A Raisin In the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

Loosely based on the playwright’s life, the Younger family grapples with an American dilemma that coerces the psyche into believing that separate really is equal. In post-WWII Chicago, where everyone was looking to feed themselves literally and figuratively with a piece of the American dream, Walter, Ruth, Mama, Beneatha, and Travis find themselves in the middle of a custody battle over the soul and integrity of America; believing in the power of change and progression and reconciling with the truth of a divided American landscape. This drama first debuted on Broadway in 1959, starring Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Louis Gossett, Claudia McNeil, and Glynn Turman. It has since seen multiple revivals on Broadway in 2004 and 2014, with the 2004 production winning for Best Actress in a Play for Phylicia Rashaad and Best Featured Actress in a Play for Audra McDonald. The 2014 production resulted in wins for Sophie Okonedo for Best Featured Actress in a Play, Kenny Leon for Direction of a Play, and Best Revival of a Play. A Raisin In the Sun is also the first play written by a Black woman to be performed and produced on Broadway. 

A full audio recording of the play from L.A. Theatre Works can be found HERE.

Fences by August Wilson

Written in 1985 as part of Wilson’s “Pittsburgh Cycle,” Fences closely tracks the internal turmoil that Troy faces in providing for his wife and teenage son. As a man whose dreams were not fully realized as a major league baseball player, Troy tries to build himself up within the city sanitation department as a driver (something Black men weren’t allowed to do). Young people should read this play primarily for the conversation between Troy and his son, Cory, about being a parent, a caregiver, and a Black man. Troy says, “A man got to take care of his family. You live in my house… sleep your behind on my bedclothes… fill your belly up with my food… cause you my son—you my flesh and blood. Not ’cause I like you! Cause it’s my duty to take care of you.” The original Broadway production won the Tony Awards for Best Play, Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play (James Earl Jones), Best Direction, and Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play (Mary Alice). The 2010 revival won Best Performance by a Leading Actor and Leading Actress in a Play for Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, respectively, and Best Revival of a Play. 

for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf by Ntozake Shange 

Shange’s emotional choreopoem, which fuses music, dance, and poetry, is a literary blueprint for understanding and appreciating Black women. It debuted at the Booth Theater in New York City in 1976 and was only the second work by a Black woman to be done on Broadway (it was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play in 1976). Referred to only by a color (red, orange, blue, green, purple, yellow, and brown), each woman relishes in her own self-discovery and self-identity in a world that has yet to see them for the beautiful humans they are. Shange illuminates the power of Black female sisterhood while also encouraging the reader to heal, survive, and reclaim their joy. The Public Theater recently did a production in 2019 that Camille A. Brown choreographed. 

Pipeline by Dominique Morisseau

Omari is a young Black male dealing with the pressures of high school academia in a school where microaggressions are as common as saying the pledge of allegiance. Morisseau’s modern drama on race and the education system may appear to be a shocking reflection of what young people may encounter today. Still, it is also a challenge for educators everywhere to see their students beyond a name on a class roster. Omari and his mother, Nya, push each other to combat the triggers that young Black men face regularly, and do some deep soul-searching to heal their mother-son relationship, so Omari doesn’t lose himself by proving himself. The play was nominated for five Lucille Lortel Awards during its run at Lincoln Center and can currently be found on BroadwayHD.

The Colored Museum by George C. Wolfe

Performed as vignettes known as “exhibits,” The Colored Museum illuminates the  Black experience by taking the reader and audience member on a historical journey from the flight to Savannah from the Ivory Coast in “Git On Board” to the ode to Black theatre drama in “The Last Mama-on-the-Couch Play” in which Wolfe makes references to Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf and Hansberry’s A Raisin In the Sun. The Colored Museum takes the tragedy and pain of our experience as Black people living in America. It gives it a distinct voice of truth and integrity that has otherwise been whitewashed and gaslit.

Honorable mentions:

A Soldier’s Play by Charles Fuller

Blues For Mister Charlie by James Baldwin

Stick Fly by Lydia R. Diamond

The post Class Is In Session: 5 Plays by Black Playwrights Every Young Black Student Should Read appeared first on Broadway Black.

As part of a long list of playwrights who have had their works produced by DPT (including her own “Detroit Projects” cycle), her new role will oversee audience and community engagement, a focus in increasing donor sponsorship, attention to equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility leadership. In a statement, she said, “I have been an advocate for this theatre since its inception in our city, mostly because of its original intent to not just provide professional Equity-level productions to our city, and Equity-contracted work to Detroit’s local theatre artists, but to also support a thriving theatre community by which Detroit’s pre-existing theatre companies can benefit and be supported in adjacent work. I was already an original board member of the theatre, but with the recent wave of activism in the theatre industry at large, and particularly around leadership in theatre administrations, I felt that it was time to shift in my position and participation level.” 

