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On February 18, the Sarah Lawrence College Theatre and Civic Engagement Program will present The Little Blue Room Theatre Ensemble and The Falcon Dance Team of the Theodore D. Young Community Center of the Town of Greenburgh, NY, in A Tribute to Black Theatre. Directed by Sarah Lawrence alumnus Kwame Johnson ’74 MFA ’77, this production features the works of Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Ntozake Shange, George C. Wolfe, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Sam Cooke, along with work from the musical Dreamgirls. The show is choreographed by Jessica Parris.
As a student at Sarah Lawrence, Johnson frequently shared his skills with the local community. In 1972, as an undergraduate, he taught mime to teenagers who played basketball in a nearby park. Those lessons led to Johnson’s founding of the renowned Youth Theatre Interactions, still in existence today.
Johnson studied under faculty emerita and the former director of the Sarah Lawrence Theatre Program Shirley Kaplan, a strong proponent of sharing theatre skills with the wider community and of hosting area youth performances at Sarah Lawrence. "A responsible artist, Kwame Johnson was my student. For the past 50 years, he has been a real embodiment of Sarah Lawrence, who, in his directing, captures the heart and soul of community expression."
Allen Lang, Director of the Sarah Lawrence College Theatre and Civic Engagement Program, says, “The Little Blue Room Theatre Company is widely considered to be the premier Black and multi-cultural theatre company in Westchester County, and Johnson’s upcoming show will mark his 52nd year of directing”
Event Details
A Tribute to Black Theatre, directed by Kwame Johnson ’74 MFA ’77
February 18, 2023 at 3:30 p.m.
Sarah Lawrence College, Reisinger Concert Hall in the Performing Arts Center
Free and open to the public