Podcast appearances and mentions of Jerrell L Henderson

Jerrell L. Henderson is a Theatre Director, Puppeteer, and African American Theatre Historian and Archivist. Through the mediums of theatre and/or puppetry and film, Jerrell seeks to disrupt generational curses of self-hate (i.e. racism, homophobia, religious intolerance, etc.). Intellectually curious and emotionally dexterous, Jerrell is at home in a number of wide-ranging genres including, but not limited to, American Realism, Magical Realism, Traditional and Contemporary Musical Theatre, Poetic Black-Queer Narratives, and Live Spectacle Events. Upcoming projects include directing Ragtime at Metropolis Arts Center this Spring. A recipient of a 2023 Henson Foundation Workshop Grant and the 2022 League of Chicago Theatre's Samuel G. Roberson Fellowship, Jerrell will present an original shadow play titled, AmericanMYTH: Crossroads with Free Street Theatre this Fall. Recent projects include directing Reverie by James Ijames (2022 Pulitzer Prize recipient for Fat Ham) with Azuka Theatre in Philadelphia, co-directing Marys Seacole by Jackie Sibblies Drury with Griffin Theatre in Chicago, and collaborating with The Classical Theatre of Harlem and St. Ann's Warehouse on: When The World Sounds Like A Prayer (https://www.cthnyc.org, walkwithamal.org) in Bryant Park in NYC. Other credits include Mlima's Tale with Griffin Theatre (Jeff Award nomination for Direction and Best Play), The River with BoHo Theatre, and Untitled with Inis Nua (Barrymore Award nomination for Outstanding Direction of a Play). Puppet short films include a filmed version of his signature puppetry piece, I Am The Bear with The Chicago International Puppet Theatre Festival. Other puppet short films include, Hamlin: La Revue Sombre with Heather Henson's Handmade Puppet Dreams and Diamond's Dream with Chicago Children's Theatre. His Juneteenth Puppet Protest: The Welcome Table was featured in the New York Times (June 2020) and his Fall 2020 puppetry celebration of the lives of John Lewis and C.T. Vivian titled, Black Butterfly was later expanded into an educational performance piece with Tria Smith of Guild Row and a student collective working with Urban Growers Collective on Chicago's South Side. He received his MFA in Theatre Directing from Northwestern University (2015), is an artistic associate with Black Lives, Black Words, is a member of Lincoln Center's Directors Lab (2012), and was a Henson Foundation sponsored participant at the Eugene O'Neill National Puppetry Conference (2020). He is on the board of Directors Gathering. (DG) is a national organization based in Philadelphia, PA which offers theatre directors consistent community, resources, and elevation.  As a theatre historian and archivist, Jerrell contributed to Fifty Key Musicals (Routledge Press). He authored the chapter on Shuffle Along (1921) and co-authored the chapter on The Wiz (1975). He also serves as the creator and curator of black_theatre_vinyl_archive on Instagram. black_theatre_vinyl_archive is an extensive collection of vinyl albums which highlight the contributions of members of the African Diaspora in Theatre/Musical Theatre History.  

A theatre director, puppeteer, and African American theatre historian and archivist that seeks to disrupt generational curses of self-hate, racism, homophobia, and religious intolerance. Intellectually curious and emotionally dexterous, Jerrell is at home in a wide range of genres including, but not limited to, American Realism, Magical Realism, Traditional and Contemporary Musical Theatre, Poetic Black-Queer Narratives, and Live Spectacle Events. He is the recipient of a 2023 Henson Foundation Workshop Grant and the 2022 League of Chicago Theatre's Samuel G. Roberson Fellowship. Recent projects include directing Reverie by James Ijames (2022 Pulitzer Prize recipient for Fat Ham) with Azuka Theatre in Philadelphia, co-directing Marys Seacole by Jackie Sibblies Drury with Griffin Theatre in Chicago, and collaborating with The Classical Theatre of Harlem and St. Ann's Warehouse on: When The World Sounds Like A Prayer in Bryant Park in NYC. Other credits include Mlima's Tale with Griffin Theatre (Jeff Award nomination for Direction and Best Play), The River with BoHo Theatre, and Untitled with Inis Nua (Barrymore Award nomination for Outstanding Direction of a Play). His puppet short films include a filmed version of his signature puppetry piece, I Am The Bear with The Chicago International Puppet Theatre Festival. His other puppet short films include, Hamlin: La Revue Sombre with Heather Henson's Handmade Puppet Dreams and Diamond's Dream with Chicago Children's Theatre. His Juneteenth Puppet Protest: The Welcome Table was featured in the New York Times and his Fall 2020 puppetry celebration of the lives of John Lewis and C.T. Vivian titled, Black Butterfly was later expanded into an educational performance piece with Tria Smith of Guild Row and a student collective working with Urban Growers Collective on Chicago's South Side. He received his MFA in Theatre Directing from Northwestern University, is an artistic associate with Black Lives, Black Words, is a member of Lincoln Center's Directors Lab, and was a Henson Foundation sponsored participant at the Eugene O'Neill National Puppetry Conference.  As a theatre historian and archivist, Jerrell contributed to Fifty Key Musicals (Routledge Press). He authored the chapter on Shuffle Along (1921) and co-authored the chapter on The Wiz (1975). 

