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Black Theatre

The rich tradition and current state of Black Theatre is explored in this content, including discussions analyzing contemporary work and pieces honoring trailblazers. Consider starting with the Daughters of Lorraine podcast, the Journal series on the state of Black theatre, or the Journal series on Black women in the performing arts.

The Latest

The Virtuosity of Black Storytelling with Tarell Alvin McCraney
Podcast
The Virtuosity of Black Storytelling with Tarell Alvin McCraney
by Jordan Ealey, Leticia Ridley, Tarell Alvin McCraney
6 March 2024
Opening the Channel with Masi Asare
Podcast
Opening the Channel with Masi Asare
by Masi Asare, Leticia Ridley, Jordan Ealey
28 February 2024
Finding the Individual in Your Digital Choreography Library
Podcast
Finding the Individual in Your Digital Choreography Library
by Tjaša Ferme, LaJune McMillian
15 February 2024
Illustration of several different pairs of people holding hands with each other.
Our Trauma Twin Siblings: Building Creative Spaces for Queer and Trans Tamil Community as Teardrop Collective
Essay

Our Trauma Twin Siblings: Building Creative Spaces for Queer and Trans Tamil Community as Teardrop Collective

31 March 2023

Hari Somaskantha and Gitanjali exchange letters discussing their work with Teardrop Collective, a Toronto-based group that centers stories of queer, trans, Deaf, and hearing people of Tamil, Sri Lankan, and South Asian descent.

From the Ground Up Podcast Teaser image.
What Ensemble Touring Can Learn from Dance
Podcast

What Ensemble Touring Can Learn from Dance

29 March 2023

Jeffrey Mosser connects with Willa Jo Zollar, who is founder, chief visioning partner, and MacArthur Genius at Urban Bush Women. Together they talk about touring, the festival circuit, and strategy necessary to sustain a company for thirty years.

event poster for dare to dream with m d schaffer.
Dare to Dream featuring M.D. Schaffer
Video

Dare to Dream featuring M.D. Schaffer

Playwright M. D. Schaffer Shares How their Dream of Writing and Premiering Drapetomania Became a Reality

Friday 24 March 2023
United States

M.D. Schaffer (they/they) is a queer, non-Binary, African American writer born in Houston, Texas and currently residing in New York City. Their previous works include F***in’ Howard Phillips with the JaYo Theatre Company, Hotel On Fremont at The Lewis Center for the Arts, and A Rodeo Clown with the Obsidian Theatre Festival.

event poster for black film festival new orleans with we will dream virtual festival.
New Orleans Black Film Festival Awards
Video

New Orleans Black Film Festival Awards

WE WILL DREAM: New Works Festival

Sunday 19 March 2023
New Orleans, Louisiana

Hosted by Mark Caesar featuring the Glaspy Experience, the Black Film Festival of New Orleans (BFFNO) is a multi-day event designed to celebrate independent films and filmmakers. Through BFFNO, creatives have a home that advances African American cinema and cultivates local film and television in classic New Orleans style.

event poster for Re-Centering Cultural Performance and Orange Economy Book Launch.
Book Launch: Re-Centering Cultural Performance and Orange Economy in Post-Colonial Africa: Policy, Soft Power, and Sustainability
Video

Book Launch: Re-Centering Cultural Performance and Orange Economy in Post-Colonial Africa: Policy, Soft Power, and Sustainability

Offering Perspectives on Ways Existing Cultural and Non-Cultural Infrastructures Can Open Opportunities for Diplomacy and Soft Power

Tuesday 14 March 2023
Saskatchewan, Canada

The Centre for Socially Engaged Theatre (C-SET) at the Faculty of Media, Art, and Performance at the University of Regina, in collaboration with Theatre Emissary International, presents the online book launch of Re-centering Cultural Performance and Orange Economy in Post-Colonial Africa: Policy, Soft Power, and Sustainability. This book explores the role of national theatres, cultural centers, cultural policy, festivals, and the film industry as creative and cultural performance hubs for exercising soft power and cultural diplomacy. This event will feature live captioning and ASL interpretation.

Four senior actors stand on-stage and look at their scripts during a rehearsal.
Elder Dramaturgy
Essay

Elder Dramaturgy

7 March 2023

Playwright Carlyle Brown describes his journey with the play We Take Care of Our Own by Zainabu Jallo, detailing the joys and challenges that come from work featuring characters in their eighties and nineties.

