Center Stage recently received just about the best holiday gift they could have asked for: $50,000.
Announced Dec. 15, the well-timed grant came from the National Endowment for the Arts as part of its 2017 funding announcement. The grant will support “the world premiere of ‘Jazz,’ a new play written by Nambi E. Kelley, based on the novel by Toni Morrison,” according to a press release.
“We’re thrilled that the NEA has chosen to support our world premiere production of Jazz, which will not be a typical ‘page-to-stage’ literary adaptation, but rather an experimental artistic endeavor, combining the elements of literature, poetry, storytelling and theater with music, movement and spoken word,” said Center Stage Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah in the release. “This adaptation and this production are about more than just staging a landmark work of literary genius; they offer a way to use the metaphorical megaphone of our stage, the local and national resonance this project can claim, allowing broad access to a story as powerful, as timely, and as necessary in its message as the day it was written.”
The production will run from May 19-June 25.
