Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation To Sponsor Performance of Nia Akilah Robinson's PUSH PARTY

The Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation will sponsor a performance of the World Premiere of Nia Akilah Robinson’s Push Party on Thursday, June 20 at 7pm. The production is being presented by The Hearth at Theaterlab (357 W 36th St. 3rd floor, New York, NY 10018), June 7-23. For this performance, the Foundation will sponsor all tickets, as well as a stipend to cover a round-trip subway fare and a snack for each patron. The Hearth will first invite groups from their partner organizations. Any remaining tickets will then be made available to the public. 

“I’m overjoyed, filled with gratitude and simultaneously befuddled by Mr. Smith’s unwavering dedication and continuous support of my work as an artist,” said actor and Associate Producer Mikayla LaShae Bartholomew, who worked with Will Smith on the film King Richard. “It is a testament to the man and artist he is. He’s helped me learn that it is an immense privilege to tell stories about our people, for our people, centering our people and with this collaboration, Push Party will get to do just that. We get to make sure that this play has the audiences it deserves, the people of Harlem, birth workers, mamas, the unhoused, Black women— all of the people the theater usually forgets. I thank Mr. Smith and the whole team for trusting in Nia Akilah Robinson’s work, The Hearth and me. In times like these, it is a gift beyond words to give people a chance to see themselves represented onstage, to give people a night at the theater, a night to escape.” 

“We are so grateful to the Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation for their support of Push Party and their commitment to making the show accessible to our audiences,” said Julia Greer, Artistic Director of The Hearth. “Their generosity is astounding and their belief in our show and its message is such a gift. And thank you to our wonderful cast member Mikayla LaShae Bartholomew for sharing the show with Will Smith, and inspiring his family to help us reach more audiences.”  

“I’m so happy that this comedy starring six Black women has garnered this attention,”  playwright Nia Akilah Robinson added. “The Hearth took this dream of mine and actualized it so beautifully. Thank you, Mikayla, for spreading the word, and thank you to the Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation for amplifying this community room.”  

Nia Akilah Robinson’s Push Party is a lively ensemble comedy about six Black women trying to uphold fifteen years of friendship at a post-birthing party in Harlem. All Lelo wants is for this event to go smoothly, but tensions among the group rise and then explode when an unhoused person lands in the community room.

Inspired by Black women’s stories of birth and motherhood and by the joys and challenges of life in Harlem, this new play confronts the moments when friendship erodes, when hope starts to falter, when we argue until we laugh, and when Black folk see other Black folk suffering and die a little inside.

Remaining performances are scheduled for Wednesday, June 12 at 7pm, Thursday, June 13 at 7pm, Friday, June 14 at 7pm, Saturday, June 15 at 7pm, Sunday, June 16 at 2pm, Tuesday, June 18 at 7pm, Wednesday, June 19 at 7pm, Thursday, June 20 at 7pm, Friday, June 21 at 7pm, Saturday, June 22 at 7pm, and Sunday, June 23 at 2pm. Tickets (First 10 $18; General Admission $29, Pay it Forward $45) are available for advance purchase at https://theaterlabnyc.com/push-party-june-7-23-2024/.  

The Hearth exists to address a dual need in the theater community: To narrow the industry-wide gender gap by welcoming more women, trans, and non-binary artists and artists of underrepresented genders into the field and to launch the careers of emerging artists by offering them otherwise rare opportunities for institutional support, development, and production. The Hearth is the only theater organization in New York that dedicates itself in equal measure to these two important but often overlooked objectives—and no other theater organization has our track record of producing work at such a high caliber and kickstarting the professional trajectories of talented artists like Gracie Gardner, Kathy Ng, and Bailey Williams (to name a few). The Hearth commissions, develops, and produces plays that explore characters who pulse with emotional, intellectual, and psychological complexity and, by so doing, we challenge gender stereotypes, advance and complicate the conversation about feminism, and expand perceptions of what it means to be live in a body that has been historically oppressed or marginalized due to gender expression. The Hearth focuses on elevating diverse and representative viewpoints from a range of bodies, backgrounds, and experiences. Our production teams are made up largely of women, trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming artists — the very populations whose stories we tell and whose voices we elevate. www.thehearththeater.com  

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