Sneak Peek: Sade Lythcott Podcast

Sade Lythcott: I get the privilege as the CEO of National Black Theater to co-lead our space with our executive artistic director Jonathan McCrory. We asked ourselves what is NBT in this new 21st Century context? National Black Theater was always performing in the streets of Harlem, they were always coming from a space of deep healing that our narratives could heal our communities and our artists, and that would bring folks inside our building. Our take on it was: well, let's find the work that we love, the playwrights that we want to invest in, that we believe in who they are and what they have to say, we're not going to ask them to be political, we're not going to ask them to have a social justice lens on their work, we will just produce it as brilliantly as we can. But if you're going to be produced at NBT what we ask of you is that you allow us to delve into the text to tease out a dramaturgical social justice, social impact them that already exists. Then we blow that up into a dramaturgical lobby exhibit that really takes a look at the parallels of whatever is existing in the world of the play is existing in our own world today. And sometimes community members need to be able to first relate to how it impacts their own lives to be curious enough to walk through our theater doors.