Alicia Young Directs Black Nativity with Community Focus

By Angelia D. McGowan

The spirit of Langston Hughes will take center stage at Vintage Theatre during the month of December, as Black Nativity is featured throughout the holiday season.

Written by the Black poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, columnist and legendary leader of the Harlem Renaissance, Black Nativity is an ever-evolving adaptation of the famed Nativity story. Originally performed at Broadway’s 41st St. Theatre in December 1961, the holiday musical offers a modern retelling of the traditional account of the Nativity story from an African American perspective.

Director Alicia “Lisa” Young says the play shares “The beauty of the Black American and the Black church experience. It is a global experience within the Black community. It shows how our forefathers and mothers praised through all that we’ve been through.”

The show, which runs Dec. 1 to 30, is the third professional directorial project for Young. Her first was Reach, produced outdoors on a patio in the middle of the pandemic, with Misfits Theater Company in Boulder. The second was Catamount’s world premiere of One Way-Back Day in Boulder last year. She has performed the virtual short Recipe: SharedGumbo, and devised Recipe at the Savoy with Theater Artibus. She portrayed Mrs. Breedlove in Pulitzer Prize winner Toni Morrison’s first novel The Bluest Eye at TheatreWorks. The actoractivist-director also wrote and produced Sojourners Project: Busing, which was performed in the parking lot of her father’s church.

Young’s father, the late Rev. Dr. Jules Smith, led Rising Star Missionary Baptist Church in Aurora for decades and was a recipient of the “2019 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Colorado Holiday Commission

Humanitarian Award.” The long-time activist, who passed in October 2022, helped establish the Aurora, Colorado Chapter of the NAACP. Her family’s tradition of campaigning for social change as outspoken advocates for underrepresented communities lives on through her, and people are taking note.

Last month, the Colorado Black Women for Political Action recognized the theatrical virtuoso for her work bringing social justice and equity to the art industry through IDEAs, a grassroots arts organization she founded in 2020. Her mission is to galvanize equity, diversity and inclusion in response to the socio-political climate surrounding COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement.

She was “shocked and in awe” that her backstage activism was even noticed because much of her work is done behind the scenes.

Casting Call

In line with this modern age of social media which allows everyone to have a voice, Black Nativity tryouts called for everyday community people as opposed to a traditional, seasoned cast. The directors requested people who had never acted before. “These are people who would have tried, but never had the opportunity,” adds Young, a former board member of the Colorado Theatre Guild.

In preparation for the performance, she and assistant director, Mosés Brown, announced auditions with a targeted social media call: “I’m looking for a Black cast! Calling all Black/African American actors, singers, dancers and community members, singers, dancers, church folk who want to try a paid professional gig.”

Social media has been “a blessing in several ways,” according to Young, a long-time drama teacher at Aurora Public Schools, who also serves as an educational assistant. “It’s faster than making 100 phone calls and having emails that are obsolete. There are so many different groups and pages to post and announce on.”

“Casting is a huge part of the overall process,” says Brown, who does vocal and live acting at Pave Creative in Kansas City, Missouri.

Brown has a unique connection to Black Nativity. During the pandemic, he lived in Denver and was cast as lead vocalist for the musical. Unfortunately, the show couldn’t gain traction during the pandemic. However, he built on the experience and returned on the other side as an assistant director. Some of his credits include Tomfoolery: The Music and Lyrics of Tom Lehrer and Black Nativity at The Aurora Fox Arts Center, Little Shop of Horrors at PACE Center, Songs for a New World at Platte Valley Players, and The First and Second National Tour of The

Motones and Jerseys: In concert.

Looking forward to “being a part of a piece that is very relevant at this time for marginalized communities,” Brown says, “This is for everybody. It is for us as a community. So many different people of color. I want everybody from all areas of the walk of life to attend. People will be touched.”

Going into her third project as director, Young says she has learned that she has “to build community.”

As she directs the musical, she stresses that the actors should not be in competition with other actors; they should be in competition with themselves to be the best that they can be. She also encourages those who have been “taught to be modest and not to brag” to let their light shine.

She understands that this will be a unique experience for those who have not done this professionally.

There will be a “bunch of people nervous, and a bunch of people serious about talent. It’s different from singing in church on Sunday,” says Young, who is a Denver Urban Spectrum African Americans Who Make a Difference honoree, 2021 Broncos Touchdown for Teachers recipient, and 2022 True West Award Winner for her work with IDEAs.

The show will feature 30 actors, including 10 youth spanning ages 7-17. IDEAs is funding the youth camp and their stipends to build a new generation of theatre lovers and performers.

This adaptation of Black Nativity is rich with Colorado theater royalty. Young’s mentor, Jo Bunton Keel, who cofounded Eulipions in 1982, is part of the Black Nativity planning. Her theater company was known for presenting the play annually before it shut down.

Musical directors for the play are Arthur E. Robinson II and Santemu Aakhu.

Black Nativity will play in the Jeffrey Nickelson Auditorium at Vintage Theatre. Nickelson’s daughter and Vintage Theatre Board President, ShaShauna Staton, has led the board’s concerted efforts to include voices of color at all levels, including the selection of Young for this role. Staton and her son are also a part of the cast.

“Theatre traditions are being built again,” notes Young, referring to a central theme that is important to both she and Brown. The Black Nativity performances will be steeped in circle-of-life moments, with everyone connected to the project working diligently to make it a success..

Editor’s Note: For more information and ticket purchasing, visit https://www.vintagetheatre.org/per formances/blacknativity

Colorado Press Aw

Newsrooms across Colorado are prepared

In late September, the Colorado Press Association (CPA) hosted its 145th Annual Convention, themed, “Building Back Better,” with a focus on increasing revenue within Colorado’s newsrooms and expanding the reach of local journalism. The convention featured the Better News Media Contest Awards and the endearing induction of one of Denver Urban Spectrum’s (DUS) very own into the CPA Hall of Fame.

The summit was preceded by Colorado Media Project’s (CMP) pre-conference summit, where the organization released a new report, “Reimagining Colorado’s Public Square.”

The report included global trends shaping local news and civic engagement, with research that evaluated whether local news supports a healthy democracy. It also provided state-specific data on the sources of local news in Colorado, analyzing the quantity and quality of content. The report was instrumental in evaluating the investments made by CMP and measuring them against a statewide survey to determine what Colorado residents want from local news.

Tiya Trent of Project Voyce, which develops transformational leaders in underrepresented communities, gave a talk centered around diversity in news. She said, “It’s essential to consider how youth are portrayed and how news about people of color reaches those in power. We have to stop gatekeeping – we really need to understand that youth are the future – they are the present and the future.”

Discussions about the future of local journalism were at the center of the summit’s “Flash Talks.” Corey Hutchins from Colorado College Journalism Institute warned, “We should probably accept the number of legacy or traditional journalism jobs that we lost over the past several years really aren’t coming back — at least not in the ways they previously existed. The ones that emerge over the next five years are likely to look different. Might they be more in digital development, audience engagement, curation, artificial intelligence.”

The CPA Convention was packed with two days of keynote speeches and breakout sessions. Speakers Michael Bolden of the American Press Institute, Jennifer Brandel of Hearken and Zebras Unite, and Frank Mungeam of Local Media Association gave keynote addresses, in addition to panel discussions led by over 30 journalism professionals.

On the last day of the convention, the late editor-in-chief and beloved member of the DUS family, Alfonzo Porter,