In her efforts to bring her own seat to the table, Dominique said, “I reached out to DPT’s producing artistic directors and told them that I wanted a leadership position at the theatre, and they enthusiastically agreed. I want people to know this origin story because it is important to see yourself in positions where people like you may be unrepresented or under-represented, and know that you can stake your claim to a seat at the table.” Dominique is a MacArthur Genius Grant recipient, a two-time NAACP Award recipient, and the Tony-nominated book writer for the musical Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations. Congratulations Dominique!

The post Detroit Public Theater Welcomes Dominique Morisseau as new Executive Artistic Producer appeared first on Broadway Black.

Skeleton Crew is a tale about how a makeshift family of workers at the last exporting auto plant in the city navigate the possibility of foreclosure. Power dynamics shift and they are pushed to the limits of survival. When the line between blue collar and white collar gets blurred, how far over the lines are they willing to step?

The production’s cast includes Jason Dirden (12 Angry Men, A Raisin In The Sun, Fences), Lynda Gravatt (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Doubt, King Hedley II, 45 Seconds from Broadway), Adesola Osakalumi (Fela!, Fela! The Concert, Equus), Nikiya Mathis, and Wendell B. Franklin.

Actor, director, and Obie Award winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson is directing the play. Santiago-Hudson also directed the second installment of the trilogy, Paradise Blue, which was staged last summer at the Williamstown Theater Festival. The first installment of Morisseau’s trilogy, Detroit ’67, ran at the Public Theater in 2013.

Morisseau is a recent PoNY (Playwright of New York) fellow, and also wrote Sunset Baby, Follow Me To Nellie’s, and Blood At The Root. Her work has been published in N.Y. Times bestseller “Chicken Soup for the African American Soul” and in the Harlem-based literary journal “Signifyin’ Harlem.” She is a Jane Chambers Playwriting Award honoree, a two-time NAACP Image Award recipient, and winner of the Stavis Playwriting Award.

Santiago-Hudson is a noted actor and playwright who has appeared on Broadway in Jelly’s Last Jam and Stick Fly. He received a Tony Award for his performance in August Wilson’s Seven Guitars. In 2001, Santiago-Hudson wrote Lackawanna Blues, an autobiographical play in which he portrayed himself and some twenty different characters from his past. He adapted it for an award-winning 2005 HBO film starring Hill Harper, S. Epatha Merkerson, and Terrance Howard.

In 2013, Santiago-Hudson won an Obie Award for Direction and was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play for his work in the Off-Broadway production of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson.

Skeleton will run through February 14, 2016. Tickets for the production can be purchased here.

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The first guest joining us on Off-Book is the award winning playwright Dominique Morisseau. Her play, Skeleton Crew, the final installment in her trilogy of plays about her hometown of Detroit, starts previews on January 6, 2016 at the Atlantic Stage 2 Theater.

Skeleton Crew is a tale about how a makeshift family of workers at the last exporting auto plant in the city navigate the possibility of foreclosure. Power dynamics shift and they are pushed to the limits of survival. When the line between blue collar and white collar gets blurred, how far over the lines are they willing to step?

Dominique Morisseau, writer and actress, is an alumnus of the Public Theater Emerging Writer’s Group, the Women’s Project Playwrights Lab, and Lark Playwrights’ Workshop. Among her playwriting credits are: Detroit ’67 (Public Theater; Classical Theatre of Harlem/NBT; Northlight Theatre), Sunset  Baby (Labyrinth Theater Co – NYC; Gate Theater- London), and Follow Me To Nellie’s (O’Neill; Premiere Stages). Her produced one-acts include: Third Grade (Fire This Time Festival); Black at Michigan (Cherry Lane); Socks, Roses Are Played  Out and Love and Nappiness(Center Stage; ATH); love.lies.liberation (The NewGroup), Bumrush (Hip Hop Theater Festival) and The Masterpiece (Harlem9/HSA). Dominique is currently developing a 3-play cycle on her hometown of Detroit, entitled “The Detroit Projects.” Detroit ’67 is the first of the series. The second play, Paradise Blue, was developed with Voice and Vision, the Hansberry Project at ACT, New York Theatre Workshop, McCarter Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and the Public Theater. Dominique’s work has also been published in NY Times bestseller “Chicken Soup for the African American Soul” and in the Harlem-based literary journal “Signifyin’ Harlem.” She is a Jane Chambers Playwriting Award honoree, a two-time NAACP Image Award recipient, a runner-up for the Princess Grace Award, a recipient of the Elizabeth George commission from South Coast Rep, a commendation honoree for the Primus Prize by the American Theatre Critics Association, winner of the Barrie and Bernice Stavis Playwriting Award, the Weissberger Award for Playwriting, the U of M – Detroit Center Emerging Leader Award, a Lark/PoNY (Playwrights of New York) Fellow, and a recent recipient of the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama. She is an artist that believes wholeheartedly in the power and strength of community.

