Announced: Events in Conjunction with 'The Colored Museum"

In conjunction with its upcoming production of "The Colored Museum," Huntington Theatre Company will host a number of special events and post-show conversations. Admission to onsite post-show events is free with a ticket to "The Colored Museum," available at huntingtontheatre.org/coloredmuseum, by phone at 617 266 0800, or in person at the BU Theatre (264 Huntington Avenue) and Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA (527 Tremont Street) box offices. Tickets start at $25. Performances begin Friday, March 6, 2015 at the Avenue of the Arts / BU Theatre.

A CONVERSATION WITH BILLY PORTER AND CITYLINE'S KAREN HOLMES WARD

Tuesday, March 10 after the 7:30pm performance
Tony Award winner Billy Porter will speak with Karen Holmes Ward, WCVB-TV's Director of Public Affairs and Community Services and host and executive producer of "CityLine," after the Tuesday, March 10 performance of The Colored Museum. Hear from the director himself about his history with the show, his relationship with playwright George C. Wolfe, and why he thinks it is time for a major revival of The Colored Museum.

Billy Porter is the 2013 Tony, Grammy, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle award winner for Best Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Lola in the Best Musical Tony Award winner Kinky Boots. His one-man show Ghetto Superstar (2005 GLAAD Media Award nomination, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Performer of the Year 2003-2004) debuted at The Public Theater in conjunction with City Theatre of Pittsburgh. His directing credits include Company; HAM: A Musical Memoir with Sam Harris; The Wiz; Being Alive: The Soul of Sondheim; Twilight In Manchego; Once on This Island (NAACP Theatre Award winner for Best Direction); The Soul of Richard Rodgers; Five Guys Named Moe; Altar Boyz; Rent (Associate Director, Off Broadway revival); Patina Miller Live at The Delfonte Room (London); and Signed, Sealed, Delivered: The Music of Stevie Wonder (starring Chaka Khan). His new Broadway album, Billy's Back on Broadway (Concord Records) was released last April. As a playwright, he was represented Off Broadway last fall with the premiere of While I Yet Live starring S. Epatha Merkerson (Primary Stages). A Pittsburgh native, he received his BFA in drama from Carnegie Mellon University. He is also a graduate of UCLA's professional program in screenwriting.

Karen Holmes Ward is the Director of Public Affairs and Community Services as well as host and executive producer of "CityLine," WCVB-TV's award-winning weekly magazine program which addresses the accomplishments, concerns, and issues facing people of color living in Boston and its suburbs. Many notables including Oscar winners Lupita Nyong'o, Octavia Spencer, Lou Gossett, and Denzel Washington as well as Oscar nominees Chiwetel Ejiofor, Oprah Winfrey, and Quvenzhane Wallis have been interviewed by Ms. Holmes Ward for "CityLine." "CityLine" has been a recipient of the Associated Press Massachusetts/Rhode Island Public Affairs Program and numerous Emmy Award nominations.

STUDENT MATINEES
Friday, March 13 at 10am
Thursday, April 2 at 10am
For students in grades 9-12. Tickets: $15. Includes pre-show in-school visit, curriculum guide, post-show Actors Forum, and Dramatic Returns card for each student. Call 617 273 1558 for more information.

ACTORS FORUMS
Friday, March 13 after the 10am student matinee performance
Thursday, March 19 after the 7:30pm performance
Wednesday, March 25 after the 2pm performance
Thursday, April 2 after the 10am student matinee performance
Meet participating members of the cast of The Colored Museum and ask them your questions at the Actors Forum, following the performance.

POST-SHOW CONVERSATION WITH HARVARD UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR BIODUN JEYIFO

Saturday, March 14 after the 2pm performance
Join Huntington literary apprentice Molly FitzMaurice and Biodun Jeyifo, professor of African and African American studies and of comparative literature at Harvard University, for a compelling discussion about representation and identity politics in film and drama following the Saturday, March 14 2pm performance of "The Colored Museum."

Biodun Jeyifo is a professor in the departments of African and African-American studies and Comparative Literature at Harvard University. A leading literary critic and cultural theorist and editor of the authoritative anthology, Modern African Drama (Norton Critical Editions, 2002), Mr. Jeyifo's work has long framed scholarship in African drama and theatre. He has taught at several universities around the world, including Cornell University, Oberlin College, University of Ife, and Queens College of the City University of New York (CUNY). His research interests are African and Caribbean 'Anglophone' literatures, theatrical theory and dramatic literature, Western and non-Western, comparative African and Afro-American critical thought, Marxist literary and cultural theory, colonial and postcolonial studies, etc. Mr. Jeyifo is world renowned as the foremost Soyinka scholar. His publications on Soyinka include, Wole Soyinka, Politics, Poetics, Postcolonialism (2004), Perspectives on Wole Soyinka: Freedom and Complexity (2001), and Wole Soyinka: A Voice of Africa (1990).

