Feature: BASHFUL AND THE NOIZE at Spring Street Studios

Tadrian White (Bash) and Alric Davis (Playwright/Director). Photography by Pin Lim's Forest Photography.

HOUSTON TX - The Sankofa Collective announces the world premiere production of Founding Artistic Director Alric Davis' Bashful and the Noize. The One Act Play was the winner of DC's Monumental Theatre Company and the Kennedy Center's Page to Stage playwriting competition last year. With support from Houston's 4th Wall Theatre Company, this kinetic and poetic never-before-seen play runs September 9 - September 11, 2022, in the Spring Street Studio 101. Alric Davis will also direct.

Bashful, and the Noize is a One Act Slam/Hip-Hop Play centered around a sixteen-year-old Black boy named Bash who enacts a vow of silence after reckoning with sexual assault and grief. Featuring colorful characters like James Baldwin and Maya Angelou and the sounds of Bash's imagination entitled "Noize", the play interrogates the importance of finding your Voice and keeping your Light in a world so loud and so dark. The play serves as a hilarious and spiritual journey that is equal parts a reckoning, a requiem and a celebration.

"Writing this play was in itself a healing process," shares playwright/director Alric Davis. " Workshopping this work in D.C. with the amazing people at Monumental Theatre Company gave me the chance to focus on the words taking flight. Now I'm blessed enough to provide my platform to amplify the original work in a fully realized production. Getting to take painful parts of my past and reimagine them in such a way has made the piece more poignant and emotional. This, coupled with the amazing local cast and crew, will add a new level of reality that I know will move Houston audiences in the best way."

In 2013, Davis won the Houston Young Playwrights Exchange at the Alley Theatre for Different, Damaged, Damned. That show later went on to receive positive reviews, a cover spread of Metro Weekly Magazine and was nominated for Best of Fest at the DC Capitol Fringe Festival in 2016. The 10-minute play Night Sings its Tune appeared at the DC College Fringe Festival in 2017. Queen Peaches about the Black Panther Party movement in Houston won the Inaugural Black Box Theatre Project in 2019 at The Tank in New York City. His work about reparations Reap the Reparations: Blackest of the Day was a virtual 10 minute commissioned piece as a part of Theatre Alliance's Protest in 8 in Washington D.C.

Bashful and the Noize stars Tadrian White as Bash, the central teen navigating larger than life emotions. White won a Broadway World Award for his performance as the Scarecrow in The Wiz for Pearl Theatre in 2019. He also appeared in 4th Wall Theatre Company's Gloria.

Rounding out the cast is Sankofa's Executive Director Trey Morgan Lewis as Maya Angelou, LaBraska Washington as Dre, Bryce Ivan as Jason, Donte Wright as James Baldwin, Marvin J Young as Milton, Tadrian White as Bash and G.W. Carver Magnet High School's Camron Lettries who will serve as the show's swing.

SPONSORS: The Sankofa Collective is supported by 4th Wall Theatre Company.

TICKETS: Tickets are now available for purchase on August 19, 2022. Alric Davis' Bashful and the Noize tickets will be $30. For tickets and more information, please visit

CONNECT WITH US: @SankofaCollective, #BashfulandtheNoize

ABOUT THE SANKOFA COLLECTIVE:

The Sankofa Collective, formerly known as The Bayou Theatre Company, a non-profit 501(c)3 theatre organization here in Houston, Texas. Sankofa​​ (noun) - A West African word that expresses the importance of reaching back to knowledge gained in the past and bringing it into the present in order to make positive progress. Founded in 2013, we exist with the purpose to expose, educate and enrich the lives of at-risk youth and adults to theatre. It was established to utilize the performing arts as an outreach and entertainment source to the underserved population of the Greater Houston community and beyond. The programs and entertainment offered provide a positive alternative to otherwise negative activities and associations. The Sankofa Collective exists to do that with artistic expression through theatre, design, dance, film and visual arts in order to re-ignite the passion to create lasting theatrical memories by building upon those who came before us. Simply put, we create room for marginalized artists to secure promising futures in the arts.

Tadrian plays Bash, a fictional teen loosely based on a young Alric. Photography by Pin Lim's Forest Photography.