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Hamilton 

What is a best of 2015 list without Hamilton? Not a list at all. The hip-hop musical about America’s most controversial founding father with its diverse cast and #hamiltunes that will be stuck in your head forever earns its prized spot on the list. Any show capable of selling out for over a year is a winner in my book. #HamilTonys

Invisible Thread 

Did I mention I saw this show four times? I’m not kidding. The only reason it wasn’t more is because I’m not rich and I went home for Christmas break. The show that tells the story of one man’s incredible journey of self and the people’s lives he impacts was a no-brainer on my list. The dancing, the acting, and the singing is enough to bring you in and take you to new places. #Belamusana

The Color Purple 

Of course, The Color Purple was going to make this list. Cynthia Erivo, Danielle Brooks and Jennifer Hudson make their Broadway debuts and they enter with a big ol’ splash. The simplistic styling of this musical requires the actors to give their all and bare it on the stage, which they do every night. I see Tonys in their future.

Whorl Inside A Loop 

No wonder it’s going to Broadway!  It’s that darn good. Second Stage is doing some pretty awesome things over there on 43rd Street, if this show is any indication. It tells the story of an actress teaching prisoners how to tell and act out their personal stories. This show definitely tugged at my heartstrings and now, hopefully, many more will be able to witness its brilliance.

The Gin Game 

Legendary. James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson sharing the stage again was one of the most amazing moments of 2015. Being able to just be in that room and watch these masters grace the stage effortlessly was a big deal. Black don’t crack, and neither does our ability to memorize scripts and get out there and be amazing eight nights a week.

Barbecue 

The Public Theater also has some hits on their hands. Barbecue centered around family, addiction, and making difficult choices. Written by Obie Award Winning Playwright Robert O’Hara, the play was full of twists and turns that left audiences gasping and guessing about what was going to happen next.

Paradise Blue

Our girl Dominique Morisseau came through. The production is directed by the always amazing Ruben Santiago-Hudson and stars Tony Award-nominee De’Adre Aziza (Passing Strange), Golden Globe-nominee Blair Underwood (A Street Car Named Desire), and Andre Holland. This show, which is the first in a trilogy, made waves at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Like Morisseau herself, I doubt it’s the last you’ll hear about it.

An Octoroon 

An Octoroon (the term “Octoroon” is a person who is one-eighth Black) is all about race in the United States. The brilliant show written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins got its start at Soho Rep and uses satire to get at the United States’ horrible legacy of slavery. Incorporating Black face, red face and everything in between, this show took it there unapologetically. An Octoroon can make an entire audience uncomfortable and force them to face the harsh realities of this “great” nation all in one. After all, art is an imitation of life, right?

Amazing Grace

Gone too soon. The song I sang as a child suddenly held more weight when I finally was able to see this show in the summer. Beautifully and thoroughly executed, Amazing Grace was a gracious piece of theatre that wasn’t afraid to go there. While it may have left Broadway, the cast recording will be enough to keep me going.

Eclipsed 

This is another one that moved from Off-Broadway because of its stellar cast and amazing story. Danai Gurira is genius. Set during the Liberian Civil War, Eclipsed tells the stories of the captive wives of a rebel officer who band together to form a fragile community—until the balance of their lives is upset by the arrival of a new girl. Heartfelt, funny, and mesmerizing are just a few adjectives to describe how great of a show this is.

Special Mention: The Wiz Live!

How could I make a list without The Wiz Live! on it? This show and all of its #melaninmagic captivated audiences everywhere. The old classic story of The Wiz with a modern twist appealed to audiences young and old, and brought together an entire community on Dec. 3rd. That night also made us realize Shanice Williams was going places, Stephanie Mills has still got it, David Alan Grier has some serious pipes, Uzo Aduba and Queen Latifah can do no wrong, Amber Riley was underappreciated on Glee, and “conversate” is an actual word.

Thats our list, what did you see that you put on your list? Sound off in the comments below and check out in-depth information on all of these shows on our site!

The post And The Winner Is…Broadway Black Top 10 of 2015 appeared first on Broadway Black.

