Since 2019, Broadway mainstays Danielle Brooks, Jocelyn Bioh, and Amber Iman have been working to create a support network for Black women working in theater. The trio launched the “Black Women on Broadway” Instagram account two years ago and have connected with their community virtually since the onslaught of COVID. Now, they’re preparing to present their first-ever awards. According to Variety, the inaugural Black Women on Broadway awards ceremony will be held at the rooftop lounge of New York’s Empire Hotel on June 6. Playwright Lynn Nottage (“Sweat”), costume designer Qween Jean (“What to Send Up When It Goes Down”), and actress Kara Young (“Clyde’s”) are the org’s first honorees.
Nottage is being recognized for her prolificacy and for being “the one who has been holding up the lights” in theater this year. Young is described as a performer who has been “hard-working, grinding in the mud, but is finally coming to blossom.” Iman said, “She is a light; she is a spitfire; she is talented beyond.” Qween Jean is not only “a fierce costume designer, but an activist. I can’t tell you anything that I went to over the past two years — a march, a rally… Qween Jean is in the front,” Iman stressed. “Sis is in a gown, has a megaphone in her hand and a fan in the other hand, and she is letting people know what to do, where to go, and how to be. She represents everything that a Black woman on Broadway should be.”
Each honoree will receive a prize named for a Black woman who made Broadway history. Nottage will be presented with the Audra McDonald Legacy Award, named for the six-time Emmy-winning “Porgy and Bess” and “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill” actress. Qween Jean will receive the Kathy A. Perkins Behind the Curtain Award, which, as Iman told the source, takes its name from the first and only Black woman to design lights on Broadway. Young will take home the Florence Mills Rising Star Award, named in honor of the Jazz Age-era cabaret performer.
Brooks, Bioh, and Iman named the prizes after Black women who blazed a trail in theater as part of their overall mission to educate folks in and out of the business about the unsung contributions women of color have made — and continue to make — to the Great White Way.
“I couldn’t name a Black lighting designer before we started this organization. There were so many women who I didn’t know existed in this space,” Iman explained. “I don’t believe you can know where you’re going, if you don’t know where you came from.”
“We may not ever see a time where we actually have awards named after the women who trailblazed in theater like this, especially on Broadway,” Bioh added. “Naming something after Kathy A. Perkins — who’s still lighting shows on Broadway and nominated again for ‘Trouble in Mind’ — or people like Florence Mills, who came onto the scene, and whose life was sadly cut short — we want to make sure that we’re saying their names and acknowledging that they’re never going to be forgotten.”
Black Women on Broadway regularly shares photos, videos, and information about Black women theater pioneers via Instagram. They hosted Theater Appreciation Day 2020, complete with a keynote conversation between McDonald and Lillias White (“Dreamgirls”), self-care activities, and workshops on writing and self-taping.
Next, the org plans to start a mentorship program and launch a series of video essays about the Black women who made an impact on the industry. As Variety puts it, “The goal is to keep expanding, with all their work aimed at paying it forward to the next generation of young Black women artists aiming to make their mark on the Great White Way.”
“We do need spaces like this. There are so many women that feel a disconnect within this community,” Brooks said. “The thing that separates us from other organizations is we’re really tapping into the spaces that get ignored — the lighting departments, sound departments, the understudies, the writers, the producers, the people that are not always in the front of the stage, that aren’t the actors. We’re bringing space for them to be in the room.” She continued, “That’s really great for networking, but also for reminding this industry we are out here. Reminding younger girls that look up to us that there are different positions in this industry that you can aspire to that aren’t just being an actress. To expand our sphere and say, ‘Black women can take on all of it.’”
