The Billie Holiday Theatre Launches Inaugural “Black Narrative” Theater Series

As a part of its 2024-25 Season, The Billie Holiday Theatre – one of the nation’s preeminent arts and culture organizations – will launch the inaugural “Black Narrative” theater series. Celebrating the power of Black storytelling with this new bi-annual series, The Billie will present three days of performances, readings and conversations that give voice to the African American experience.  The weekend will kick off on Friday (November 15) with award-winning actor, singer and writer Daniel Koa Beaty’s critically acclaimed one-person show Love Warrior produced by the New Heritage Theatre Group. Through intimate stories, poetry, song, dance, and multi-character transformation, Beaty shares his journey including a life changing visit to the plantation where his great, great grandmother was enslaved, and his enstooling as a King in Ghana (November 16 @ 7:30 PM).

For its Saturday presentation (November 16), The Billie collaborates with The Fire This Time Festival (TFTT) to present a special edition with a reading of six 10-minute plays focused on social and political issues impacting the Black community. Directed by award-winning director and Artistic Director of The Fire This Time Festival Cezar Williams, the selected plays for this iteration include: Panopticon by Cyrus Aaron; Slow Gin Fits by Angelica Cheri; The Sporting Life of Icarus Jones by Marcus Gardley; C.O.G.S. by Samantha Godfrey; #LakeishaJefferson by Goldie E. Patrick and The Weatherin’ by Jonathan Payne. With Pradanya Subramanyan in the role of Stage Manager, the cast for this presentation includes: Candyce Adkins, Reginald L. Barnes, Alton Ray, Atiya Taylor and Wadiah Waliah (November 16 @ 7:30 PM).

On Sunday, “Black Narrative” will culminate with a staged reading bringing together works by celebrated playwrights Amiri Baraka with Dutchman and Aishah Rahman and her response The Lady and The Tramp to be presented in partnership with CLASSIX – a group of five theater artists, founded in 2017 by director Awoye Timpo, The piece is The performance will be followed by a panel discussion that will center on the themes of the plays and what it means to perform them together. Directed by Brooklyn-based director and writer Dominique Rider and with Rachel April* in the role of Stage Manager, cast members for this presentation includes: Amara James Aja*, Leslie Fray* and Starr Kirkland* (November 17 @ 4PM). *Denotes members of the Actors’ Equity Association