One man’s success in Arlington has caused changes in the Holiday Season for Washington’s Theater Alliance, the company announced Friday.
Because Stephawn Stevens, Black Nativity’s longtime director and a member of Theater Alliance’s Board of Directors has been cast in Signature Theatre’s Dreamgirls, he will be unable to do his customary work on Black Nativity. Accordingly, Theater Alliance has decided to replace Black Nativity with a four-week series of Wednesday night Gospel concerts called Soulful Sessions.
“Stephawn has been integral in shaping [Black Nativity] into the success that it has become,” Theater Alliance Artistic Director Colin Hovde said in explaining the change of plans.
Soulful Sessions, hosted by Theater Alliance Board Member Robert E. Person, will play each Wednesday starting December 5 at Theater Alliance’s 1365 H Street NE venue. Performances begin at 7.30 p.m. Tickets are available on the website.
Soulful Sessions will help conclude Theater Alliance’s tenure at its H Street Venue, which is scheduled to close at the end of the year. Along with Soulful Sessions, Theater Alliance will be featuring Jason Lott’s one-actor play Wonderful Life, co-produced with Hub Theatre, (reviewed here last year), which will run between November 29 and December 30, and the dark comedy The Night Before Christmas, which will run between November 23 and December 29.
In other Theater Alliance news, Hovde announced that the company has added community activist Susan Perry, Nina Legitt, Managing Director of the Perry School Community Services Center, and Arena Casting Director Dan Pruksarnukul to its Board of Directors.
Hovde also announced that the company had received an East of the River grant from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities. Further information about this grant was unavailable by press time.
