scomfort, Shapeshifters: A Queer Comic Book Musical, Present Perfect and more.

Veteran stage manager Cody Renard Richard (Hamilton, Freestyle Love Supreme), in partnership with the Advocacy Coalition, announced The Cody Renard Richard Scholarship Program to honor, uplift, and support the next generation of Black, Asian, Latinx, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) theatre-makers working behind the scenes.

Dr. Barbara Ann Teer's National Black Theatre (NBT) announces Fall 2020 programming for its 52nd Season, a?oeNBT Beyond Walls: Building The Future Now!a?? In response to the devastating impact of COVID-19, this season's fall line-up is composed of a series of original commissioned and digitally devised theatrical works that builds upon founder and CEO Emerita Dr. Teer's a?oeA Letter to The Future.a??

We sat down with Alex Hare, the co-director & co-book writer of A Burning Church that runs from August 13 -15, to chat about the show, rehearsing during a pandemic, and how todaya??s social movements can relate to the church.

New Ohio Theatre's 27th annual Obie Award-winning Ice Factory Festival opens tonight. The festival will be live-streamed online for the first time, and will feature four new works over four weeks, July 24 - August 15, 2020.

New Ohio Theatre has announced that the 27th annual Obie Award-winning Ice Factory Festival will be live-streamed online for the first time, and will feature four new works over four weeks, July 24 - August 15, 2020.

Today (July 1) in live streaming: Lin-Manuel Miranda is the special guest on The Chaos Twins, Lauren Patten visits Backstage Live, and so much more!

Founded by Douglas Lyons (Beautiful, Beau), The Next Wave Initiative is a developmental branch of The Directors Company, committed to amplifying future Black voices in The American Theatre. On July 1st, at 7pm EST, NWI will host its first Zoom-Room Series: 'To be Young, Gifted, Black...and cast.'