THE GOSPEL WOMAN

WORKSHOP PRODUCTION
Co-production with Chelsea Factory

By TyLie Shider
Directed by Adrienne D. Williams
NOVEMBER 9-13, 2022

Soon, Orpah, the award winning Soul singer, will arrive to record her live Gospel album in the church. In the interim, there is a boycott, the threat of a foreclosure, and a sororal feud over whose voice is on the demo that launched her career

AMANI

Co-production with Rattlestick Theater

By a.k. payne
Directed by Josiah Davis
FEBRUARY 6 - MARCH 5, 2023

Amani grows up building a rocket ship with her father, who vows to make it to outer space: where his child can breathe easy, where there are no gangs to take his first love’s life, nor prisons to take Black boys’ best years. As Amani moves into adulthood, she seeks her voice and her own dreams. Will Amani make it to the moon?

{pray}

A WORLD PREMIERE OFF-BROADWAY PRODUCTION
Ars Nova @ Greenwich House
By nicHi douglas
Music Composed by S T A R R BUSBY & JJJJJEROME ELLIS and Tariq Al-Saber

**POSTPONED!

nicHi douglas’ world premiere of (pray), which was set to begin performances in spring 2023, will instead continue its artistic development this year, allowing for necessary additional time to expand collaboration on the piece with the creative team and our co-producers, Ars Nova.

A congregation for those past, present and future comes to power in (pray), a new choreopoem by nicHi douglas. A celebration and a reckoning, (pray) dives into the beautiful and complex relationship between Black womxn and spirituality throughout history. Following the form of a Sunday Baptist Church service and set in an isolated rainforest, this sacred offering creates a communal space for fellowship, healing and joy. Alchemized in collaboration with S T A R R Busby and JJJJJerome Ellis, (pray) uplifts and grapples with the tremendous value and weight of spiritual inheritance.

BERNARDA’S DAUGHTERS

By Diane Exavier
Directed by Dominique Rider
A co-production with The New Group
MAY 2 - JUNE 4, 2023

It’s a sweltering summer in Flatbush. In a neighborhood overrun by wrecking crews and new construction, the five Abellard sisters take refuge in their family home. In spite of their jovial, teasing conversations, the sisters are mourning the death of their father and the changing neighborhood. Each of them is also confronting personal losses of their youth and their dreams for the future. Inspired by the classic play House of Bernarda Alba by Federico García Lorca, but bracingly contemporary, Bernarda’s Daughters confronts issues of class, race, gentrification, and where a woman’s place is in a rapidly changing world. Drenched in sparkling, witty dialog, Bernarda’s Daughters is a thrilling, engrossing exploration of a family at a crossroads.

BLACK MOTHER LOST DAUGHTER (BMLD)

By Fedna Jacquet
Directed By Stevie Walker-Webb

PUBLIC PRESENTATION
JUNE 21-25, 2023

In this searing and haunted play, playwright Fedna Jacquet asks us to consider the gap between justice and responsibility. In life, Queen painted vivid portraits that captured the truth of her subjects — but when she is killed by police, her sister Princess hopes to keep Queen’s memory alive and their mother afloat. Intimate and emotional, Black Mother Lost Daughter shows how a national reckoning echoes in the lives of three women.