Black Theatre Troupe Announces 2022-23 Season Featuring RESPECT: THE MUSICAL, BLACK NATIVITY & More

Black Theatre Troupe has announced its 2022-23 Season with two musicals, two dramas and the company's annual holiday tradition, Black Nativity.

Flex Play Packages of 4, 3 and 2 passes are on sale now, with significant savings of up to 20% over single ticket prices. Passes can be used for any show on any date and in any combination. Flex play packages range from $89- $159 and can be ordered at blacktheatretroupe.org or by calling 602-258-8128.

This season Black Theatre Troupe will be launching a new program for artists and new works entitled New Voices of Eastlake. This will be a reading series of new plays held on Mondays throughout the 2022/23 Season. Check the website for upcoming schedule.

2022-23 BLACK THEATRE TROUPE SEASON

FIVE GUYS NAMED MOE

Book by Clarke Peters
Lyrics and Music by Louis Jordan
Directed and Choreographed by Alexander Patrick
September 16 - 25
The Valley's favorite, rip-roaring energetic quintet of time traveling singers who all happened to be named "Moe". Five Guys Named Moe is the exuberant Broadway Hit that features the music of Jazz and Rock & Roll pioneer and saxophonist, Louis Jordan. Dazzling movement and other surprises invites the audience to sing, dance, have a wonderful time and return to today's world singing.

BARBECUE

By Robert O'Hara
Directed by Ron May
October 21 - November 6
The grill is hot, the beer is chilled and the table is set for you to join a typical O'Mallery family barbecue. But when their drug-addicted sister Zippity Boom arrives strung-out and out of control, her siblings have each finally had enough of all of it - enough beer, enough whiskey and enough pills to confront her. Their wild, unplanned drug fueled intervention sets the fire to the charcoal of this raucous and rollicking comedy that skewers all of our warped views of the American family. (Adult themes and language)

BLACK NATIVITY

By Langston Hughes
Directed by Walter Belcher and Choreographed by Alexander Patrick
December 2 - 18
Since 1975, BTT audiences have enjoyed this sold out, legendary holiday event by Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes. It again returns to the BTT stage for a special limited engagement. This stunning new production of Black Nativity is without a doubt a theatrical wonderment. A joyous company of singers, actors, dancers and musicians delivers its powerful message of joy, hope, victory and liberation. This song-play touches a special chord in the hearts of all at a very special time of the year.

JOE TURNER'S COME AND GONE

By August Wilson
Directed by Herb Newsome
February 3 - 19
Set in 1911 Pittsburgh, this moving work chronicles Black life of that time. Each resident of a Black boardinghouse has a different relationship to their past of slavery, as well as to their urban present. August Wilson gives haunting voice to the souls of this dispossessed group of Americans at the beginning of the century. It is his epic vision, power and poetic sense that lift their stories to strange and compelling heights.

RESPECT: THE MUSICAL

By Dorothy Marcic
Directed and Choreographed by Patdro Harris
March 24 - April 9
Combining excerpts from over 60 songs with women's personal stories about realizing dreams, loves won and lost, and battering against glass ceilings, Respect features such period favorites as Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend, I Wanna Be Loved By You, As Long As He Needs Me and Whatever Lola Wants along with such modern standards as Where the Boys Are, It Must Be Him, The Greatest Love of All and Stand by Your Man.

For more information about Black Theatre Troupe visit blacktheatretroupe.org.


About Black Theatre Troupe

Recognized as one of the longest, continuously operating Black theatre companies in the United States, Black Theatre Troupe has become one of Phoenix's major cultural attractions, providing training, employment and performance opportunities for multi-ethnic and underserved artists for over 50 years.

Black Theatre Troupe's productions and educational outreach programs broaden and enhance relationships within the community, from seniors and young adults to children, fostering understanding outside the Black community and bridging divisions which have too often separated people of color from the majority population.

Since its debut production in 1970 of Lonnie Elder's nationally acclaimed drama of social and political consciousness, Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, Black Theatre Troupe has gained a national reputation for producing powerful works with an emphasis on Black playwrights and is dedicated to delivering some of the country's most courageous theater, while illuminating our shared humanity.

To post a comment, you must register and login.