2022-2023 Season
The African Company Presents Richard III
By Carlyle Brown
Directed by Vernice Miller
Scenic Design by Seth Reiser
Costume Design by Asa Benally
Lighting Design by Yi-Chung Chen
Sound Design by Chris Lane
African Dance & Drumming Directed by Kerfala (Fana) Bangoura
Acting & Voice Coaching by Kat Rina Davis
February 23–March 4, 2023
It’s 1821, before the emancipation proclamation and long before the right to vote, and a group of African American actors in New York City are putting on plays that thrill audiences both black and white. But when the company decides to stage its own production of Shakespeare’s Richard III, it sets itself on a collision course with an fancy, white company doing the same work, prompting questions of “who owns Shakespeare?” and, indeed: how can Shakespeare best speak to all people across the centuries? Carlyle Brown’s hugely entertaining and iconic The African Company Presents Richard III—based on true events—not only sheds light on this under-celebrated and little-known moment of history, but asks provocative questions about the nature of existence and performance, ownership and identity, culture and appropriation, and whether oppressed people who have, daily, to “pass” in a hostile society, are not, perhaps, the greatest actors of us all.
Show TimesFebruary 23 at 8 p.m. (Join us for OPENING NIGHT!)
February 24 at 8 p.m. (IPA Night: Join us for a reception with the Cast after the show!)
February 25 at 8 p.m.
February 26 at 3 p.m. (Matinee)
March 1 at 8 p.m. (English Night: Join us for a reception with the Cast after the show!)
March 2 at 8 p.m.
March 3 at 8 p.m.
March 4 at 8 p.m. (Don't Miss Out! CLOSING NIGHT!)