Brooklyn's Billie Holiday Theatre Announces 2017 - 18 Season

The Billie Holiday Theatre - home to the largest African American community in the nation - announces the inaugural season in its newly-renovated theater with award-winning works from the African American theater canon, beginning with The Old Settler by John Henry Redwood, directed by Michele Shay (performances will run October 20 - November 19); The New York premiere of A Small Oak Tree Runs Red by Brooklyn's own LeKethia Dalcoe, directed by Harry Lennix (January 26 - February 25); and Dael Orlandersmith's Yellowman, helmed by Brooklyn director Timothy Douglas (April 20 - May 20). The 2017-2018 season leads audiences through the past into the future, exploring notions of sisterhood, family ties, love and loneliness, domestic terrorism against Blacks in the US, and colorism.

The Billie Holiday Theatre teams up with Brooklyn playwright Lynn Nottage to curate a season of conversations to explore some of the most pressing issues of our time through the lens of theater.

"The newly-renovated Billie Holiday Theatre propels us to a place of both new discovery and rediscovery. We use the power of theater to celebrate our joy, our dignity and our collective ability to laugh in the face of challenge," said Indira Etwaroo, Executive Director, "but, we also...in the words of the great August Wilson...'wrestle with our demons [as a community], to cause our angels to sing.'"

The Billie Holiday Theatre also brings back for a second season, a partnership with RestorationART and the Frank Silvera Writers' Workshop, entitled 50in50: Writing Women Into Existence, a platform for Black women and girls from all walks of life across the globe to share their stories. The inaugural 50in50 provoked an enormous response from more than 220 women and girls, ages 6 to 83 from around the corner and around the world (Holland, South Africa, Canada and more). The call for submissions will go online in September 2017.

Tickets are available at http://thebillieholiday.org/.

Subscriptions to the 2017-2018 season are on sale by calling 718-636-6995 or by visiting TheBillieHoliday.org.

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