A CONVERSATION WITH BEVERLEY MORGAN-WELCH FROM THE MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY

Sunday, March 15 after the 2pm performance
Join Huntington dramaturg Charles Haugland and Beverly Morgan-Welch, executive director of the Museum of African American History, for a post-show conversation about the themes of the show following the Sunday, March 15 2pm performance.

Beverly Morgan-Welch serves as the chief executive of the oldest and most visible African-American history museum in New England located on Boston's Beacon Hill and in Nantucket's Five Corners. With four of the nation's preeminent African-American historic sites, three of which are National Historic Landmarks, and collections that preserve the powerful past from the Colonial Period through the Abolitionist Movement, the museum provides Black Heritage Trail� tours, exhibits, and public and education programs that illuminate and share a liberating American history. Under Ms. Morgan-Welch's leadership, the Museum of African American History has become a nationally recognized institution with increasing scholarship and collections. In 2001, she purchased the Seneca Boston-Florence Higginbotham House on Nantucket (circa 1774), which became the oldest structure in the museum's collection of historic sites. In 2003, she forged a powerful partnership; the museum's buildings became Historic Sites of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In 2011, Ms. Morgan-Welch's completion of the historic restoration of the African Meeting House in Boston, built in 1806 and host to giants in the national antislavery, education and equal rights movements in America, is one of the greatest accomplishments of her career. Currently she is a member of three distinguished history institutions: the Antiquarian Society, the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, and the Massachusetts Historical Society.

COMMUNITY MEMBERSHIP RECEPTION

Thursday, March 19 before the 7:30pm performance
A pre-show reception with refreshments for members of the Community Membership program. Community Membership is an initiative designed to reduce the cost barrier of attending live theatre for those with limited income and to diversify the Huntington's audience so it looks more like the city of Boston. Members can purchase best-available tickets to any performance without restriction for just $15. Membership is free and available through partnerships with agencies and organizations that serve limited-income populations. Santander is the Lead Supporter of the Huntington's Community Membership program.

Please note: There is no elevator access to this reception.

POST-SHOW CONVERSATION WITH WELLESLEY COLLEGE ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR MICHAEL JEFFRIES

Saturday, March 21 after the 2pm performance
Join Huntington literary apprentice Molly FitzMaurice and Michael Jeffries, associate professor of American studies at Wellesley College, for a compelling discussion on popular culture and the politics of race, class, and gender, following the Saturday, March 21 2pm performance of The Colored Museum.

Michael Jeffries is associate professor of American studies at Wellesley College, where he teaches courses on American popular culture and the politics of race, class, and gender. He is the author of two books, mostly recently, Paint the White House Black: Barack Obama and The Meaning of Race in America, published in 2013 by Stanford University Press. His first book, Thug Life: Race, Gender, and the Meaning of Hip-Hop was published in 2011 by University of Chicago Press. He is also a contributor at The Boston Globe, The Atlantic, and The Guardian.

HUMANITIES FORUM & BOSTON GLOBE INSIDERS EVENT: POST-SHOW CONVERSATION WITH BOSTON GLOBE COLUMNIST ADRIAN WALKER AND AUTHOR GLENDA CARPIO

Sunday, March 22 after the 2pm performance
Join Boston Globe columnist Adrian Walker and Glenda R. Carpio, Harvard professor and author of "Laughing Fit to Kill: Black Humor in the Fictions of Slavery" for a lively conversation about black humor and dark satire following the 2pm performance. Humanities Forums are presented in conjunction with all Huntington productions. A Boston Globe Insiders event - tickets to the 3/22 performance are $45 for Boston Globe subscribers who use the discount code.

Adrian Walker is a columnist for the Metro section of The Boston Globe. He provides commentary and opinion on local and regional news as well as society and culture. Mr. Walker started as a Metro columnist in 1998, and his column appears Mondays and Fridays.

Glenda R. Carpio is a professor of African and African-American studies and English at Harvard University. Her book "Laughing Fit to Kill: Black Humor in the Fictions of Slavery" was published by Oxford University Press. She is currently working on a book on immigration in post 1945 American literature. Professor Carpio recently co-edited African American Literary Studies: New Texts, New Approaches, New Challenges with Professor Werner Sollors. She started her teaching career in Compton, California where she taught 8th grade English and 4th grade through the Teach for America program. She recently received Harvard University's Abramson Award for Excellence and Sensitivity in Undergraduate Teaching. Professor Carpio received her PhD in English from the University of California, Berkeley and her BA was earned at Vassar College.

35 BELOW WRAP PARTY

Friday, March 27 following the 8pm performance
A post-show party for the region's culturally curious aged 35 and below featuring backstage access, free refreshments, and live entertainment. Mingle with members of the cast, creative team, and Huntington staff. Hang out with friends and meet new people.

35 Below tickets are available at all performances to patrons 35 and under for just $25. Harpoon Brewery is the official beer of 35 Below.

