SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As someone who has acted for over a decade, Xzavier Beacham, said the arts mean a lot to him.

“For me, acting is a spiritual experience,” Beacham said. “People need a release. People need to see they’ve been seen and they’ve been heard.”

An apt way to feel performing for the theater company Celebration Arts in the production of “Zora & Langston,” as Celebration Arts is a stalwart for Black artists in Sacramento, and has been for decades a place that tells and promotes Black culture.

The non-fictional play in which Beacham plays Langston, depicts the struggles of two great Black writers in the 1920s.

“This show is a part of this theater company’s bloodline,” Beacham said. “Playing Langston Hughes or someone like Zora Neale Hurston, their whole vision was to be a voice for the people who were voiceless.”

The theater company was started by James Wheatley back in the mid-80s, as a response to him finding little to no options for Black creatives in a dance or theater.

Having just retired last year as executive director, the company’s new executive director who himself learned the art of acting from Wheatley, James Ellison said it’s an important role to take on within in the Black community.

“It’s something that shouldn’t be taken lightly. You know, you’re a community leader,” Ellison said. “And to hear that and, you know, it’s humbling, you know, just to know that when people look at me that way in this in this in this role.”

Ellison said it’s not always easy for a community theater financially but a new grant from the state of $714,000 is going to help immensely with improvements and helping the theater fund staff payments which for the most part have volunteered their time.

“That’s the most money we’ve ever gotten,” Ellison said. “If you added up all of the grants or money from donations that we’ve had in the 36 years we’ve been around, it doesn’t even come close.”

Beacham said places like Celebration Arts that help educate and explore Black culture are too few and far between, and important reason for the grant.

“When you leave, if you experience something you’ve never felt. The question then I would want to ask you is, where do you see that feeling in the world and how can you affect it now that you understand it?” he said.

Beacham hopes many will come to experience the latest piece of expression performance at the theater.

“Zora and Langston” runs from March 1-17 at Celebration Arts.