Jada wrote a tweet following the announcement stating, “At the Oscars…people of color are always welcomed to give out awards…even entertain, but we are rarely recognized for our artistic accomplishments. Should people of color refrain from participating all together? People can only treat us in the way in which we allow. With much respect in the midst of deep disappointment.” She followed the tweet later with a video of her expressing this disappointment and calling all Black entertainers to boycott the show.

Spike Lee certainly agreed with her in his own instagram post and a Hamilton quote;

#OscarsSoWhite… Again. I Would Like To Thank President Cheryl Boone Isaacs And The Board Of Governors Of The Academy Of Motion Pictures Arts And Sciences For Awarding Me an Honorary Oscar This Past November. I Am Most Appreciative. However My Wife, Mrs. Tonya Lewis Lee And I Will Not Be Attending The Oscar Ceremony This Coming February. We Cannot Support It And Mean No Disrespect To My Friends, Host Chris Rock and Producer Reggie Hudlin, President Isaacs And The Academy. But, How Is It Possible For The 2nd Consecutive Year All 20 Contenders Under The Actor Category Are White? And Let’s Not Even Get Into The Other Branches. 40 White Actors In 2 Years And No Flava At All. We Can’t Act?! WTF!! It’s No Coincidence I’m Writing This As We Celebrate The 30th Anniversary Of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s Birthday. Dr. King Said “There Comes A Time When One Must Take A Position That Is Neither Safe, Nor Politic, Nor Popular But He Must Take It Because Conscience Tells Him It’s Right”. For Too Many Years When The Oscars Nominations Are Revealed, My Office Phone Rings Off The Hook With The Media Asking Me My Opinion About The Lack Of African-Americans And This Year Was No Different. For Once, (Maybe) I Would Like The Media To Ask All The White Nominees And Studio Heads How They Feel About Another All White Ballot. If Someone Has Addressed This And I Missed It Then I Stand Mistaken. As I See It, The Academy Awards Is Not Where The “Real” Battle Is. It’s In The Executive Office Of The Hollywood Studios And TV And Cable Networks. This Is Where The Gate Keepers Decide What Gets Made And What Gets Jettisoned To “Turnaround” Or Scrap Heap. This Is What’s Important. The Gate Keepers. Those With “The Green Light” Vote. As The Great Actor Leslie Odom Jr. Sings And Dances In The Game Changing Broadway Musical HAMILTON, “I WANNA BE IN THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENS”. People, The Truth Is We Ain’t In Those Rooms And Until Minorities Are, The Oscar Nominees Will Remain Lilly White. (Cont’d)

A photo posted by Spike Lee (@officialspikelee) on Jan 18, 2016 at 5:03am PST

There have been huge debates all over social media whether or not actors should boycott the Oscars or would it even make a difference at all. Similarly, should we even care about the Oscars or should we just make our own? Here’s the danger with that- I think society as a whole has often equated Oscars exclusively with whiteness when in fact it shouldn’t represent that. It should represent the best in film. Period. Point blank. I’d also add, we already have shows that recognize Black entertainers on the regular but even in our own communities we don’t respect them and some A-list black celebrities don’t bother to even show up.

For some, an Oscar simply represents the highest honor in ones film career field. While I am one who thinks that art is super subjective and  already wary of awards in performances, it doesn’t diminish the fact that there are many performances from Black actors that were are “award worthy.” One place I’ve noticed Black actors having some achievement in is on the stage and at the Tony Awards.

I will never forget the 2013 Tony’s when four out the eight acting categories were given to Black men and women (Cicely Tyson, Patina Miller, Coutney B. Vance and Billy Porter). Or in 2010 when it was a Fences and Fela! takeover. Even when Audra McDonald became the first person in Tony’s history to win one in every acting category possible and has the title of having the most Tony Awards as a performer.

While this isn’t to say the Tonys are completely perfect and without fault, I think over the years the Tony’s has gotten better at being more inclusive. Their nominations are usually on the money, and I can guarantee you this year Black actors will be winning again. So what makes the Tony’s so different? What are they doing right?

Well for one, I think the theatre world is more diverse and open to things that differ from the typical white storytelling narratives. I also think because the voting pool is so small and the voters actually go to the shows, their nominations are much more valid. So why can’t the academy admit their current system is broken and find ways to fix it? Well Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs responded to the Oscar boycott saying they would look into what qualifies for membership to help diversify the pool, so I guess that’s a step in the right direction. My only problem with that is, how long will it last?