Building Our Own Tables Season 3 teaser image with guest headshot.
Trust Your Gifts with Kelundra Smith
Podcast

Trust Your Gifts with Kelundra Smith

1 March 2023

This week, Kelundra Smith sits down with Yura Sapi to discuss building her own table as a playwright and shares the process and inspiration behind some of her latest works. Topics for this episode include affirmations, changing hierarchical structures, and moving beyond a sense of urgency.

event poster for the 1619 project talkback of an old ship sailing through the sky.
The 1619 Project, One-Act Festival Talkback with Dr. Nikole Hannah-Jones
Video

The 1619 Project, One-Act Festival Talkback with Dr. Nikole Hannah-Jones

Friday 17 February 2023
Dallas, Texas

Bishop Arts Theater Center presents a talkback following The 1619 Project, One-Act Festival livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network on Friday 17 February 2023 at 7:55 p.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC -8) / 9:55 p.m. CST (Dallas, UTC -6) / 10:55 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5).

A young woman looks to her right.
“Marimacha” Laughs its Way Through Representation of Latine, Black, and Queer Characters
Essay

“Marimacha” Laughs its Way Through Representation of Latine, Black, and Queer Characters

13 February 2023

Daphnie Sicre discusses the way that Latinidad, Blackness, and queerness intersect in “Marimacha,” comedic coming out story about an AfroPanamanian family on their way to a wedding.

Building Our Own Tables Season 3 teaser image.
Blessings with Brittani Samuel
Podcast

Blessings with Brittani Samuel

1 February 2023

Recently named Edward Medina Prize winner Brittani Samuel joins Yura Sapi to share about her experience building her own table as a theatre critic. Topics in this episode include choosing joy every day, being a child of immigrants, and a shared meditation practice. This episode is dedicated to theare artist and critic Edward Medina, honoring his legacy which brings us all together today.

A group of protesters with various posters smile for a photo in Times Square in New York City.
A Dream Deferred: Black, Indigenous, and Women+ of Color Playwright-Activists
Essay

A Dream Deferred: Black, Indigenous, and Women+ of Color Playwright-Activists

30 January 2023

Yvette Heyliger reflects on her experience as a Black woman artivist and discusses the racial and gender inequities in the theatre field.

Building Our Own Tables Season 3 teaser image.
Fill Your Cup with Abundance Zaddy
Podcast

Fill Your Cup with Abundance Zaddy

18 January 2023

Abundance Zaddy joins Yura Sapi to talk about creating Cause Reign, an oral history project that connects Black people—with a focus on Black trans and queer folks—to their histories through dreamwork, the practice of remembering, recording, and activating the healing potential of dreams. Topics in this episode include prioritizing love and sweetness, transcending time, and asking for consent.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Championing Theatre for Development in Malawian Villages
Podcast

Championing Theatre for Development in Malawian Villages

17 January 2023

Theatre for development, which uses theatre to foster civic dialogue in communities, is quite popular in Malawi. Fumbani Innot Phiri, Jr. sits down with theatre for development practitioner Vitu Gwambaike Zgambo find out what commercial theatremakers in Malawi’s cities and towns can learn from the community-based practitioners creating theatre in villages around the country.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
How YDC Theatre Leaders Are Navigating Malawi’s Changing Theatre Environment
Podcast

How YDC Theatre Leaders Are Navigating Malawi’s Changing Theatre Environment

4 January 2023

YDC Theatre has been producing theatre consistently in Malawi, even throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. They join Fumbani Innot Phiri, Jr. to trace the connections between the company’s consistent work centering Malawian perspectives, their efforts to build an audience, and the political and funding climate that they must navigate.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Reinventing Malawian Theatre for a New Generation
Podcast

Reinventing Malawian Theatre for a New Generation

7 December 2022

Jack Msumba, creative director of Youth Developers Collaboration Theatre, has big ideas for the future of Malawian theatre. In this interview, he shares his plans to eventually build Malawi’s first theatre house by producing work consistently in schools, communities, and commercial settings.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Theatre as a Tool for Menstrual Hygiene Education
Podcast

