Oh HAPPY DAY! Directed by Awards winner Stevie WALKER WEBB running at The PUBLIC THEATER til Nov 9

Описание: Check out our intimate and powerful conversation with the multitalented
Stevie Walker-Webb, Tony Award-nominated and Obie Award-winning director (AIN’T No MO’) currently directing ‘OH HAPPY DAY’ By Tony award nominated young and gifted JORDAN E. COOPER, running at the Public Theater ad extended til November 9th.
‘Oh Happy Day!’ is a musical play presented in Association with Baltimore Center Stage of which Stevie is the Artistic Director since 2023.
The play has mesmerising Original Songs by Grammy Award-winning gospel artist DONALD LAWRENCE.
In the Playbill I read an inspiring note by Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director of The Public Theater, revealing how influential Stevie has been in making his collaboration with Jordan result in their groundbreaking work and in staging this play at the Public, I asked Stevie to elaborate on that.
Stevie is a cultural worker who believes in the power of art and love to transform lives and destiny.
As a survivor of poverty and the violence associated with growing up black, and poor in America, he creates work that liberates and reframes the narratives of marginalized groups. T his powerful play plunges right into his inspiration.
Synopsis:.An impending flood is the least of the Johnson family’s troubles in this outrageous reimagining of Noah’s Ark from Tony Award-nominated writer and director duo Jordan E. Cooper and Stevie Walker-Webb. OH HAPPY DAY! begins in Laurel, MS, at a birthday BBQ for Lewis, the patriarch of the family. Shortly after his estranged son Keyshawn (played by Cooper) makes a surprise appearance, absurdity ensues on a day that will change their world forever. Grammy Award-winning gospel artist Donald Lawrence writes original songs for this biting new play about confronting the divine.
At Baltimore Center Stage in the meantime Stevie Walker -Webb is currently producing ‘The Peculiar Patriot’ a fierce, powerful and uplifting one woman show by and with Liza Jessie Peterson. that I saw years ago at the National Black Theater in Harlem. It's a must see if you are in Baltimore
Stevie is also a co-founder and Executive Director of HUNDREDSofTHOUSANDS an arts and advocacy non-profit, visualising the suffering and inhumane treatment of incarcerated mentally ill people and the policies that adversely impact their lives.
He's received an Obie Award for Directing-Ain't No Mo’ (Public Theatre).
He is a recipient of the Princess Grace Award for Theatre, The Lily Award in honor of Lorraine Hansberry awarded by the Dramatists Guild of America, a 2050 Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop, and a Wellspring Scholar.
He’s The Founding Artistic Director of the Jubilee Theatre in Waco, Texas (where you are from), and has created art and theatre in Madagascar, South Africa, Mexico, Mississippi, and across America.
His work has been produced by: The Public Theatre, American Civil Liberties Union, The New Group, Cherry Lane, Zara Aina, Wooly Mammoth, Baltimore Center Stage, La Mama, and Theatre of the Oppressed-NYC.
Along with his art and advocacy work, Stevie teaches and creates art at Harvard University and New York University's Tisch School for the arts.