“The African Company Presents Richard III” Will Be Staged
at the Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts, March 26-30

Brooklyn, N.Y. – Theatergoers interested in early African-American theater will enjoy Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus production of "The African Company Presents Richard III," written by Carlyle Brown.

The play is based on the true story of William Brown, a free African American, who, in 1821, opened a theater for black New Yorkers. When the African Company presented Shakespeare’s Richard III at the same time as the elite, white-owned Park Theater was staging it, the African theater was closed by authorities. In a courageous act of defiance, the African Company rented the hall across the street from the Park Theater and took the struggle for civil rights to the stage, by seeking to "change the world with a play."

Performances will take place Wednesday-Saturday, March 26-29, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, March 30, at 2 p.m. at the Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts at the University’s Brooklyn Campus, located on the corner of DeKalb and Flatbush avenues. Tickets are $15.

Directed by professor Quiche Stone, the production is sponsored by the Campus’s Department of Communication Studies, Performance Studies and Theatre. For more information, call the Kumble Theater box office at (718) 488-1624 or visit www.kumbletheater.org.

Posted: March 4, 2008

Media contact: (718) 488-1015