'Mahalia' Opens Face Off's New Season in Black History Month

KALAMAZOO, Mich. – "Mahalia," the highly respected musical drama about legendary gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, kicks off the Black Arts & Cultural Center's Face Off Theatre Company's fifth season in February. It is timed to coincide with Black History Month.

“Her voice became the center point for the Civil Rights Movement, alongside the speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.," said Artistic Director Marissa Harrington, noting that the story of Jackson, who faced death threats for singing at anti-racism rallies, continues the company’s founding mission of thought-provoking Black theater that invites social change.

The rest of Season 5 is devoted to the exciting, original works of emerging and seasoned African-American playwrights with local ties: Von Washington Sr., Michelle Johnson, Earlene McMichael, Denise Miller and Shawntai Brown, all active in the performing arts community.

Here’s the lineup:

• JULY 2019 – Summer New Play Series. Staged at the Black Arts Festival, featuring Michelle Johnson’s “Dreamin’” and Denise Miller’s “A Ligature for Black Bodies,” plus Earlene McMichael’s “You’re Gonna Learn Today” that premiered at the 2018 "Black Lives, Black Words" project co-sponsored by Face Off and Western Michigan University's Theatre Department.

 

• APRIL/MAY 2019 – Annual Youth Series. Von Washington Sr., a veteran playwright/director/actor and a mentor to Face Off Theatre from its beginning, directs two of his plays, "The Ghost of Moosha" and "The Word Trap.”

 

• NOVEMBER 2019 – Season Closer. Shawntai Brown’s “eLLe” comes to the stage through Face Off Theatre’s first-ever collaboration with Queer Theatre Kalamazoo. The play follows the lives and intersections of queer women navigating self-love, community, career and identity.

For more information, email faceofftheatre@gmail.com. (Photo credit: Mahalia Jackson, Wikimedia Commons.)