Audible Inc., the leading creator, and provider of premium audio storytelling is pleased to announce An Evening with Amber Iman, the next live event from Audible Theater, running for three nights only from Thursday, April 21 to Saturday, April 23. An Evening with Amber Iman will be recorded live from the Minetta Lane Theatre and released to a global audience as an Audible Original.

Amber Iman, star of Shuffle Along and Soul Doctor, invites you to a celebration of pure, uplifting joy in a powerful three-day concert at the Minetta Lane Theatre. A founding member of the Broadway Advocacy Coalition and Black Women on Broadway, Amber will be blending personal stories with a selection of soulful songs sure to get you swaying in your seat. Join her and “the baddest band in the land” on a journey filled with the music that touches her heart, reminding us all to revel in the delights of life.

Today & tomorrow only, use code AMBER to unlock early access tickets and celebrate pure, uplifting joy at this 3 NIGHT ONLY experience! (Ends 11:59 PM EST on 3/29)

CLICK HERE TO GET TICKETS NOW ON TICKETMASTER!

Through songs and storytelling, An Evening with Amber Iman takes the audience on a journey through love, loss, rejection, heartbreak, and joy, in a performance that challenges, encourages, and uplifts, reminding us to take it one day at a time.

“The ability to put on short-run shows focused on a single incredible performer is a specialty of Audible Theater’s work at the Minetta Lane Theater. As the first actress to return to Broadway following the pandemic, we are especially honored to work with Amber Iman to bring her original work live on stage and available to millions more through Audible.”

Kate Navin, Artistic Producer of Audible Theater

Amber Iman is a performer, filmmaker, and activist. Amber made history as the first woman to perform on Broadway after the pandemic shut down, as part of the NY PopsUp festival, which welcomed audiences back into Broadway theatres. Amber is one of the most sought-after theatre artists and vocalists working today. She debuted on Broadway as the High Priestess of Soul, Nina Simone, in Soul Doctor, earning rave reviews and a Clive Barnes Award nomination. Since, she has been seen in George C. Wolfe’s Shuffle Along beside theatre luminaries Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Billy Porter; she was seen in the National Tour of the megahit musical, Hamilton, and she has performed Off-Broadway and regionally with New York Theatre Workshop, New World Stages, Two River Theater, the Kennedy Center, and many more, earning Helen Hayes and IRENE Award nominations, and winning the Ovation Award and the prestigious Emery Battis Award for Acting Excellence from Shakespeare Theatre Company in DC.

On TV, Amber has been seen on High Maintenance for HBO, and her self-produced short film Steve has been a critical darling at film festivals across the country. This summer, Amber will star in two highly anticipated Broadway-bound musicals: Lempicka at La Jolla Playhouse and Goddess at Berkley Repertory Theatre. As an activist, Amber is the proud Co-Founder of the Broadway Advocacy Coalition and Black Women on Broadway. In 2021, Amber was honored with a Tony Award for her work with BAC.

Tickets for An Evening with Amber Iman go on sale to the public on Wednesday, March 30 at www.Audible.com/MinettaLane. Audible Theater is proud to collaborate with TodayTix to offer mobile Rush tickets beginning at 10 am each performance day. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis exclusively through the TodayTix app.

The post Exclusive Presale: Audible Theater’s “An Evening With Amber Iman’ appeared first on Broadway Black.

Get into this enlightening interview below led by Drew Shade, along with exclusive pictures taken by Martine Browne at the Park Lane Hotel. Smith is wearing a suit by the brand TAAK and is seen pictured with his close friend Josh A. Dawson.

DREW (Broadway Black): What was the experience of checking into your hotel with your close friend, Josh A. Dawson, with the anticipation of the next day looming?