The post Have The Tonys Been More Fair Than The Oscars? appeared first on Broadway Black.

Now the one-man show is making its New York premiere Dec. 16-20, at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). The North American debut began in October at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The tour will culminate at Chicago Shakespeare Theater in February as part of the Shakespeare 400 Chicago, a yearlong international arts festival commemorating the 400 years since his death in 1616.

Joseph – whose credits abound with Royal Shakespeare Company (Julius Caesar, Othello, Henry IV, Hamlet, King Lear) and National Theatre in London (Royal Hunt for the Sun, The Emperor Jones) – “inhabits the curious, daringly determined life” of a composer, social satirist, poet, playwright and general man of refinement. Sancho, a distinguished man of letters who wrote two plays, would quote Shakespeare more than any other author. Among Sancho’s friends were Shakespeare actor and theatre owner David Garrick. Sancho himself became a grocery owner and property owner.

Written and performed by Joseph, the show is billed as an opportunity to cast new light on the often misunderstood narratives of the African-British experience. According to UK’s The Public Reviews, “Joseph is a superb storyteller… he brings Sancho to life in a revealing, poignant and funny show.”

Joseph’s experience involves working-class parents who emigrated to England from the Caribbean’s St. Lucia. He trained at Studio ’68 of Theatre Arts in London before attending the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. In an interview, Joseph recalled being asked what he would like his legacy to entail. His answer was to inform Black youth about Black Britain before 1948 so they “would know something of what came before.” When Joseph came across the Thomas Gainsborough painting of Sancho in the book “Black England” by Gretchen Gerzina, he had found his calling. Joseph, 51, now is the same age as when Sancho died. Sancho was 39 when Gainsborough created his portrait – a sitting of about 100 minutes. In just under that time, Joseph re-creates a picture of noteworthy history.

In his author’s note, he writes:

“Charles Ignatius is quite simply a perfect example, and by no means the only one in British history, of the strange, sometimes uncomfortable relationship that the UK has always had with its colonies and colonial peoples. On the one hand exploitation was rife and unbridled, and on the other, the natural and common humanity of the British would not allow them to fully embrace the horrors of the American model of slavery, at least on British soil. And so Sancho’s life was filled with the joy and pain of being at once free and simultaneously caged within his race and place in eighteenth-century society.”

Performances will be at the BAM Fisher Theatre, 321 Ashland Place, in Brooklyn. Click HERE to purchase tickets. Get updates on the show’s Facebook page.

Newsnight on BBC talks about the impact of British theatre, including a brief interview with Joseph and excerpts from Sancho.

The post UK’s Paterson Joseph Paints Sancho’s Life In One-Man Show appeared first on Broadway Black.

As part of the 2015 Next Wave Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music will present the US premiere of the unconventional “high tech cold dark night,” Helen Lawrence.

Conceived and directed by Stan Douglas (David Zwirner Gallery) and written by Chris Haddock (CBC’s Davinci Inquest and HBO’s Boardwalk Empire), Helen Lawrence disrupts the traditional theatrical experience by simultaneously projecting a film on a scrim while actors act behind it.

You read that correctly. Helen Lawrence is a play and film at the same time.

Haddock invites us to “join the expedition into unexplored territory: into the past for source and future for the technology.” Through use of camera-controlled software, the actors and their actions seen on stage are simultaneously projected in a complete and fully staged film. The show seeks to highlight the essence of an era— a time where people coped with the reality of economic hardship, war, and depression— in a full bodied, all encompassing, experience that sometimes only a film can deliver. But it’s roots are grounded in theatre. Although we see the story on a scrim reminiscent of the grandiose point of view of a movie screen, we remember that behind every story there is a person. A character. An actor. And their experience. We see both. We see a larger than life depiction of a time with which many of us are not familiar, and we see the real human, which further allows us to identify with their story.

Douglas, a prominent Black Canadian artist, is known for his photography and projection-based work. He was one of the first artists to be part of the New York based gallery, David Zwirner. Helen Lawrence made its debut at  the Vancouver Arts Club Theatre Company in the spring of 2014. It has also been presented at the Munich Kammerspiele, the Edinburgh International Festival, and Canadian Stage in Toronto.

Haddock described this project as “new and untried artistic” and how, because of this, it was irresistible to him.

I look forward to the new and untried when it comes to theatre. When you’re passionate about an art form that’s under criticism as fading out of relevance, it’s amazing to see glimpses into its future, its livelihood, its unconventionality, and its place in the world of entertainment.

What A Time To Be Alive.

For more information click HERE!

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