From blackface to children's television to music videos to protests, the evolution of black puppetry tells the story of artistic resilience. This sacred art form, while youthful at times, is far from juvenile. Black puppeteers are using their creations to heal the masses. And in this episode, we dig into the crates and talk with some of the influential puppet masters whose work captivates audiences of all backgrounds and serves as a bridge between what is real and what is make-believe. Join us as we uncover how this magical slice of entertainment has impacted lives and the level of wonder needed to excel in the craft. In episode 3 of The Melanated Archives Podcast, we chat with puppeteers: Jerrell L. Henderson, Nehprii Amenii, Jeghetto Pipkins, and the legendary Brad Brewer. This Episode's Guests Include: Jerrell L. Henderson: Instagram - @directnu15; @black_theatre_vinyl_archive Nehprii Amenii: Instagram - @nephrii Jeghetto Pipkins: Instagram - @jeghettos_puppets Brad Brewer: Facebook - Brad Brewer Theme Music: Funky Suspense - courtesy of Bensound.com Follow Our Show & Our Hosts: TMA Instagram: @themelanatedarchives TMA Website: https://www.themelanatedarchives.com/ Kendra Holloway: Instagram - @kendra2shay Brandon Rachal: Instagram - @brandonrachal_ Support & Show Your Love: Make a small donation to help further our archival efforts: https://anchor.fm/themelanatedarchives/support --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/themelanatedarchives/support

RAISIN was named the Best Musical of 1974. Have you seen it? Can you sing a song from it? Here to argue why our answers to both of these questions should be "yes" is director, puppeteer, historian, and archivist Jerrell L Henderson. Tune in to hear how this musical adaptation of A RAISIN IN THE SUN is filled with integrity, history, and legendary star power. It's the next best thing to experiencing it live! Take advantage of Jerrell's incredible work by following either his professional Instagram account @directnu15 or his vinyl record account @black_theatre_vinyl_archive Be sure to like and review "A Musical Theatre Podcast" and share it with your friends. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter. We're also on TikTok and have a TeePublic Store where profits go to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Don't forget about PATREON! For only $1 a month, you support the show and receive bonus episodes. Above all, thank you for being part of this wonderful podcast community! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