BRITTON SMITH: Nerves. Fear. A lot of prayer. I always like to shake God’s hand and say “Yo, dawg! Please possess me. I have a plan, I have an idea of what I want to do, what I want to say, that represents the organization, that represents my hopes but God at the end of the day what are your hopes? What do you want to happen?” It’s always scary to have to surrender like that in front of people but it always is right. So, I know that’s always the way. But sometimes I can get so eager and excited to share that I don’t make time for 

*drops phone accidentally* 

Sorry, my headphones got messed up. Ummm.  I don’t make time play for the joy and the remembering of it all. So, having Dawson around was so medicinal. He’s the homie in every way. He’s grounding, joy-filled, we’re silly together, he also reminds me how big this moment is. He’s a friend that doesn’t mind affirming you, reminding you like “You that nigga, nigga! Like nawl That’s dope!” He’s seen the journey of BAC when it’s been super hard and takes my breath away from exhaustion, from angst, and from anger. So, celebrating it with him was perfect. There wasn’t a better person to be with that day.

DREW: Talk to me a little bit about your outfit choice. How did it come about? What made you choose the black and the simplicity of it all?

BRITTON: Mmmmm. I wanted it to be classic, a nod to the nights I remember watching. like “oooo everybody’s so fancy and so classic and uggghhh I just want to be able to fit in there one day.’ And I don’t fit in and I love that. I don’t want to fit in. I want to always be as me as possible.

So, I have a friend named Vaughn who is an incredible stylist. I worked with him on a shoot years ago. He’s also a strange ass Black dude. So, we connect around our silliness but also our passion. He introduced me to this brand from Japan and I asked him “Yo, can you get this suit’ and he was like ‘yeah but I can’t get it until Friday” and I was like “Oh, shit!” So, it came on Friday and by God’s grace she fet (fit) good and we had this woman, brilliant seamstress, come and tailor it on me that day. I just felt so silky, Drew, I felt so silky. Awww man, it felt good

DREW: As it should, it looked good, it looked clean on you.

BRITTON: I don’t know if you ever feel like this, sometimes I feel like… I don’t know, you’re a handsome man, you know when people be like “Go head, Drew! You think you look good!” But it’s very rare where I absolutely look back on photos and go “nigga, you look good.” But I  was like “Nigga you look goooood. You look rich, Go awwwfff. You look riiiccchh!” And that’s a rare feeling for me, to actually feel that and gas myself up in that way. So, I appreciated that.

Talk to me about your speech. Did you practice your speech? Did you speak from your heart? How did those words come out of you?

I did practice. The Sting really helps me understand that you can practice what you want but when the spirit hits… As like Tituss said in fuckin’ ‘Respect,’ when the spirit hits bro, ain’t shit you can do, nobody can do. And I love it, I love when the spirit hits. But I like to prepare, “You gon be on tv nigga, figure this shit out” So, I prayed a lot about it, a lot of it I wrote at my altar at the crib, and then it was like three pages. Then I asked one of our board members at BAC, his name is Ben, I called him like twice to just talk about some stuff and the first thing he said was “Britton this is too polite. You don’t want to forget that you’re going to be in a room in a container of your peers. You want to continue to be challenging our peers and this is a moment to do that.” And when he reminded me of that I was like “Oh, shit. Yeah!”  I went back to the altar, found some more courage, and had it all planned. I shared it with Josh the morning before, so nervously. And Some of it came out and some of it didn’t make it out. I don’t know, the moment of getting up and having to actually speak kind of took over what I had planned but I know it was God intervening and being like “I got you, bro. Just shut up and let me talk.

DREW: Is there anything that you didn’t say that you wish you would’ve?

BRITTON: Oooo (long pause)

Ummm… (long pause)

I’m going to say no. There is so much to say. But I think I said it all. Yeah, I think it was all said but there are some nuances and some specifics that I wish I had time to… or… breath to,  man I was so overwhelmed I… (laughs) I think I said it all, yeah I think I said it all. I’ll leave it at that.

DREW: What was the last thing you did before you left the hotel?

BRITTON: Oh can I tell you one thing I know I wish I had said, Drew.

DREW: Yeah go ahead!

