Adapted from the Langston Hughes poem, The Black Clown by Davóne Tines & Michael Schachter begins performances today at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival.

Performed by bass-baritone Tines in the title role plus an ensemble of twelve, The Black Clown evolved from a song cycle that Tines and composer Michael Schachter created based on the poem and Hughes’s corresponding stage direction-like corresponding description of “The Mood.” 

Directed by Zack Winokur, with choreography by Chanel DaSilva and musical direction by Jaret Landon, The Black Clown is a music theater experience that draws on vaudeville, gospel, opera, jazz, New Orleans brass band, and spirituals to bring to the stage Langston Hughes’s poem about a Black man’s resilience against a legacy of oppression. 

“When I first read The Black Clown it was like receiving a revelation that gave name to the experience of my existence as a Black man in America that I had never been able to articulate. I identified with this clown whose forced role represents a wholesale relegation of Black existence to something less than human, a farce of a being, a fool only playing at being real. Hughes names this existence then situates it within the larger context of history to show that the oppression of the present is inextricably linked to the failures of the past. Hughes’s clown is able to transcend his oppression by calling on the strength and spirit of his entire ancestry.  He connects to a greater mandate from all of time and the universe that humanity is inexorably his to claim. This was a story I knew I needed to live and relive and share.” says Tines

Wednesday, July 24, 2019 at 7:30 pm

Thursday, July 25, 2019 at 7:30 pm

Friday, July 26, 2019 at 7:30 pm

Saturday, July 27, 2019 at 7:30 pm

Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College

A production of American Repertory Theater at Harvard University

With the kind cooperation of the Estate of Langston Hughes

The Public Theater’s Free Shakespeare in the Park continues with the Bard’s classic romantic comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Now through August 8, the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park will be open to the public to enjoy Shakespeare’s classic tale about four lovers who mistake each other for the wrong person after consuming a magical love potion concocted by a meddling forest sprite. With true love, mischief and a talking donkey head-chaos ensues.

Courtesy of The Public Theater

The Public’s second free production of the summer features Phylicia Rashad (Titania), De’Adre Aziza (Hippolyta), Patrena Murray (Snout), Shalita Grant (Hermia) and Kyle Beltran (Lysander); as well as Annaleigh Ashford (Helena); Vinie Burrows (First Fairy, Peaseblossom); Danny Burstein (Nick Bottom); Justin Cunningham (Philostrate); Marcelle Davies-Lashley (Fairy Singer); Austin Durant (Snug); Keith Hart (Third Fairy); Alex Hernandez (Demetrius); Jeff Hiller (Francis Flute); Robert Joy (Peter Quince); Patricia Lewis (Fourth Fairy); David Manis (Egeus, Cobweb); Pamela McPherson-Cornelius (Second Fairy); Kristine Nielsen (Puck); Bhavesh Patel (Theseus); Richard Poe (Oberon); Joe Tapper (Robin Starveling); Judith Wagner (Mote); Warren Wyss (Mustardseed); Benjamin Ye (Changeling Boy). Direction by the Public’s Resident Director and Founder of the Public Works program, Lear deBessonet with choreography by Chase Brock.

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