Recent Projects
2024
High Substitute for the Head Lecturer
Tony Award-winning playwright, composer, performer, and Harvard University professor Stew (Passing Strange, Notes of a Native Song) premieres HIGH SUBSTITUTE FOR THE HEAD LECTURER. The second in his series of “black super-hero free-constructions,” Stew works through Amiri Baraka’s, and Leroi Jones’, twin influences on his life and art. Baraka, previously known as Leroi Jones, was a legendary writer and founder of the Black Arts Movement. In the spirit of Stew’s critically acclaimed Notes of a Native Song, the musical meditation on James Baldwin, also commissioned by Harlem Stage, HIGH SUBSTITUTE will irreverently transmit troubadour songs scribbled on and about the life trail blazed by Baraka Jones.
RUBY
A New Musical -(OK)
Book and Lyrics by Michael Jacobs & Nate Jacobs
Music by Nate Jacobs, Brennan Stylez, and Antonio Wimberly
with additional music by Nehemiah Luckett
Arrangements and Orchestrations by Nehemiah Luckett & Dan Sander-Wells
Directed by Nate Jacobs
Image from Observer here. Ashley Elizabeth Crowe stars as Zora Neale Hurston, Catara Brae and Maurice Alphricio play Ruby and Sam McCullom, and Larry Alexander plays Dr. Adams in WBTT's original production of “Ruby."
Image courtesy of Sorcha Augustine
Thousand Stories Cabaret
Featuring songs from Funny Girl (1964), The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N (1968), Rags (1986), and Ragtime (1998), this cabaret blends scholarship and artistry, history and storytelling. Incorporating showtunes, lesser known songs, storytelling, and scholarship, this cabaret invites audience members to consider the historical narratives of musicals in addition to enjoying the pleasure they provide. This cabaret is based on Dr. Barrie Gelles’s scholarship that examines the themes and tropes in musicals that recreate, reframe, and reclaim narratives of Jewish American cultural history.
Love Letter To A Seed
directed by Nana Dakin
creative producers Lanxing Fu and Jeremy Pickard of Superhero Clubhouse
music and additional words Nehemiah Luckett
words and additional music Orion S. Johnstone
visual designer Lexy Ho-Tai
audio mixing and master engineer Mauricio Escamilla
guest voice performer vickie washington
guest cello performer Marika Hughes
An illustrated letter, invitation, and audio experience
for climate activists, artists and concerned beings
who are weary
and sometimes hang their heads in despair
and nevertheless
keep on tending
Together
Visit superheroclubhouse.org/seed/
jazz singer
An interrogation of the first feature film with synchronized dialogue, The Jazz Singer.
Created by Nehemiah Luckett and Joshua William Gelb
Directed by Joshua William Gelb
Composed and Music Directed by Nehemiah Luckett
jazz singer is a theatrical exhumation of the first feature-length “sound film” The Jazz Singer, reinterpreted by Joshua William Gelb and Nehemiah Luckett. Set on the Lower East Side, the 1927 film tells the story of a “jazz crooner” forced to choose between his immigrant Jewish heritage and his aspirations to become a Broadway star. Though the film is historically significant for its integration of synchronized sound, it is also remembered for its controversial use of blackface. Gelb and Luckett’s musical rendering offers a contemporary take on a distinctly U.S. American story, one that interrogates appropriation, assimilation, atonement, and whether escape from the specter of blackface is possible.
jazz singer was created in residence at Abrons Arts Center, with the support of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Art NY and sponsor Ben Feldman. It has been created through several developmental showings including Little Theater (feat. Joshua William Gelb, Nehemiah Luckett, and Moe Yousuf) and Prelude 2018 (feat. Gelb, Luckett, Tracey Conyer Lee, and Nathan Stevens).
Additional jazz singer information (probably too much for this section)
Dramaturgy by Zhailon Levingston
Assistant Directed by Johnny Lloyd
Presented by Abrons Arts Center
Performed by Joshua William Gelb, Nehemiah Luckett, Cristina Pitter, Stanley Mathabane, and a different featured guest Jazz artist every performance.
Stage Manager: Lindsey Hurley
Assistant Stage Manager: Ellen Minchinski
Scenic Design by Jian Jung
Lighting Design by Marika Kent
Projections and Video Design by Lianne Arnold
Sound Design by Kate Marvin & Stanley Mathabane
Costume Design by Rodrigo Muñoz
Associate Scenic & Props Design by Brian Bernhard
Production Manager & Technical Director Sean McGrath
Guest Artists Curated by Alphonso Home
Produced by Frank Nicholas Poon