Headshot of Katori Hall

All we do is WIN! Congratulations to Katori Hall for not only securing the bag AND the re-up with Lionsgate, but also for laying down brick by brick for those who will come behind her.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the new deal with Lionsgate, which purchased Starz in 2016, includes the development of new projects for the studio and a fund to commission Black playwrights, which will be mentored by Katori, herself.

For those of you who are fans of Katori’s work from “P-Valley”, here is a brief overview of how she has been, and continues to be, booked, busy, and blessed. In 2010 she won the Olivier Award in the New Play category for The Mountaintop and this year she earned a Tony nomination in October for Best Book of a Musical for Tina- The Tina Turner Musical.

 

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It’s clear to see that her strategy is not only to shine a light on Black talent that tends to be underrepresented but also to build a path for those who come behind her. When Katori wins, we all win.

A beautiful representation of what it means to be Broadway Black.

The post P-Valley’s Katori Hall Secures the Bag and a Future for Black Playwrights appeared first on Broadway Black.

Kain, 51, first rose to prominence in his role as “Raheem” opposite Tupac in 1992’s “Juice.” But, he’s probably best know for his role as “Maya’s” husband “Darnell Wilkes” on the sitcom “Girlfriends” for seven years. Kain has also appeared in “Love Jones” (1997) and he played the lead in Showtime’s “The Tiger Woods Story” (1998). In a stark departure from his nice guy roles, Kain portrayed the rapist “Bill” in Tyler Perry’s “For Colored Girls” (2010).

Kain recently ventured into the theatre world, penning the stage drama Lambs to Slaughter which tells the story of a mourning single mother living alone in the city after the murder of her son “Emmett.” The play was read in December 2014 at the cell theatre in New York.

“Arkabutla” was inspired by an incident that Hall witnessed as a teenager and marks her first attempt at filmmaking. The film is scheduled to begin filming in Memphis on October 20.

Hall was the first African American playwright to win the Olivier Award for The Mountaintop. Since her rise on the Broadway scene, her work has been produced at acclaimed theatres across the nation, bringing her signature style to the forefront of the theatre scene.

Her most recent production was The Mixed Blood Theatre‘s Pussy Valley, which closed a successful run on May 10th. The play centered around the lives of four women working in a Mississippi strip club, a world that Hall describes as “the intersection of hip hop and strip club cultures.”

The post Katori Hall Finds Leading Man for Arkabutla in Khalil Kain appeared first on Broadway Black.

The motley cast of characters included Jasmine Hughes, Joetta Wright, Megan Rippey and Tatiana Williams as Mercedes, Miss Mississippi, Get em’ Gidget and Autumn Night, who twerked and twirled through the performance while allowing a glimpse into the lives of dancers at the Pink Pony. Not least was the performance of Nicco Annan as Uncle Clifford, a pre-op trans man who watches over the girls of the club. In Hall’s capable hands, these characters rise above being stereotypical depictions and instead shed light into the beauty and the heart break of their lives.

Hall, best known for her award winning play ‘The Mountaintop‘ about the final days of Martin Luther King Jr, was the first African American playwright to win the Olivier Award. Since her rise on the Broadway scene, Hall’s work has been produced at acclaimed theatre’s across the nation, bringing her signature style to the forefront of the theatre scene. Her play Hurt Village had its off-broadway premier at the Signature Theatre and starred Tony Award winner Tonya Pinkins.

The Women of Mixed Blood's Pussy Valley from Mixed Blood Theatre on Vimeo.

The post Katori Hall’s ‘Pussy Valley’ closes at Mixed Blood Theatre appeared first on Broadway Black.