KC MELTING POT THEATRE Announces Leadership Transition

KC Melting Pot Theatre (KCMPT), Kansas City’s premier Black theatre company, announces a significant leadership transition as Dr. Nicole Hodges Persley steps down as Artistic Director at the conclusion of the 2024–2025 season. A visionary leader, scholar, and artist, Dr. Hodges Persley has been instrumental in helping to shape the creative and cultural identity of KCMPT for nearly a decade, elevating the company into a nationally recognized home for Black theatre.

Beginning with the 2025–2026 season, KCMPT will transition to a co-artistic directorship model, ushering in a bold new era of shared leadership rooted in collective vision and sustainable practice. The new artistic leadership team includes:

Melonnie Walker, Artistic Director – Operations
Ile Haggins, Artistic Director – Programming
Lynn King, Artistic Director – Education

All three incoming Artistic Directors are distinguished theatre artists and alumni of the Black Women Directors Program - an initiative developed and led by Dr. Hodges Persley to cultivate the next generation of Black women leaders in American theater. KCMPT will be one of the only Black regional theaters in the nation with a co-artistic team of Black women directors. 

In a statement reflecting on her tenure, Dr. Hodges Persley shared: “KC Melting Pot Theatre has been a vessel for truth-telling, healing, and reimagination. I’m proud to have helped create a creative home where Black artists thrive and communities come together through the power of performance. As I pass the torch, I do so with full confidence. The future is in strong, brilliant hands.”

Dr. Hodges Persley leaves KCMPT to fully develop her signature project, The Black Performance Project, a multimedia arts incubator she first conceptualized at the University of Kansas in 2019. KC Melting Pot Theatre’s new leadership team will carry on the founders’ mission of amplifying Black stories, developing Black talent, and serving as a catalyst for change in the Kansas City arts ecosystem and beyond.

ABOUT KC Melting Pot Theatre

Founded by Harvey and Linda Williams to address the lack of representation of Black artists on Kansas City stages, KC Melting Pot Theatre has evolved into a powerhouse of new works, classics, and community-rooted engagement. Located at Just Off Broadway Theatre in Kansas City, MO, KCMPT builds on the cultural legacy of Kansas City to produce stories that center the Black experience, past, present, and future.

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Best Musical - Top 3

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