PLAYS FOR THE PLAGUE YEAR

Nov 4 – 27, 2022 (The Public Theater, New York)

By Suzan-Lori Parks

Directed by Niegel Smith

On March 13, 2020, as theaters shut their doors and so many of us went into lockdown, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and The Public’s Writer-in-Residence Suzan-Lori Parks picked up her pen and her guitar and set out to write a play every day. What emerged is a breathtaking anthology of plays and songs that chronicle our collective experience and the hope and perseverance that occurred throughout that troubling year. Performed in the intimate music venue, Joe’s Pub, PLAYS FOR THE PLAGUE YEAR is a theatrical concert featuring the music and plays of Suzan-Lori Parks. At once, both a personal story of one family’s daily lives, as well as a sweeping account of all we faced as a city, a nation, and a global community. Niegel Smith directs this life-affirming new work that beams with humor and humanity, bears witness to what we’ve experienced, and offers inspiration as we shape our future.

Click here to purchase your tickets for Nov 4 – 27, 2022

THE WORTHY – JUNETEENTH

June 11 & June 19 – 2022 (African Burial Ground, Lower Manhattan and The Flea Theater, New York)

by Niegel Smith

featuring Talu Green, Temesgen Tocruray, and Kyra Davis

Join Artistic Director Niegel Smith, an afro-futuristic griot, on a Juneteenth walk exploring our city through the lens of liberation, black love, queer joy, and community healing. Co-led by Talu Green with his commanding Djembe drumming, The Worthy will take you through the African Burial Ground Monument, past civic buildings and through the streets of lower Manhattan as we consider the worth of Black and Queer folks. We’ll use the monument as a space for contemplation and ritual. We’ll journey to public sculptures and respond to poetic prompts. And, joined by two dancer actors, we’ll walk through the street as joyful resistance.  The Walk will conclude at The Flea theater with a video installation and liberation libation in our back patio where you can hang, meet the artists and hear more about their work and inspiration.

Please join me on a walk for just a few, maybe four…

No more.

      For

            This 

Is an intimate contemplation on  

      Justice

       Resilience

        Worth (Street)

And 

       Beautiful Black Men

‘Cause

It’s Juneteenth 

And I’m Finally Free

Click here to purchase your tickets for June 11 or 19, 2022

THE RITUAL OF BREATH IS THE RIGHT TO RESIST

Sept 16-17, 2022 (Hanover, NH)

Oct 14-15, 2022 (Stanford, CA)

Composed by: Jonathan Berger

Visual Artist: Enrico Riley

Librettist: Vievee Francis

Conductor: Kamna Gupta

Choreography: Neema Bickersteth, Trebien Pollard, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar

Social Impact Directors: Dr. Shamell Bell, Gwen Carr

Stage Manager: Jason Kaiser

Featuring: Neema Bickersteth, Greg Ward, Fung Chern Hwei, Titilayo Ayengade, Mikael Darmanie, Bonnie Whiting, Trebien Pollard, Isaiah Robinson and a community chorus. 

Designed by: Reza Behjat, Gabriel Berry, Peter Nigrini, Camilla Tassi

Co-Commissioned and Produced By The Hopkins Center

Co-Commissioned By Stanford Live

Creative Producer Kim Whitener 

An offering. An opera in seven movements.

A call for justice.

Responding to the murder of Eric Garner, this meditative and immersive work is a creative act of resistance. Centering the voice and plea of an activist / daughter / soprano, The Ritual of Breath Is the Rite to Resist interweaves music, text, visuals and movement, gathering us together as co-conspirers—to breathe and keep breathing any way we can. The opera is preceded by six days of digital and in-person rituals, inviting participants to share in communal acts of healing and reflection. Visit the ritual website.

“[Neema] Bickersteth’s heroic and transporting performance deserves praise without measure. She was truly the show’s breath of life on opening night of a two-day run. Her achievement was supported and amplified by everything around her, from the scenic and supple projection design by Peter Nigrini to Reza Behjat’s pointed lighting, all under Niegel Smith’s disarmingly simple and lucid direction.”

-Steven Winn, San Francisco Classical Voice

Click here to purchase your tickets for Hanover, NH September 16 – 17

Click here to purchase your tickets for Stanford, CA October 14 – 15