Dominique Morisseau is considered one of the most exciting young voices in American theatre. Believing wholeheartedly in the power and strength of community has only demonstrated the influence she yields. The community empowered by City Theatre in Pittsburgh has Morisseau’s Sunset Baby to provide a look at revolution and freedom.

Directed by Jade King Carroll, Sunset Baby features Joniece Abbott-Pratt, J. Alphonse Nicholson and Keith Randolph Smith.  The play, which opened Nov. 7, runs through Dec. 13, in the Hamburg Studio Theatre.

About fathers and daughters, the play is described as searing with wit and wisdom and the brutal politics of freedom. It follows the smart and sexy hustler Nina. She has rejected everything her parents fought for in the Black Liberation Movement. When her estranged father wants to reconcile – but then tries to run a hustle of his own – negotiating her past and present becomes a revolutionary act.

Hailed by The New York Times as “Pittsburgh’s most innovative theater company,” City Theatre specializes in new work, commissioning and producing plays by writers at the forefront of the industry. Currently under the leadership of artistic director Tracy Brigden and managing director James McNeel, City Theatre is in its 41st season. City Theatre offers special ticket pricing for persons under 30, seniors 62 and older, groups, and military families. Select shows offer pay-what-you-want pricing. For more information on tickets and the play, click HERE.

Sunset Baby – which has been produced by New York’s Labyrinth Theater Co., London’s Gate Theater and Los Angeles’s Odyssey Theatre – premiered in Morisseau’s hometown during October, the first of any of her plays to be fully produced in Detroit.

In a Facebook post Morisseau noted: “The real truth is that I write and try to find the people who give a damn about what I’ve written, and that certainly ain’t everyone. I do not wait. I repeat, I do not wait for someone to give me permission or tell me I’m good enough. Who the hell has time for that? I’ve got stories to tell.”

Her stories have appeared and appealed nationally and internationally, giving voice to brown girls as well as Black bodies. Of her Detroit Projects cycle, Detroit ’67 (originally at Public Theater and Classical Theatre of Harlem) was nominated for eight Audelco Theatre Awards including Best Playwright, while Paradise Blue was the winner of the L. Arnold Weissberger Award and received development at several theaters. Atlantic Theater will produce Morisseau’s The Skeleton Crew – the final installment of her Detroit trilogy – in January.

With a BFA in acting from the University of Michigan and a foundation as a performance poet in the Detroit community of Harmonie Park, Morisseau has evolved into an award-winning playwright and among the Top 20 most-produced U.S. playwrights for the 2015-2016 season. The Playwright of New York (PoNY) fellow has several honors to her credit: Jane Chambers Playwriting Award; two NAACP Image Awards; the Primus Prize by the American Theatre Critics Association; Stavis Playwriting Award; and Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama. She starred in a 2013 production of Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop as part of Actors Theatre of Louisville and wrapped her stint as a story editor on Showtime’s “Shameless” this fall.

Morisseau, one of two recipients of the prestigious biennial Steinberg Playwright Awards, will be awarded a $50,000 grant Nov. 16, at Lincoln Center Theater.

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Morisseau, an alumna of The Public Theater’s Emerging Writers Group, Women’s Project Theater’s Playwrights Lab and Lark Playwrights’ Workshop, earned her bachelor’s in acting from the University of Michigan. Now a story editor on Showtime’s “Shameless” and based in New York, her career began as a performance poet in the Harmonie Park community of Detroit. As an actress, she starred in a 2013 production of Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop (Actors’ Theatre of Louisville). This year, she was named among the Top 20 most-produced U.S. playwrights for the 2015-2016 season, which also includes Wilson.

Ben Brantley of The New York Times described Morisseau as a writer “who knows the code for getting under our skins.” She has done so with her 2014 play Blood at the Root – inspired by the Jena Six and initially directed by Penn State’s Steve H. Broadnax III – as well as her celebrated trilogy of plays known as The Detroit Project. The cycle includes:

• Detroit ’67, which delves into the 1967 riots in the city amid the back group of Motown music. First performed at The Public Theater in 2013, it ran at Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company in February under the direction of Kamilah Forbes and recently completed a West Coast run at the Los Angeles Theater Center under the direction of Joy Hooper.
• Paradise Blue, set in 1949 during the Jazz era, centers on a Black trumpeter and highlights a thriving Black community and business strip – complete with jazz clubs – faced with displacement by a housing act that cleared the way for the 75 Chrysler Freeway. Staged at Williamstown Theater Festival during the summer, the play was directed by Tony Award winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson and featured actor Blair Underwood.
• Skeleton Crew tells the story of four Detroit auto workers in the face of the 2008 recession. Having appeared at the New Voices Festival and workshopped at The Lark during 2014, the play will be produced for its world premiere in January by Atlantic Theater Company.

