KINGS OF HARLEM Plays St. Luke's Theatre Today

The story of the 1939 Harlem Rens Basketball Team comes alive on stage.

Layon Gray's Kings Of Harlem, will have a special performance today, March 28th at 1pm commemorating the day The Rens won the first World Basketball Championship. The play recently performed for the Legends of the NBA All-Star Weekend 2015.

Written and directed by Layon Gray, Kings Of Harlem is inspired by the 1939 Harlem Rens basketball team. A story of eight men who overcame adversity to win more than 2,000 games while barnstorming throughout segregated parts of the country in the 1930s despite never being officially accepted professionally or socially. Harlem Renaissance Big Five was one the most successful renowned all-Black professional basketball teams in the 1920s and '30s that added grace and style to the game of basketball.

The team was formed five years before the Harlem Globetrotters, and provided African- American men with the opportunity to compete against white athletes equally on the court. The Rens got their name from playing at the Renaissance Casino ballroom in Harlem, New York, where they amazed fans with their innovative and unique style of play. They toured the country competing against Black and white teams, and in the process, compiled the most impressive winning streak in Basketball history. In 1963, the entire team was inducted into the Professional Basketball Hall of Fame.

Featured in the cast are Delano Barbosa, Lamar Cheston, Thaddeus Daniels, Melvin Huffnagle, Ade Otukoya, and Jeantique Oriol. Author and Director Layon Gray follows the success of his play 'Black Angels Over Tuskegee', the story of the Tuskegee Airmen now in its fifth year off-Broadway, with this next installment of African-American historical theatre.

St. Luke's Theatre is located in Manhattan at 308 West 46th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues) It is produced by Edmund Gaynes, and Layon Gray American Theatre Company. Tickets, priced $31.50 and $56.50, are available through Telecharge.com or by calling (212) 239-6200. For more information on the show long on to www.KingsOfHarlem.com.

Photo credit: Aidan Cole

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