Black Theatre Troupe Celebrates Women With RESPECT THE MUSICAL, March 24 - April 9

Black Theatre Troupe celebrates women with a powerhouse musical for its 2022-23 Season finale, RESPECT: THE MUSICAL, March 24 - April 9, 2023. Performances will be held at the Helen K. Mason Performing Arts Center, 1333 E. Washington St., Phoenix, AZ 85034. Tickets are $48 and are on sale at blacktheatretroupe.org or by calling 602-258-8128.

Combining excerpts from over 60 songs with women's personal stories about realizing dreams, loves won and lost, and battering against glass ceilings, RESPECT THE MUSICAL features such period favorites as Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend, I Wanna Be Loved By You, As Long As He Needs Me and Whatever Lola Wants along with such modern standards as Girl is on Fire, Brave, and The Greatest Love of All.

Vanderbilt professor Dr. Dorothy Marcic created the show based on her book, RESPECT: Women and Popular Music, where she analyzed all Top-40 female song lyrics since 1900.

The production is a lively and engaging look at music's depiction of women, from codependence to independence. Interwoven between the music are monologues-real women's stories, to give more meaning to the songs and show how women are portrayed differently in each era.

RESPECT: THE MUSICAL features Sabrina Custer as "Dorothy," Lotus Numari as "Samantha," Sarah Lee Mabry as "Eden," and Rico Burton as "Rosa." Accompanied by a live band, RESPECT is directed and choreographed by Patdro Harris with Musical Direction by Brenda Hankins.

All performances will be held at the company's home, the Helen K. Mason Performing Arts Center, 1333 E. Washington St., Phoenix AZ 85034. Tickets: $48 at www.blacktheatretroupe.org

Friday, March 24, 2023 at 7:30 pm

Saturday, March 25, 2023 at 7:30 pm

Sunday, March 26, 2023 at 2:30 pm

Thursday, March 30, 2023 at 2:00 pm

Friday, March 31, 2023 at 7:30 pm

Saturday, April 1, 2023 at 2:00 pm

Saturday, April 1, 2023 at 7:30 pm

Sunday, April 2, 2023 at 2:30 pm

Friday, April 7, 2023 at 7:30 pm

Saturday, April 8, 2023 at 2:00 pm

Saturday, April 8, 2023 at 7:30 pm

Sunday, April 9, 2023 at 2:30 pm

Founded by Helen K. Mason in 1970 as a space for underserved artists to share the Black experience, Black Theatre Troupe began performing small plays, poetry readings, and musical performances in a community center in Phoenix's historic multi-cultural Eastlake Park.

The Helen K. Mason Performing Arts Center is now the company's permanent home, a state-of-the-art facility located at Washington and 14th Streets in downtown Phoenix - exactly two blocks from where it all began. It features a 150-seat theatre, rehearsal space, costume shop and administrative offices. The Black Theatre Troupe's main-stage productions and educational outreach programs serve constituents from seniors to young adults and children.

Recognized as one of the longest, continuously operating Black theatre companies in the United States, Black Theatre Troupe has become one of Phoenix's major cultural attractions, providing training, employment and performance opportunities for multi-ethnic and underserved artists for over 50 years.

Black Theatre Troupe's productions and educational outreach programs broaden and enhance relationships within the community, from seniors and young adults to children, fostering understanding outside the Black community and bridging divisions which have too often separated people of color from the majority population.

Since its debut production in 1970 of Lonne Elder's nationally acclaimed drama of social and political consciousness, Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, Black Theatre Troupe has gained a national reputation for producing powerful works with an emphasis on Black playwrights and is dedicated to delivering some of the country's most courageous theater, while illuminating our shared humanity.

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