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Black Theatre

The rich tradition and current state of Black Theatre is explored in this content, including discussions analyzing contemporary work and pieces honoring trailblazers. Consider starting with the Daughters of Lorraine podcast, the Journal series on the state of Black theatre, or the Journal series on Black women in the performing arts.

The Latest

Essay
Black Survival and Cyclical Fate in Hang Time
by Ciaran Short
4 June 2026
Video
Healing and Health: One Love Method Grounding Practices
A Racial-Justice Theatre Healing Session
Tuesday 9 June 2026
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Podcast
LOUD Queer Youth Theatre: Sustaining Youth-Led, Adult-Supported Arts Community
by Nicolas Shannon Savard, Keyshia Pearl, Roney Jones
5 May 2026
Video

Hosted by the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis

Sunday 14 July 2019
Minneapolis, Minnesota

The Playwright's Center in Minneapolis presented the Afro-Atlantic Playwright Festival Closing Roundtable livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network on Sunday 14 July 2019 at 11 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC-7) / 1 p.m. CDT (Minneapolis, UTC-5) / 2 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC-4) / 18:00 UTC+0.

Video

at the VORTEX in Austin, Texas

Friday 21 June 2019
Austin, Texas

The VORTEX in Austin, Texas presented black girl love: an adaptation project livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Friday 21 June 2019 at 6 p.m. PDT (San Francisco) / 8 p.m. CDT (Chicago) / 9 p.m. EDT (New York) / Saturday 22 June at 02:00 UTC+0.

three actors onstage
Podcast

From the Ground Up Podcast Episode #6

1 April 2019

In episode six of the From the Ground Up podcast, Jeffrey Mosser interviews Stephanie McKee about the history of Junebug Productions, and how they look to "that blue sky" to imagine what is possible for the future.

two actors onstage in costume
Essay
20 March 2019

Kim Peter Kovac looks at the way the theatre for young audiences field has changed over the last few years, where it’s at today, and what his hopes are for the future.

A group of performers on stage
Essay
21 February 2019

Alex Ates examines the recent production of Christina Ham’s Four Little Girls at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.

Two men talking
Essay

Sarah Bellamy and Jamil Jude in Conversation

9 December 2018

Sarah Bellamy, artistic director of Saint Paul’s Penumbra Theatre, talks to Jamil Jude, incoming artistic director of Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company in Atlanta, about learning from the founders, the funding disparity between predominantly white institutions and theatres of color, and more.

performer with arm extended
Video
Monday 29 October 2018
New York City

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presented Black Acting Methods with Sharrell D. Luckett livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Monday 29 October at 3:30 p.m. PDT (San Francisco) / 5:30 p.m. CDT (Chicago) / 6:30 p.m. EDT (New York).

Essay
16 August 2018

Using three different plays—M. Butterfly, Iphigenia Crash Land Falls on the Neon Shell That Was Once Her Heart, and QPH—playwright Massi Monfiletto examines theatre’s revolutionary potential.

Video

Arizona State University in Tempe

Saturday 28 July 2018
Tempe, AZ, United States

Urban Bush Women presented their 2018 Summer Leadership Institute at Arizona State University livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Saturday 28 July at 7 p.m. EDT (New York) / 6 p.m. CDT (Chicago) / 4 p.m. PDT (San Francisco).

Podcast

Theatre History Podcast #62

5 June 2018

How did Black theatre connect with the Civil Rights Movement? Dr. Julie Burrell of Cleveland State University joins the Theatre History Podcast to talk about William B. Branch's one-act play A Medal for Willie and the underappreciated radicalism of theatre in the 1950s.

two people sitting
Essay

Carlyle Brown

4 June 2018

Todd London celebrates playwright Carlyle Brown, who recently won the William Inge Theater Festival’s award for Distinguished Achievement in the American Theater.

Essay
9 May 2018

Founder and executive artistic director of Dallas’s Bishop Arts Theatre Center Teresa Coleman Wash looks at the realities of running a theatre company as a woman of color.

Essay
26 April 2018

Artistic Director Shawn Whitsell talks about the importance of Nashville, Tennessee's black theatre community.

Essay

The Monologue Project

8 April 2018

Gab Cody reflects on the birth of The Monologue Project, an initiative that started in Pittsburgh, USA and Dallas, USA to increase the canon of audition-length monologues for women of African Descent.

Essay
1 March 2018

Jonathan Mandell looks at several current plays that depict violence by or against African Americans, including LeKethia Dalcoe's A Small Oak Tree Runs Red, Gabriel Jason Dean's Terminus, and Althea Harris's Is God Is.

Essay
8 February 2018

Alex Ates looks at how the Free Southern Theater established a model of artmaking and activism in the South in the '60s and considers how the New South is primed for another generation of civic action artmaking. 

Video
Sunday 14 January 2018
New York City, NY, United States

Camille A. Brown's The Gathering 2018: Advocating for Black Female Choreographers in the Contemporary Dance World livestreamed from New York City on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Sunday 14 January at 3:30 p.m. - 6 p.m. PST (San Francisco) / 5:30 p.m. - 8 p.m. CST (Chicago) / 6:30 p.m. - 9 p.m. EST (New York). On Twitter, use #TheGatheringCAB​.

Video

A special event that celebrates Women of the African Diaspora and their impact on theater and the world.

Monday 20 November 2017
Dallas, TX, United States

Bishop Arts Theatre Center presents The Monologue Project in Dallas, Texas livestreaming on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Monday 20 November 2017 at 8:00 p.m. EST (New York) / 7:00 p.m. CST (Dallas) / 5:00 p.m. PST (San Francisco).

Podcast

Opening Up New Approaches to Acting with Dr. Sharrell D. Luckett

14 November 2017

Dr. Sharrell Luckett joins us to discuss her new book Black Acting Methods: Critical Approaches.

Video
Monday 23 October 2017
Boston, MA, United States

ArtsEmerson and ArtsBoston presented Leading from the Audience: a Conversation with Susan Peevy and Candelaria Silva-Collins livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound.TV network on Monday 23 October at 6:30 p.m. EDT (New York) / 5:30 p.m. CDT (Chicago) / 3:30 p.m. PDT (San Francisco).

Video
Friday 11 August 2017
Austin, TX, United States

Gale Theatre Company and The VORTEX in Austin, Texas presented TWENTYEIGHT— a new play by Tyler English-Beckwith, livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv Friday 11 August at 9 p.m. EDT (New York) / 8 p.m. CDT (Chicago) / 6 p.m. PDT (Los Angeles).

Video
Saturday 5 July 2017
Brooklyn, NY, United States

Urban Bush Women presented the 2017 Summer Leadership Institute Culminating Performances livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound.TV network Saturday 5 July at 5:00 p.m. EDT (New York) / 4:00 p.m. CDT (Chicago) / 2:00 p.m. PDT (Los Angeles) and 7:30 p.m. EDT (New York) / 6:30 p.m. CDT (Chicago) / 4:30 p.m. PDT (Los Angeles).

 

 

Essay

7 Playwrights, 7 Testaments

8 June 2017

Lydia K. Valentine looks at Hands Up, a series of monologues that address the killing of unarmed black men by police.

Podcast

Seret Scott Looks Back on the Free Southern Theater

22 May 2017

Michael Lueger talks with director and performer Seret Scott about her work with the Free Southern Theater.

Essay
15 April 2017

Erin Washington highlights Black women who are doing extraordinary work, and encourages others to leave shout-outs in the comments.

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