THE WIZ COMPOSER: Charlie Smalls LYRICIST: Charlie Smalls BOOK: William F. Brown SOURCE: L. Frank Baum's book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) DIRECTOR: Geoffrey Holder CHOREOGRAPHER: George Faison PRINCIPLE CAST: Andre DeShields (The Wiz), Mabel King (Evillene), Stephanie Mills (Dorothy),  OPENING DATE: Jan 5, 1975 CLOSING DATE: Jan 28, 1979 PERFORMANCES: 1,672 SYNOPSIS: During a violent tornado, Dorothy is transported from Kansas to the magical land of Oz. In order to go back home she must first speak with The Wiz. Accompanied by her friends The Scarecrow, The Tin Man, and The Cowardly Lion, Dorothy begins an adventure down the Yellow Brick Road to meet the Wiz.  Accessing the universal themes in L Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Wiz retold the classic story through a contemporary African-American lens. The show proved the potential for success in big-budget, fantasy stories with all Black casts. Jerrell L. Henderson traces the modes in which Black creatives and audiences were relegated to segregated theatres, how Black performers were cast in shows written by white individuals, and how marketing of musicals became focused on Black communities in relation to The Wiz.  Jerrell L. Henderson is a Director and Puppeteer. Upcoming Puppet Short Films include, Hamlin: La Revue Sombre with Handmade Puppet Dreams and Diamond's Dream with Chicago Children's Theatre. He performed his signature puppetry piece, I Am The Bear, this fall with Chicago International Puppet Festival's Living Room Tours. His shadow play, 3 American Myths: A Riff in Shadow & Light in 3 Rhythmic Movements was a finalist for a 2019 Jim Henson Foundation Grant. Recent directing credits include Mlima's Tale with Griffin Theatre (Jeff Award Nomination for Direction and Best Play) and Thurgood with Walnut Street Theatre. Other credits include The River with BoHo Theatre, Untitled with Inis Nua (Barrymore Award nomination for Outstanding Direction of a Play) and Something Like A War: A New Musical with 11th Hour Theatre. He received an MFA in Directing from Northwestern University, is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab (2012), an Artistic Associate of Black Lives, Black Words, and a Henson Foundation sponsored participant at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center National Puppetry Conference (2020). SOURCES Elam, Harry, and David Krasner. African American Performance and Theater History: A Critical Reader. 1st ed., Oxford University Press, 2001. Hill, Errol, and James Hatch. A History of African American Theatre (Cambridge Studies in American Theatre and Drama, Series Number 18). Annotated, Cambridge University Press, 2006. Sanders, Leslie Catherine. The Development of Black Theater in America: From Shadows to Selves. Reprint, LSU Press, 1989. Simpson, Janice. “Pivotal Moments in Broadway's Black History.” Playbill, 20 Feb. 2019, www.playbill.com/article/pivotal-moments-in-broadways-black-history-com-342101. Weta. “How Helen Hayes Helped Desegregate the National Theatre.” Boundary Stones: WETA's Washington DC History Blog, 22 June 2016, boundarystones.weta.org/2016/06/22/how-helen-hayes-helped-desegregate-national-theatre. Woll, Allen. Black Musical Theatre: From Coontown to Dreamgirls. First Edition, Louisiana State Univ Pr, 1989. The Wiz, Original Cast Recording, Atlantic Records (1975) The Wiz by William F Brown and Charlie Smalls, published by Samuel French, Inc (1979) The Wiz starring Michael Jackson and Diana Ross, directed by Sidney Lumet, Universal Pictures (1978) The Wiz: Live! Starring Queen Latifah and Shanice Williams, directed by Matthew Diamond and Kenny Leon, NBC (2015) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SHUFFLE ALONG COMPOSER: Eubie Blake LYRICIST: Noble Sissle BOOK: F.E. Miller, Aubrey Lyles DIRECTOR: Walter Brooks PRINCIPLE CAST: Lottie Gee (Bessie), Aubrey Lyles (Sam), F.E. Miller (Steve) OPENING DATE: May 23, 1921 CLOSING DATE: Jul 15, 1922 PERFORMANCES: 484 SYNOPSIS: Sam and Steve are business owners who decide that they will both run for the Mayor of Jimtown, USA. Whichever one wins will appoint the other their chief of police. Complications arise when the two men are so busy squabbling they do not realize that a new candidate is ready to take on their corrupt administration. Shuffle Along was significant as an early Broadway revue written by and starring Black vaudeville artists that became a smash hit with Depression-era audiences. Jerrell L. Henderson outlines the ways the show proved Black musicals, Black love stories, and Black-lead productions could be successful in the United States with strong emphasis placed on creators Eubie Blake, Noble Sissle, Flournoy Miller, and Aubrey Lyles, as well as the show's original performers including Josephine Baker, Adelaide Hall, Florence Mills, Fredi Washington, and Paul Robeson. An analysis of George C. Wolfe and Savion Glover's 2015 reexamination of the show, with cast members Audra McDonald and Billy Porter, is explored as well.  Jerrell L. Henderson is a Director and Puppeteer. Upcoming Puppet Short Films include, Hamlin: La Revue Sombre with Handmade Puppet Dreams and Diamond's Dream with Chicago Children's Theatre. He performed his signature puppetry piece, I Am The Bear, this fall with Chicago International Puppet Festival's Living Room Tours. His shadow play, 3 American Myths: A Riff in Shadow & Light in 3 Rhythmic Movements was a finalist for a 2019 Jim Henson Foundation Grant. Recent directing credits include Mlima's Tale with Griffin Theatre (Jeff Award Nomination for Direction and Best Play) and Thurgood with Walnut Street Theatre. Other credits include The River with BoHo Theatre, Untitled with Inis Nua (Barrymore Award nomination for Outstanding Direction of a Play) and Something Like A War: A New Musical with 11th Hour Theatre. As an assistant director, Jerrell has worked with The Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, and Lookingglass Theatre. He received an MFA in Directing from Northwestern University, is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab (2012), an Artistic Associate of Black Lives, Black Words, and a Henson Foundation sponsored participant at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center National Puppetry Conference (2020). SOURCES Carlin, Richard, and Ken Bloom. Eubie Blake: Rags, Rhythm, and Race. Oxford University Press, USA, 2020.  Gaines, Caseen. Footnotes: The Black Artists Who Rewrote the Rules of the Great White Way. Sourcebooks, 2021.   Kimball, Robert, and William Bolcom. Reminiscing with Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake. Cooper Square Pub, 1973.    Miller, Flournoy, et. al. Shuffle Along. CreateSpace, 2015.   Rose, Al. Eubie Blake. New York : Schirmer Books, 1979.    Woll, Allen. Black Musical Theatre. Da Capo Press, 1991. Shuffle Along, Studio Cast, New World Records (1976) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Fifty Key Stage Musicals: The Podcast co-hosts Robert W. Schneider and Andrew Child do an in-depth exploration of fifty musicals that altered the landscape of American Musical Theater, all of which are explored in the Routledge Press book, Fifty Key Stage Musicals. Fifty Key Stage Musicals: The Podcast will look at those musicals everyone considers to be a landmark like Shuffle Along, Show Boat, Oklahoma, Company, and Hamilton but will also examine musicals that deserve to be recognized more for their contribution to musical theater history like Promises, Promises, the 1994 revival of Grease, and Seussical. Each episode will feature guests like Susan Stroman, Lianah Sta. Ana, Jerrell L. Henderson, Stephen Flaherty, Marcia Milgrom Dodge, Davóne Tines, Carla Mirabal Rodriguez, Lee Roy Reams, and Brian Yorkey and they will place a contemporary lens on such musicals as Porgy and Bess, West Side Story, and Miss Saigon to examine their impact on the community of artists who tell those stories.  BUY BOOK: Black Owned Bookstores Amazon Routledge Press Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On episode five of Gay Card Revoked, Rob and Robbie take a look back at the pioneers who paved the way for the 1969 uprising in New York with the 1987 Emmy Award winning documentary BEFORE STONEWALL. Joining them is Professor Jerrell L. Henderson (African-American Film Studies/Theatre History) from Chicago State University who examines the movie's exploration of LGBTQIA+ struggles and victories, African-American visibility within this community and documentary, learning "how to be a man," exploring the satire of Mel Brooks and In Living Color, learning from Sylvester, and how they all would have adapted in a pre-Stonewall Era. Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook   Next Week: Ellen (S4, E2)- The Puppy Episode Also: Robbie's new album, SONGS FROM INSIDE MY LOCKER, is now available for purchase!

