As theatre companies create virtual versions of stage performances, multi-talented DC artist Meshaun Labrone has signed a partnership with film producers to turn two stage plays into fully enhanced films, aimed directly at world wide audiences via a brand name streaming service. Labrone has signed a production deal with Flying Scoop Productions for his most […]
Jacqueline Youm, JaYo Théâtre: establishing a pathway to closer connection and inclusion
Jacqueline Youm, founder of one of DC’s newest companies, JaYo Théâtre, is from Senegal, the daughter of an International Monetary Fund economist. Watch below as this talented performer, in her striking monologue “Beautiful Burden/Je Suis Noire/I am Black,” describes her shock in first encountering the daily, brutally lived American form of theater of the absurd […]
John R. Lewis’ last remarks in support of Black Lives Matter marchers
“Without the arts, without music, without dance, without drama, without photography, the civil rights movement would have been like a bird without wings.” – John Lewis The Honorable John Lewis wrote his last remarks to the nation to be published posthumously upon the day of his funeral in Atlanta, Georgia on July 30, 2020. Originally […]
J. J. Johnson talks about WANNABE, his comic play about growing up Black in a White VA town
J. J. Johnson, who extends his talents as a DC stage actor (recently, Les Deux Noirs: Notes on Notes of A Native Son) into film and and commercial work, now adds playwright to his resumé with the debut of WANNABE. Produced by 4615 Theatre Company, the Zoom performance can be seen starting this Thursday, July […]
Racism within DC area theatres. DCTS Roundtable calls for reckoning
On Thursday, July 16, seven gender diverse artists and leaders in our theatre community gathered for a Roundtable to talk about the barriers that Black women, femmes, and nonbinary folx face in our community, guided by JR Nexus Russ. Watch the full discussion on the DCTS Facebook page. These conversations are not new. Whiteness and White […]
Tonight: DCTS live streams Gender-Diverse Black Theatre Leadership Roundtable
Tonight, DC Theatre Scene holds its first live streamed event, starting at 7pm, on the DCTS Facebook page. The last few months have been hard in the theatre community, with many reckonings and revelations. While it has been a time of transformation, it has been particularly difficult on BIPOC women, femmes and nonbinary folx, who […]
Video: NY Philharmonic plays 13-year old Jordan Millar’s arrangement of We Shall Overcome. Heart-searing
This is THE anthem of THE American civil rights movement that many other movements for civil rights around the world have adopted. You will have heard it sung in documentaries and the news coverage of protests from the 1960s. Listen to this version. It’s heart-searing. It soars. The arrangement written by this young lady (a […]
Music for the Movement: I’ll Rise Up by Andra Day
My name is Pamela Jafari. I am a Washingtonian senior who is Black, lesbian, a mother, a grandmother, and a great-grandmother. I have a 26 y/o grandson, and 3 y/o great-grandson, who I am always concerned about their welfare of these Black young people in America. I am a playwright and a member of […]
Juneteenth celebrations: Antonyo Awards, Alvin Ailey, IN Series and a nationwide new play reading
Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day that a regiment of Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas to announce the end of the Civil War and the emancipation of the enslaved peoples of Texas. On January 1, 1980, Texas became the first state to declare Juneteenth, also known as Emancipation Day, Jubilee Day and Freedom […]
Music for the movement: Skin on the Drum, Michael Franti & Spearhead
Recommended by Anastasia Wilson, DC actor now based in Atlanta. “And as the pepper gas clears And police and protestors go home Just as the morning dew are tear drops of the night My emotions are always there for you And will never leave you dry.”
Artist Carlos Walker asks white America “What If?” it were you
The theater is the place where things are shown: that is, it’s a mirror where things that we don’t make overt in daily life are brought out in front of us to see. While we usually talk about the action that takes place on the stage, the primary and maybe most important drama takes place […]
A Movement Unleashed: Black Lives Matter Protest, Photo Essay from DC
We are like clay. Life, a chisel. Every experience we have brings us one step closer to seeing our ultimate form. Every hardship, every heartbreak, every trauma, every laugh forever shaping us into the people we see today. This month in America, the people took back our tools. Forever through with a culture that deemed […]
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