WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — The stage lights are now shining on the 2024 International Black Theatre Festival, which began Monday.
What You Need To Know
- This is the 18th season of the biennial festival
- IBTF is set to bring in over 60,000 visitors and millions to the economy
- Over 100 performances throughout Winston-Salem will be taking place throughout the week
- The festival runs through Saturday
Stars from broadway, the big screen and more have gathered in the Triad for the 18th biennial festival.
“Our mission is to always support Black theater and to keep our stories alive, whether it's to enrich lives through artistic expression or supporting an emerging artist. We believe that art has the power to inspire, provoke thought and unite people through all walks of life,” said Dr. Eric Sadler, the board president for the North Carolina Black Repertory Company.
The festival will have over 100 theater performances and other events, such as workshops, a market and Disney Live Entertainment auditions.
“It brings the best of Black theater together in one place. We call Winston-Salem, 'Black Theatre Holy Ground,'” said Brian McLaughlin, the media relations director for the IBTF.
The festival is produced by the North Carolina Black Repertory Company and is expected to bring in over 60,000 attendees and has brought over $200 million to the local economy since its inception.
“I want people to take away a sense that art is for everyone, and this is just another segment of that art, and I want people to come away energized,” McLaughlin said.
Productions including, “Coconut Cake,” “A Woman in Waiting” and “Float Like a Butterfly & From Birmingham to Broadway” are just a few shows that will be seen throughout the city.
“Audiences sit in these dark rooms looking up at the stage, asking themselves questions that they didn't ask before the play began, seeing themselves in the story in a way they may not have seen themselves previously. Then understanding that their perception of African American life and thought may need to be questioned is an important engagement that we give the national community, which I know will have an effect internationally,” said Lisa Arrindell, a guest artist and filmmaker.
This year through a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, a partnership between Wake Forest University's School of Divinity, the university’s Wake the Arts Center and Winston-Salem’s N.C. Black Repertory Company, granted two plays to be written and premiered during the festival.
The plays, “Heritage” and “I Am … a Shepherdess,” are part of the project “Finding Holy Ground: Performing Visions of Race and Justice in America,” representing their effect on the community's engagement and encouragement to let communities have conversations on justice, race and religion in the U.S.
“Utilizing theater to begin to explore and examine the depth, the complexity and some of the challenges that occur. When you think about religion, race and the quest for justice in the U.S. And I'm so glad that the theater and this festival has taken on its intentional name 'International,'” said Corey Walker, the dean of the Wake Forest University School of Divinity.
The festival takes place through Saturday.