Meet Thurgood Marshall: Lawyer. Civil Rights Activist. The first African American Supreme Court Justice. In the acclaimed Broadway play Thurgood, you have a seat at a fictional lecture on his life given by Marshall at his alma mater, and experience his transformation from a young and spirited dissenter to a pensive Justice full of wisdom. From his early days as the civil rights lawyer to his appointment to the highest court in the land, Thurgood Marshall stood for justice while lifting the standing of his race, and all Americans. FOR TICKETS AND INFORMATION: http://walnutstreettheatre.org

Director and teaching artist Jerrell L. Henderson discusses the history of Blackface, the troubling and racist practice of white people "blacking up" to portray demeaning African-American stereotypes (which was, incredibly, the most popular form of entertainment in America for over 100 years). Jerrell discusses its roots in minstrelsy, almost-Shakespearean levels of layers and multiple identities; shout-outs to great performers like Daddy Rice, J. Rosamund Johnson, Bob Cole, Ernest Hogan, George Walker, Bert Williams (above); genuine love being the butt of the joke; how some entertainers are responding to issues of yellow- and brown face better than others; a legacy of trauma and historical objections; and how greater onstage and onscreen representation in entertainment matters. (Length 21:45) The post Episode 637. History Of Blackface appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.

We've talked on this podcast about theatre and Shakespeare in prisons, but we've never heard about theatre created by the incarcerated or formerly incarcerated outside prisons. Director and teaching artist Jerrell L. Henderson directs the world premiere of Caged at Passage Theatre in New Jersey, and discusses the challenge of finding the narrative, radical love, predatory systems, the trick of navigating the demands of thirty living playwrights, mourning alone, and how to avoid the dangers of directorial slather and getting art on you. (Length 18:52)