Black theatre festival returns to Winston-Salem

  • 2019-06-13
The National Black Theatre Festival will be coming to Winston-Salem over the summer.

The festival typically pays tribute to black entertainers of the past and among the tributes this year will be to Lean Horne, Jelly Roll Morton, Sammy Davis Jr., and Aretha Franklin. There will also be a staged reading of a play about the life of Maya Angelou before it officially premiers in May 2020.

This year’s festival will also pay a special tribute to Larry Leon Hamlin, who founded the event and passed away in 2007. The festival is also the 40th anniversary of the North Carolina Black Repertory Company, which Hamlin also founded, and the 30th anniversary of the festival held every two years. Promotional Products are effective in advertising such special events as this one.

For opening night, ‘Jelly’s Last Jam’ will be performed with members from the original cast on Broadway. There will be a dance routine from an adaptation of The Lion King and Sandra Dubose will be performing songs from ‘Pooled: A Gospel Drama’.

There will be 18 awards given out, including one to actress Leslie Uggams for the Sidney Poitier Lifelong Achievement Award. The Larry Leon Hamlin Producer Award will be given to an actress and producer, Kamilah Forbes, and the August Wilson Playwright Award will be given to playwright and novelist, Pearl Cleage.

The festival will be held from July 29 through August 3.


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