Black Spectrum challenged at 50

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Black Spectrum looks to past for future

by Naeisha Rose

Associate Editor

Black Spectrum Theatre, a professional theater company in St. Albans that caters to artists from the Black diaspora, was one month away from celebrating its 50th anniversary milestone when it shut down because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and like many arts organizations last year, its festivities had to ground to a halt.

“We were planning for that in March 2020 and it was to take place in April,” said Carl Clay, the founder of Black Spectrum Theatre. “Lou Gossett Jr., Leslie Uggams and Ben Vereen were all supposed to appear for our 50th, and all of that had to be canceled because of the pandemic.”

Clay was disappointed by the cancellation of the golden anniversary of the theater, but knew he could not rest on his laurels.

“We then proceeded to try to pivot and try to do different kinds of programming that would take advantage of the things we established over the years,” said Clay. “We created the ‘At Home Video Series.’”

Clay went through years of archival footage of concerts, plays, comedy shows and more over the last 20 years and put together a video series online for Black Spectrum Theatre’s patrons starting in October 2020. It went on for 20 weeks.

“That allowed us to put on some semblance of a program for people who frequent the theater,” said Clay.

There were approximately 300 viewers each week, according to Clay. Another series in January 2021 went on for 10 weeks.

Clay considered doing theater performances online, but it was not feasible.

“It is hard to present a theater performance on Zoom,” said Clay.

As Clay tried to come up with more ideas to prevent any gaps in material for his audience, he decided to use the pandemic to his advantage.

“We created social programming about Covid and wearing a mask,” said Clay. “We did about four PSAs that we created that were very effective in making people knowledgeable about what is going on.”

Unfortunately, he had to lay off three of his eight staff members.

“Then we created some new programming and hoped and prayed that this thing would be over,” said Clay.

He hopes to rehire his former staff in the fall.

“We ultimately decided to do a program for the children of first responders,” said Clay. “It’s known as the Learning Lab.”

Overseeing the Learning Lab at Majority Baptist Church in Jamaica was Stephanie Alcide, the site director of the Riverton Street

Theater pivots and perseveres

Charter School in St. Albans, according to Clay. She had worked throughout the pandemic. The Learning Lab, however, is to come to an end next week now that Covid-19 positivity rates are at an all-time low.

“We served the parents of first responders and parents who had to go to work but their kids could not go to school in-person, but they didn’t want them at home doing hybrid learning,” said Clay.

Clay used the theater to promote the importance of vaccination, and now that the staff is vaccinated, the theater has started doing outdoor programming.

To celebrate Caribbean Heritage Month, Black Spectrum had a steel band and Dominican comedian Ruperto Vanderpool performing in the theater’s outdoor space on June 12.

“People want to go outside and do things,” said Clay.

For the month of June, there has also been a café series on Thursdays and Sundays from 5 to 8 p.m., also in the outdoor space at the theater.

The event included spoken-word artists, the Gentlemen of Soul and other performances.

“We also expanded our library of films for urban teens,” said Clay. “We created videos for teens as a response to the Learning Lab.”

The videos address interactions with the police and handgun violence, and a series of animations explaining what Covid-19 is and how to prevent oneself from getting it.

This year he hopes to incorporate parts of the 50th celebration plans into a jazz festival, on July 17 at St. Albans Park.

“We have a stellar cast of celebrities and performing artists,” said Clay. “Last year’s celebration was supposed to be an evening of performances and awards at a Queens hotel.”

Alyson Williams, Angie Stone and Norman Connors are just a few of the artists expected at the event.

“It is a blessing to be able to do what we do and exist and survive,” said Clay. Q

Black Spectrum’s outdoor cafe series performers. PHOTO BY TYREL HUNT

Page 31 QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, June 24, 2021

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