Theatre as a Tool for Menstrual Hygiene Education

30 November 2022

Lydia Deborah Banda infuses theatre into community initiatives that work toward gender equality, educate girls about menstruation, and provide leadership and support opportunities in schools and prisons. In this interview, she shares her experiences conducting these initiatives in Malawi and touring internationally to Germany.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Development of Malawian Theatre
Podcast

Development of Malawian Theatre

A Conversation with Maxwell Chiphinga

9 November 2022

Maxwell Ciphinga, better known as Max DC, has weathered massive changes in the audience, form, and funding of Malawian theatre throughout his four-decade career. In this interview, he shares his perspective on the industry and discusses his policy and producorial work as the president of Malawi’s new National Theatre Association.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Theatre Academics
Podcast

Theatre Academics

A Conversation with Roselyn Madalo Dzanja

2 November 2022

As a scholar, educator, and practitioner of theatre, Roselyn Madalo Dzanja knows Malawi’s theatrical landscape well. In this interview, she discusses challenges Malawian women face when pursuing an acting career, the need for artistic independence from international donors, possibilities for Chichewa-language drama, and more.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Dance for Change
Podcast

Dance for Change

A Conversation with Robert Magasa

26 October 2022

Robert Magasa is an experienced dancer, choreographer, and actor who trained in Zimbabwe and now runs UjeNi Dance Ensemble Theatre in Malawi. In this interview, Magasa discusses his career, the economics of producing theatre in Malawi, and his current work to bring a combination of traditional and Afro contemporary dance to schoolchildren in Malawi.

event poster for reflecting forward session two: Art, Race & Dialogue.
Animating Democracy Session Two
Video

Animating Democracy Session Two

Art, Race, and Dialogue

Thursday 13 October 2022
United States

Art2Action and Animating Democracy presented Art, Race, and Dialogue, the second event in the series Animating Democracy: REFLECTING FORWARD, livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Thursday 13 October 2022 at 1 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 3 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 4 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4).

Thirteen people holding a giant check and posing for a picture.
Theatre Education as a Transformative Tool in Southwestern Nigeria
Essay

Theatre Education as a Transformative Tool in Southwestern Nigeria

20 September 2022

Theatre artist Kofoworola Owokotomo describes her experience teaching theatre to students at the Concord School in Ibadan and advocates for more funding of arts education in Nigerian schools.

Actors working together during rehearsal.
Making Our Own Table: Defining Black Intimacy Practice
Essay

Making Our Own Table: Defining Black Intimacy Practice

A Conversation with Kaja Dunn

25 August 2022

Ann James interviews Kaja Dunn, who works both as an intimacy specialist and a scholar of race and choreography, about her decade-long path through the intimacy industry. They discuss the way to bring intimacy professionals into a production process, the importance of citing Black women’s contributions to the field, and the need diversify who is telling stories on our stages.

Daughters of Lorraine Podcast teaser.
I Write What Comes Up in My Body: Robbie McCauley's Theatre
Podcast

I Write What Comes Up in My Body: Robbie McCauley's Theatre

24 August 2022

In this episode, Jordan Ealey and Leticia Ridley look at the life and legacy of playwright Robbie McCauley, who recently passed away. They discuss her work as a pioneer of solo performance as a Black woman and how she impacted the world of Black feminist theatre.

Daughters of Lorraine Podcast teaser.
Put Some Respect on Black Theatre with Lisa B. Thompson
Podcast

Put Some Respect on Black Theatre with Lisa B. Thompson

16 August 2022

In this episode, Jordan Ealey and Leticia Ridley interview artist/scholar Lisa B. Thompson. They discuss navigating life as a Black feminist artist/scholar, putting some respect on Black theatre, and why Black theatre is an integral part of Black Studies.

Daughters of Lorraine Podcast teaser.
Writing Detroit: Dominique Morisseau’s Practice of the Possible
Podcast

Writing Detroit: Dominique Morisseau’s Practice of the Possible

10 August 2022

Jordan Ealey and Leticia Ridley interview award-winning and acclaimed playwright Dominique Morisseau about her recent Broadway productions of Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations and Skeleton Crew; the future of Detroit theatre and performance; and reckoning with American history. Ealey and Ridley discuss Morisseau’s practice of reparative creativity and the ability for theatre to serve as a rehearsal for true change.