Among Morisseau’s other plays are: Sunset Baby (Labyrinth Theater Co. – NYC, Gate Theater – London) and Follow Me To Nellie’s (O’Neill, Premiere Stages). Her additional awards are: two NAACP Image Awards; Sky Cooper New American Play Prize; and the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History.  Her work also has appeared in South Africa, Scotland and Australia.

New York Times theatre critic Brantley called Brooklyn-based Jacobs-Jenkins “one of this country’s most original and unsettling dramatists.” The Residency Five playwright at Signature Theatre and a Lila Acheson Wallace Fellow at The Juilliard School, Jacobs-Jenkins received Obie awards for best new American play in Appropriate (Actors Theatre of Louisville, Victory Gardens Theater, Wooly Mammoth Theatre Company, Signature Theatre) and An Octoroon (Soho Rep).

• Appropriate follows three adult children of the Lafayette family patriarch who return to his former Arkansas plantation to liquidate the estate. A compulsive hoarder, they stumble upon a gruesome family secret among his belongings.
• An Octoroon is an adaptation of 19th century Irish playwright Dion Boucicault’s melodrama about slavery in America. Judge Peyton is dead and his plantation is in financial ruins. When his handsome nephew, George, arrives as heir apparent, he quickly falls in love with Zoe, a beautiful octoroon. But the evil overseer has other plans for the plantation and Zoe.

The 1984-born playwright, dramaturg and performer is known for his unconventional comedy Neighbors, which uses minstrelsy to explore the history of Black theatre and to confront tensions in “post-racial” America when a family of Black actors – in blackface – move into the neighborhood. His play Gloria – about an ambitious group of editorial assistants at a notorious Manhattan magazine in a race for a book deal before turning 30 – was staged at Vineyard Theater to critical acclaim.

Lincoln Center Theater will present his family drama War next spring for its New York premiere. Commissioned and previously staged by Yale Repertory Theatre, the play works to navigate landmines of the past as brother and sister search for peace at the hospital bedside of their comatose mother and discover a shocking claim about their grandfather’s WWII tour of duty.

With a master’s in performance studies from New York University, Jacobs-Jenkins has taught at his alma mater and Queens University of Charlotte. His honors include: a Paula Vogel Award; a fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts; a Helen Merrill Award; and the inaugural Tennessee Williams Award. His work also has been featured in Germany and London.

Hungarian-born playwright Lajos Egri, author of The Art of Dramatic Writing and The Art of Creative Writing, said: “No two dramatists think or write alike. Ten thousand playwrights can take the same premise, as they have done since Shakespeare, and not one play will resemble the other except in the premise. Your knowledge, your understanding of human nature and your imagination will take care of that.”

The knowledge, understanding of human nature and imagination of Morisseau and Jacobs-Jenkins will leave audiences for generations remembering history – both its grit and its grace.

The post Playwrights Morisseau, Jacobs-Jenkins To Receive Steinberg Award appeared first on Broadway Black.

The project started by gathering artists from top theatre companies around the country to create a series of one-minute plays centered around the themes of race and police brutality.While it seems as though a one-minute play isn’t enough time to faithfully explore the subject matter, I ask you this question: Is one minute not the amount of time it takes for a law enforcement officer to make an incorrect assumption and leave another Black body lifeless on the ground? In one minute is someone able to be choked to death? In one minute is someone able to be held down on the ground against their will with a knee lodged in their spine? Yes, these occurrences can happen in a minute and have happened. Co-Creater and Producer of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Claudia Alick, told The Takeaway with John Hockenberry that “you can do a lot in one minute, the rigor and the restraint required means that you say something specific.”

The plays were workshopped in St. Louis from October 18th – 23rd, were produced and live streamed October 24th, and featured content by collaborators such as Lynn Nottage, Dominique Morisseau, Nikkole Salter, The National Black Theater, The Hansberry Project and American Theater Company, The Black Rep and many more. The festival will make the body of plays available for participating theatre companies who’ve sent participants — and other national partners who have opted to participate for free –with the aim to have those partnering theaters hold a specific day or week of events in staging these plays from Oct 26^th– October 30^th, 2016.

As a firm believer that the stage is the best place for art to truly live, breathe and exsist, I find productions like this to be important for the whole world to see. I don’t want to have to wait a year to be able to see these plays, but I know it will be more than worth it.

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