National Black Theatre is excited to announce the 2024/2025 Theatrical Season themed The Pilgrimage: A Journey Back Home.
This season bring you FIVE productions of new and reimagined contemporary work by Black artists.
Inspired by “The Negro Motorist/Travelers’ Green Book,” this season is inviting our community on a journey to examine the critical choices we must make to craft the kind of home we want for the future. A year when NBT continues the focus of its own new home, this season invites everyone to imagine what it means to create, imagine and navigate through spaces to discover one’s belonging. Audiences will get a first-hand look at transformative works addressing topics from climate to immigration, colorism, HIV/AIDS, and Black Skate culture. These productions will be paired with a series of complementary events, content and conversations spearheaded by NBT’s Alternative Learning and Social Impact Department.
As a means to learn more about the season theme and gain more of a glimpse into the season
check out our 2024/2025 Dramaturgical Deck
24/25 Theatrical season
The Divining: Ceremonies from in The Name of the M/other Tree
Written, Directed & Choreographed by
EBONY NOELLE GOLDEN
Featuring JUPITER PERFORMANCE STUDIO
Feverish floods and land-quakes unfold when three mother trees vanish. The mystical and magical town of Here is swept up in the undertow. Sisters Teeny and Vetiver spiral. The people must decide. Return to their ancestors’ ways or perish with the faithless.
September 13 - 15 &
September 21 -22, 2024
Co-Production with THE APOLLO
North American Premiere
KINGS…..come home
Written by SMITA JAMES, VERONIQUE EFOMI & MUNGANYENDE
Conceived & Directed by IRA KIP
Co-directed by WINSTON “winne” BERGWIJN
KINGS...come home tells the story of a family in search of a new home. After leaving their original home, they embark on a journey to find prosperity, opportunity, and safety. They discover a house in the middle of a field, move in, and create their utopia—until the walls begin to shift, and the house gradually falls apart. As their journey continues, we witness the enduring effects of their constant displacement and how it reshapes their reality.
KINGS...come home delves into the echoes of migration, born from a myriad of social and economic trials. It traces the deep-seated ties between migration and the enduring shadows of our colonial past. Whether spurred by climate change, the fires of war, or the weight of institutional racism, it is the unseen barriers that guide both their departure as well as their arrival. The play raises a crucial question: "How does the sustained experience of displacement and uprooting shape the search for a true home for both individuals and families?"
MARCH 5 - 16, 2025 | Co-production with KIP REPUBLIC
world Premiere
bowl ep
Written and Directed by NAZARETH HASSAN
Kelly K Klarkson and Quentavius da Quitter need to find a name for their rap group. Through flirty interludes, cringy overshares, and practicing their ollies, they grow increasingly closer. Skating and Smoking. Skating and Drinking. Skating and exorcizing a demon. With live skating and original music, enter Bowl EP: a skate park, in the middle of a wasteland, at the edge of the galaxy.
April 17 – May 25, 2025 | Co-production with VINEYARD THEATRE
In association with THE NEW GROUP
New york premiere
CHIAROSCURO
Written by AISHAH RAHMAN
Directed by abigail jean-baptiste
“Chiaroscuro,” written by Black Arts Movement writer Aishah Rahman, is named after the Italian artistic term referring to a stark contrast between dark and light. The play explores the social implications of such contrast as it relates skin color, specifically within the Black community. The play is set on a love boat-type cruise ship for Black singles where "pretty" means light-skinned, all the men are dark, and Papa Legba, the African trickster spirit, is disguised as a ship steward.
May 26 - June 22, 2025 | In association with THE FLEA
public presentation
SWEETWATER: THE GOSPEL OF IMAN
Written by NATHAN YUNGERBERG
Directed by ZHAILON LEVINGSTON
Sweetwater: The Gospel of Iman delves into the strength of chosen family and honors the forgotten through the eyes of Umar, a young gay black writer residing in New York City during the AIDS epidemic. Umar and his closest female friend, Charlie, conjure the spirits of the lives lost by evoking the power of love, friendship, and magic.
June 25 – 29, 2025
Check Out Season 2023/24
Defiance of Our Bloom
HELP US BUILD the theatre of the FUTURE!
Join us in continuing to invest in a cultural and creative hub for collective healing, radical imagination of Black artists, and fearless creativity! With each gift, NBT can awaken our theory of change and create the space for human transformation.