POST-SHOW CONVERSATION WITH MIT ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR SANDY ALEXANDRE

Saturday, March 28 after the 2pm performance
Join Huntington dramaturg Charles Haugland and Sandy Alexandre, associate professor of Literature at MIT, for a compelling discussion about contemporary black American literature, culture, and relationships to material objects following the Saturday, March 28 2pm performance of The Colored Museum.

Sandy Alexandre's research spans the late 19th century to present-day black American literature and culture. Her first book, "The Properties of Violence: Claims to Ownership in Representations of Lynching," uses the history of American lynching violence as a framework to understand matters concerning displacement, property ownership, and the American pastoral ideology in a literary context. Ms. Alexandre is currently writing another book, Up from Chattels: Thinghood in an Ethics of Black Curation. This book will explore how some black Americans create what Ms. Alexandre calls a "culture of significance" with material objects. Using literary analysis, studying material artifacts, and engaging the work of black collectors, Ms. Alexandre argues that this improvised, curated, and eventually sacralized culture of subject-object relations constitutes an immanent critique of consumer capitalism. Ms. Alexandre's work takes into serious account the ways in which an ecology comprised of people, places, and things can, at once, reverberate and attempt to negotiate the various instances of racial violence that mark the aggregate of US history.

POST-SHOW CONVERSATION WITH BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CHAD WILLIAMS

Sunday, March 29 after the 2pm performance
Join Huntington literary apprentice Molly FitzMaurice and Chad Williams, associate professor and chair of African & Afro-American studies at Brandeis University for a discussion on African American history, African-Americans and the military, and The Colored Museum, following the Sunday, March 29 2pm performance.

Chad Williams is a native of California and grew up in San Francisco. He attended college at UCLA, where he earned a BA with honors in history and African-American studies.

Mr. Williams received both his MA and PhD in history from Princeton University. His courses have spanned US, African-American, and African diaspora history, broadly, and race, war and society, African-American intellectual history, and the New Negro, specifically. He is widely recognized as an expert on African-Americans and World War I and, more generally, African-Americans and the military. His first book, Torchbearers of Democracy: African American Soldiers in the World War I Era, was published by the University of North Carolina Press. Widely praised as a landmark study, Torchbearers of Democracy won the 2011 Liberty Legacy Foundation Award from the Organization of American Historians, the 2011 Distinguished Book Award from the Society for Military History, and designation as a 2011 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title. He has published articles and book reviews in numerous leading journals and collections. He has earned fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Ford Foundation, and the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. He is currently completing a study of WEB Du Bois's historical writings on World War I.

AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE-INTERPRETED PERFORMANCES

Thursday, April 2 at 10am (student matinee)
Friday, April 3 at 8pm
The Huntington Theatre Company offers ASL interpretation for the Deaf and hard-of-hearing at designated performances.
Seating for each ASL-interpreted performance is located in the orchestra, house left. Tickets are $15 for each Deaf patron and a guest. To reserve tickets, please contact Access Coordinator Meg O'Brien at [email protected].

POST-SHOW CONVERSATION WITH PLAYWRIGHT AND ARTS EDUCATOR KIM EUELL

Saturday, April 4 after the 2pm performance
Join Huntington dramaturg Charles Haugland and Kim Euell, a playwright, arts educator, and Visiting Artist in Playwriting at UMass Amherst for a compelling discussion on how "The Colored Museum" subverts stereotypes and changed the face of black theatre following the Saturday, April 4 2pm performance of "The Colored Museum."

Kim Euell is a playwright and dramaturg who is passionately committed to promoting socially relevant new plays. She has headed play development programs at Center Theater Group's Mark Taper Forum, the Tony Award-winning Hartford Stage Company, and The Robey Theatre Company where she was the California Arts Council's playwright in residence. As a dramaturg at the Sundance Theatre Lab she contributed to the development of award-winning plays. Ms. Euell's own plays have been performed in theatres in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Detroit, Savannah, and Louisville. Penumbra Theatre Company's production of The Diva Daughters DuPree was named Outstanding New Show of the Year by the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune in their year-end review. A winner of the Theodore Ward Prize, "Divas" was published in an anthology entitled Best Black Plays. She edited Plays from the Boom Box Galaxy, the first anthology devoted to theatre informed by spoken word poetry and the hip hop aesthetic. She has published articles and reviews in American Theatre Magazine and The African American Review. She is the University of Massachusetts-Amherst's Visiting Playwright in Residence. She has previously taught at the University of Pennsylvania and University of Iowa. A graduate of Stanford University, she received her MFA from the University of Iowa's Playwrights Workshop, where she was a Dean's Fellow. Ms. Euell is a Fulbright Senior Specialist in theatre and has served as a panelist for the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Alpert Awards in the Arts, Pew Charitable Trust, Rockefeller Foundation, and the NEA.

"The Colored Museum" runs March 6 - April 7 at the Avenue of the Arts / BU Theatre (264 Huntington Avenue, Boston). For more information and tickets visit huntingtontheatre.org or call 617 266 0800.