Backstage Stories

Zhailon Levingston Broadway’s Future Songbook Series - presented by Arts and Artists of Tomorrow - continues its season on Monday, January 25, 2021 at 5:30 PM with a virtual concert sponsored by the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. Produced by Leandra Ellis-Gaston and Zhailon Levingston (in association with John Znidarsic) this concert features Black Voices of the Future . These songs penned by some of Broadway’s newest and most exciting Black Broadway’s  Com posers and Lyricists will be performed by stars from the worlds of Broadway, Pop, and Cabaret.  TO RESERVE TICKETS: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/131966203467  FEATURED WRITERS: Zhailon Levingston, Nik Alexander, Nehemiah Luckett, Tracey Conyer Lee, Sissi Liu, Kirya Traber, Alex Hare, Derrick Byars, Tia DeShazor, AriDy Nox, and Brandon Webster  PERFORMERS: Nik Alexander, Tracey Conyer Lee, Nehemiah Luckett, Avionce Hoyles, Matthew Greer, John Carlin, Amara Brady, Richard Baskin, Kirya Traber, Tonilyn Sideco,

                                           In the winter of 2022, Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) plans to present the Broadway premiere of Skeleton Crew , written by Tony Award® nominee Dominique Morisseau ( Ain’t Too Proud , Pipeline ) and directed by Tony Award winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson ( Lackawanna Blues , August Wilson’s Jitney ) at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Timely and gripping, Skeleton Crew  takes place in 2008 Detroit. A small automotive factory is on the brink of foreclosure, and a tight knit family of workers hangs in the balance. With uncertainty everywhere, the line between blue collar and white collar becomes blurred, and this working family must reckon with their personal loyalties, their instincts for survival and their ultimate hopes for humanity.  The New York Times gives this astonishing work a Critic's Pick and cheers, "A very fine new play... warm-blooded, astute, deeply moral and deeply American." And The Amsterdam News hails it as "a p

Actor James Hewlett as Richard III  African Grove Theatre In 1821, a retired ship steward named William Brown saved enough capital to found the African Grove Theatre.  Located in New York City, Brown’s aim was to provide a place for African Americans to enjoy theatrical entertainments.  From the very beginning, black theatrical productions served as a forum for positive—and revolutionary—images depicting black life in America.  The African Grove produced not only works by William Shakespeare, but plays and skits that dealt with slavery and activism as well.  King Shotaway; or the Insurrection of the Caribs of St. Domingo a theatrical enactment of a rebellion by Black Caribbeans.  In 1823, the African Grove was ransacked by a white mob which, aided by the police, was responsible for the theatre’s closure. In the ensuing years, George Walker and Bert Williams continued the tradition of black productions, starring in and touring seven shows that went to Broadway and toured internationall