BRITTON: Yeah, when they said Lynn Nottage was going to give us the award. I was like “That’s amazing!” And I was on Instagram and Kara is in her show and she posted something that said Lynn Nottage said that “when you’re on Broadway the world hears you.” And I was like “Oh, shit. That’s amazing!” and like what do I want the world to hear? And I think Black people in this industry, including myself, thought that we would become free when we got into the industry and we see that no one in the industry is free until they own something. People who are free on Broadway, the most free, the most able to run that shit, have their ideas heard, don’t get a lot of “No”’s, are the people who own things. So, as Im realizing that and coming into that. I don’t want to rent my freedom, I want to own it. I’m sorry to be like “Broadway is kind of too small for me unless I can own something.” So, I was going to say something like, Black people remember that the magic that is in us is bigger than all of this shit we’re even fighting for. Cause yeah we’re fighting for equity on Broadway but at the end of the day, unless we own, it ain’t gon feel as free as we want it to be. And we spend a lot of energy trying to fix the white man’s house when we could be building up our own and owning it. But I didn’t have time to say that or it didn’t come out. So, maybe God didn’t want me to say it but I was so charged by “What do you want the world to hear?” from Lynn Nottage and I was like “Ooo yes! Freedom is ownership.” Period.

DREW: I love that. I love it. Last question for you. What was the last thing you did before you left the hotel

BRITTON: Called an Uber and it came so fast I had to run.

(we laugh)

Yo, seriously. I did. I was like “Oh my God I gotta call an Uber’ and it was one of those two minutes away and I was like “Oh shit!” So I had to run to the Uber.

The post PHOTOS: BAC’s Britton Smith Lets Us In & Tells Us What He Didn’t Say appeared first on Broadway Black.

Their announcement via Instagram BAC states, “Symbols of change do not always represent the action of change. This forum is the catalyst of actionable change.”

BAC was founded in 2016 by members of the Broadway community and is an arts-based advocacy organization working to create equitable spaces and build the capacity of individuals and organizations to dismantle racism. Their recent work includes the three-day forum Broadway for Black Lives Matter and launching the Cody Renard Richard Scholarship program.

WHAT. A. YEAR.
2020 has been a wild ride, filled with transformative triumphs and heartbreaking losses. We would like to take a moment to THANK YOU for supporting and standing in solidarity with us. Here’s a timeline of BAC’s impact this year. Love to all! pic.twitter.com/73X8FH3mBE

— Broadway Advocacy Coalition (@BwayAdvocacyCo) December 28, 2020

How are you doing today? No, really though… how ARE you? The BAC team wanted to check in as we set some intentions and set the year off right. pic.twitter.com/8XRJIhP1FQ

— Broadway Advocacy Coalition (@BwayAdvocacyCo) January 16, 2021

You can join PART 1 // A forum looking to the work ahead on Broadway on Monday, February 15^th from 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm EST. Registration is currently open.

The post Broadway Advocacy Coalition Offers Open Dialogue With Industry Leaders appeared first on Broadway Black.

 

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The first inaugural class consists of Jasmine Canjura (New York University), Auzsa Carberry-Walters (University of Central Florida), Tesia Childs (Columbia University), Avery Evans (University of California, Irvine), Jordan Fleming (Columbia University), Moses Garcia (Carnegie Mellon University), Jason Goodwin (New York University), Gabrielle Kunzika (University of Connecticut), Alex Luong (University of California, San Diego), David Parker (University of Alabama at Birmingham), Brillian Qi-Bell (University of Iowa), Anabel Manuela Romero (Columbia University), Annelise Salazar (San Diego State University), Gabrielle Scott (Georgia Southern University), and Joshua Wyatt (Carnegie Mellon University).

Cody comments on his gratitude and appreciation for the overwhelming support of the program by saying “I’m blown away by the talent, drive, and power that each of our applicants possesses. Our selection process was quite arduous and competitive, but we have selected an astounding cohort for the inaugural year,” said Cody Renard Richard. “As we begin to gather for work sessions, providing tools and resources that they can carry with them on their journey, I’m incredibly proud to welcome them to our community! And thanks to the overwhelming amount of support from that community, we’re able to significantly increase each student’s grant from $1,500 to $4,000.”

Additionally, the Seller Lehrer Family Foundation has further expanded the scholarship with the Seller Lehrer Producing Scholars, which will award two aspiring producers a mentorship with industry professionals through Adventureland, the producing company that produced Hamilton and other Broadway productions.

For more information on the Cody Renard Scholarship Program, visit HERE or Instagram. 

For more information on Broadway Advocacy Coalition, visit HERE or Instagram.

The post Cody Renard Richard Scholarship Program Announces First Round of Scholarship Recipients! appeared first on Broadway Black.