Baltimore Center Stage
2024/2025 Mainstage Season: NEW ERA, NEW WORKS!
“In my debut season as Artistic Director, we’re raising the curtain on a spectacular celebration of new plays.,” says Stevie Walker-Webb. “Baltimore has always been a nurturing haven for artists, and this year, BCS proudly hosts not one, but two world premieres—a testament to our city’s artistic vitality.
The artists featured in this season have garnered:
-
6 Tony Award Nominations
-
9 Emmy Awards
-
3 Golden Globe Awards
-
1 Grammy Award, 15 Grammy Nominations
-
2 Susan Smith Blackburn Awards
-
2 OBIE Awards
-
Helen Hayes Awards
-
NAACP Springarn Medal
-
Wall Street Journal’s Playwright of the Year
CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE
2024/2025 Mainstage Season:
World Premiere of
OH HAPPY DAY!
Written by and Starring Jordan E. Cooper
Original Music by Donald Lawrence
Directed by Stevie Walker-Webb
In Association with The Public Theater
September 19, 2024 – October 13, 2024
“Cooper’s pen is fierce, skating through inside jokes, melodic monologues and gut punches.” – The Guardian
An impending flood is the least of one family’s troubles in this outrageous reimagining of Noah’s Ark. OH HAPPY DAY!, written by and starring two-time Tony Award Nominee Jordan E. Cooper, begins in Laurel, Mississippi at a Birthday BBQ for Lewis, the patriarch of a family. When his estranged son Keyshawn (played by Jordan E. Cooper) makes a surprise appearance, family secrets unravel on a day that will change the world forever.
Listed in this year’s Forbes 30 Under 30, Cooper has been hailed as one of the most illuminating and groundbreaking new voices of the American theater. His first play, the jubilantly disruptive Ain’t No Mo’, was directed by BCS Artistic Director Stevie Walker-Webb on Broadway. Their acclaimed partnership was rewarded with six Tony nominations, including Best Play and Best Director, plus winning the Obie Award for Best Play. Baltimore Center Stage proudly reunites Cooper and Walker-Webb for the world premiere of their newest collaboration.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
Written by Kate Hamill
Adapted from the novel by Jane Austen
Directed by Ken-Matt Martin
In Association with Arkansas Repertory Theatre
October 17, 2024 – November 10, 2024
“Hamill’s Pride and Prejudice has fun and charm to spare…full of high spirits and genuine mirth.” – New York Magazine
Love is a serious game of strategy and survival—and not just for the headstrong Lizzy Bennett and her sisters in Regency England. In Kate Hamill’s bold and playful take on Jane Austen’s beloved romance, this PRIDE AND PREJUDICE brings a decidedly progressive view of the expectations of and about women, suggesting “enough unsettling similarities between the 18th century and now,” says TheaterMania.com, “to make us pause thoughtfully between laughs.”
BCS Presents ArtsCentric’s Production of
BLACK NATIVITY
Written by Langston Hughes
Original Music by Cedric D. Lyles
Directed by Kevin S. McAllister
Choreography by Shalyce Hemby
November 30 – December 22, 2024
“There wasn’t a soul in the audience who wasn’t stomping their feet and clapping along.” – Baltimore Magazine
Fresh from its sold-out run of Cinderella, ArtsCentric returns to BCS with this warm-hearted, holiday classic! Using a heart-stopping fusion of blues, soul, jazz, spirituals, jubilant dance, and the powerful words of Langston Hughes, BLACK NATIVITY is the joyous retelling of how Jesus came into this world, seen through a unique African American kaleidoscope. This holiday season, gather your family, friends, and loved ones and experience together the show that “spreads joy!” (The New York Times).
In celebration of this production, esteemed composer and music director of the play, Cedric D. Lyles will release the BLACK NATIVITY album.
Subscription $35 Add-On
East Coast Premiere of
EVERYTHING THAT NEVER HAPPENED
Written by Sarah Mantell
Directed by Jessica Kubzansky
February 13, 2025 – March 9, 2025
“Audacious, imaginative and moving.” –Los Angeles Times
Whether you love Shakespeare or Shylock, this story lives between The Merchant of Venice and the realities of Jewish history. Jessica and Lorenzo are in love, but to be together they must plan an escape from her father’s house, the Venetian ghetto, and her entire culture. EVERYTHING THAT NEVER HAPPENED is about disguise, romantic intrigue, and the terrible price we must sometimes pay to be free.
AKEELAH AND THE BEE
Written by Cheryl L. West
Based on the original screenplay by Doug Atchison
Directed by Jerrica D. White
March 20, 2025 – April 13, 2025
“The story of Akeelah and the Bee is inspiring and heart-warming.” -Play Off the Page
Akeelah has a passion for words, the crazier the better! Under-challenged at school and overwhelmed by her daily life in a tough, Chicago neighborhood, Akeelah is finding it difficult to try. But with the Scripps National Spelling Bee just around the corner, her community is ready to show her she has the courage and tenacity to make her dream come true.
Based on the acclaimed film featuring Keke Palmer, this play is sure to delight theatergoers from age 9 to 99. Akeelah and the Bee kicks off a spring celebration of BCS’s youth programs, culminating in the 40th anniversary of the historic Young Playwrights Festival.
World Premiere of
JOHN WILKES BOOTH: ONE NIGHT ONLY!
Written by Matthew Weiner
Directed by Stevie Walker Webb
May 15, 2025 – June 15, 2025
From nine-time Emmy winner Matthew Weiner, creator, director, and showrunner of Mad Men and writer and executive producer on The Sopranos.
John Wilkes Booth – Maryland born, second rate actor, round-the-clock drunk, handsome womanizer, Southern sympathizer, white supremacist, and presidential assassin – is a man every American has heard of but few really know. Now Matthew Weiner, known for creating “big fun…classy entertainment with a brain” (Detroit Free Press) makes his playwriting debut with JOHN WILKES BOOTH: ONE NIGHT ONLY!, an audacious look at the notorious man buried in an unmarked grave less than a mile from Baltimore Center Stage.
Ben Ahlers (HBO’s The Gilded Age) stars as the titular role of John Wilkes Booth.
