"We were raised that we could do anything, that we were every bit as good as—in fact we’re singular and distinctive. There was something that we had to offer that only we could offer that nobody else could offer in quite the way we could...when I was young and auditioning for [a role] that a lot of black people hadn’t done, my mom asked, ‘What are you gonna say if someone says ‘That character isn’t black?’ and I looked her square in the eye and said ‘Well when I play him, he’s black.’”
Get ready for a full-circle moment that was eight years in the making! We chat with NYU Tisch New Studio on Broadway’s Founding Director and professor (who is also a full-time director!) Kent Gash about navigating between academia and the professional theatre world, creating a safe space for students in higher education, and examining (and humanizing) the world of incarceration.
Recommendation: Lockdown, Ain’t No Mo’, Fairview
Shout out: Darius Smith, Lockdown cast, Ford’s Theatre cast of The Wiz, New Studio professors