Photos: Take a Look Back at The Ford's Theatre Legacy Commissions: A First Look

Take a look back at the readings and talkbacks from The Ford's Theatre Legacy Commissions: A First Look, presented on January 26-27, 2024 at Ford's Theatre!

See photos below!

The Ford’s Theatre Legacy Commissions: A First Look was a free, two-day festival, providing a preview of new plays in development, with opportunities for expanded conversations around the work. This year’s festival marked a follow-through on our commitment to BIPOC artists, with readings of the remaining works of our inaugural class of commissions. We also shared the first reading from our second cohort. With A First Look, Ford’s gives audiences an unparalleled inside peek at the process and voices that shaped these works.

Readings included A Designer of Note, A Woman of Style by Charlayne Woodard, directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, about the life of fashion designer Ann Lowe; SISTER X by Nambi E. Kelley, directed by Hana S. Sharif, about a young mother’s quest to share her life’s challenges with Malcolm X; and The American Five by Chess Jakobs, directed by Aaron Posner, which explores the five giants behind Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech and the March on Washington. 

Senior Artistic Advisor Sheldon Epps, Director of Artistic Programming José Carrasquillo and The Ford’s Theatre Legacy Commissions Advisor Sydné Mahone lead the initiative.

Photo credit: Carolina Dulcey, Andrew Buchsbaum and Rachel Flannery