{"id":191788,"date":"2026-05-14T01:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T01:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/191788\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T01:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T01:40:08","slug":"opera-philadelphia-and-davone-tines-present","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/191788\/","title":{"rendered":"Opera Philadelphia and Dav\u00f3ne Tines present\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Opera Philadelphia has partnered with decorated performer Dav\u00f3ne Tines for the Philadelphia premiere of Langston Hughes\u2019 The Black Clown<\/a>, running May 14-17. This incredibly well-received production was previously staged at the American Repertory Theater in 2018 and the Lincoln Center in 2019. It received accolades from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Stage Review. It had numerous sold-out performances; almost transitioned to pre-pandemic Broadway; and remains relevant today with a recent performance at the New York Historical Society<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Finding hope in the darkness<\/p>\n

The Black Clown<\/a> is inspired by Langston Hughes’ 1931 book, The Negro Mother and Other Dramatic Recitations. The \u201cBlack Clown\u201d monologue surrounds a man struggling against crushing racial stereotypes. It is unsurprising that a musical artist as respected as Tines wanted to adapt this for the stage. Hughes’ original stage directions stipulate using various musical genres within the piece including jazz, blues, and old school gospels like Motherless Child. The 2018 performance expanded the 555-line monologue into a 70-minute performance featuring jazz, opera, ragtime, and gospel. It incorporated gorgeous choreography, stirring vocals, and evocative yet stripped down visuals. It was stirringly complex yet emotionally enthralling.<\/p>\n

Listening to Tines detail revisiting his project for Opera Philadelphia made me excited. Serving double duty as musical supervisor, he originally co-created the production with composer Michael Schachter, and director Zack Winokur. I wondered how it felt to re-stage such an emotionally raw piece about societal oppression during the country\u2019s 250-year anniversary. He admitted to asking himself those same questions eight years after its last production, \u201cwhy this piece? Why now?\u201d But he talked about the importance of \u201cmaking work that is socially conscious\u201d and \u201cevergreen.\u201d He admits that creating art that addresses \u201csustained tragedy\u201d might remain as prescient today as yesterday (as we can see, with the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, ICE\u2019s increasing presence, and the heightened scrutiny of gender identity). <\/p>\n

However, Tines also spoke to the hope in Hughes\u2019 work. Although Hughes addresses \u201coppression as a closet and imposed clown suit,\u201d he shows how we came out the other side. Tines feels that revisiting the text and those times is for a reason: \u201cSo that we can imagine ourselves into the future \u2026 [It] allows us to walk through 300 years of American oppression to see that we’ve survived past it and thus can and will and always transcend it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The story hits home<\/p>\n

Tines is an incredibly brilliant and eloquent speaker on his passion project. Of course he received the Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, was an honoree of the National Education Association\u2019s Human and Civil Rights Awards, and accepted the Chanel Next Prize. <\/p>\n

Tines\u2019 project means a lot to me personally. Langston Hughes crystallized my experiences as a Black American. Growing up, my mother frequently read his 1922 Mother to Son and let me pick his 1932 poetry book, The Dream Keeper, for my birthday. While these works are almost a century old, Tines’ adaptation of Hughes remains timely and appropriate. <\/p>\n

This new staging offers a redesigned set, new costumes, and new cast members with contributions from Chanel DaSilva (choreography), Jaret London (additional arrangements), Carlos Soto (scenic and costume design), John Torres (lighting design), Kai Harada (sound design), and Rachel Padula-Shufelt (wig and hair design). While it offers us insight into our past, it offers us hope for our future. Tines encourages all that feel impacted by our shared history to come and celebrate this performance. To remain resilient \u201cwe can’t stand in silos to fight a common enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Black Clown. Based on poetry of Langston Hughes. Co-created by Dav\u00f3ne Tines (musical supervisor), Michael Schachter (composer), and Zack Winokur (director). Opera Philadelphia. May 14-May 17, 2025, at the Miller Theater, 250 South Broad Street. (215) 732-8400 or operaphila.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Miller Theater is wheelchair accessible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Opera Philadelphia has partnered with decorated performer Dav\u00f3ne Tines for the Philadelphia premiere of Langston Hughes\u2019 The Black…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4877,6033,6276,3896,7865,69,71,70,7625,1483],"class_list":["post-191788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-arts","tag-culture","tag-magazine","tag-movies","tag-music","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-philly","tag-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}