The National Black Theatre Festival (NBTF), held biennially across Winston-Salem, has been postponed until August, 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Nigel Alston, Executive Director of the North Carolina Black Repertory Company (NCBRC), the festival attracts over 60,000 people and generates anywhere from $7-11 million for the city.
In addition to the massive crowds and revenue generated for the city, the festival attracts dozens of celebrities and Black theatre companies from around the world.
“It’s a star-studded event,”said Lawrence Evans, the NBTF Celebritiy Coordinator, “We have a lot of celebrities from theatre, television, and film. Everyone has been, you name it, from the ‘Denzel Wahingtons’ to the ‘Phylicia Rashads.’ You know, Oprah Winfrey came to the first festival. Anybody who’s anybody in Black television, film, and theatre has been to the festival.”
In addition to 20-30 theatre companies both domestic and international, thousands of volunteers are required to run the six-day festival. Venues range from the downtown Stevens Center of UNCSA to Wake Forest University’s Scales Fine Arts Center.
COVID-19 would prevent many of the events that make the festival a celebration. “If it was just theatre, maybe you could hold a hybrid event,” Evans said. “The core of it are the plays, yes, the mainstage productions, but you have all this other stuff going on at the same time. You have your readers’ theatre, midnight poetry, vendors market, celebrity youth program, workshops and seminars, and even film.”
Alston said the festival was postponed because “well, there are a lot of reasons. COVID is the primary one. There are a lot of restrictions: capacity issues in terms of the number of people allowed in venues, safety protocols, social distancing.” These current challenges would prevent a festival of grandeur that people have become accustomed to internationally.
The NCBRC, the state’s first professional Black theatre company, produces each festival. The NCBRC was founded in 1979 by Larry Leon Hamlin, known for having an innovative and upbeat attitude towards theatre, who was awarded many accolades during his time as an actor, director, and playwright.
According to Alston, who worked intimately with Hamlin, “he was somewhat eccentric, a very electric person, very colorful. If you Google the company, you’ll find that he always had shades on. He was an artist, he was a genius in his own right – he had big visions, big goals.”
The first NBTF, led by Hamlin as executive director, was in 1989 and hosted around 10,000 people. Dr. Maya Angelou, world-renowned poet and civil rights activist who spent many years at Wake Forest University, played an integral role in coordinating and fundraising for the first festival and served as the first chairperson. The theatre company considers the NBTF to be an opportunity to reach across the world and illuminate the best Black performers, designers, directors, producers, and technicians.
Known as the “Black Theatre Holy Grounds,” organizers say the festival is a spiritual experience in every aspect. Arthur Reese, Technical Director of the NBTF, said, “I’ve been around quite a bit – I’m talking around the world – and the festival is one of the most positive Black-run events on the planet. It is truly a reunion of spirit.”
According to Alston, the festival’s budget is between $1.3M and $1.5M and, “it’s continued to grow and we’ve continued to add different components to it.” Next year the festival will present a documentary about the festival itself, Alston said.
Reese, who oversees ‘all of it,’ said, “There was no way I felt we could guarantee safety.” However, he said, “Given this extra time we’re able to prepare even more and do a better job so that when 2022 hits, it’s the most Marvtastic festival you could imagine.” ‘Marvtastic,’ a word created by Larry Leon Hamlin, is a combination of ‘marvelous’ and ‘fantastic.’
The executives of the festival view the postponement in a positive light; more time for preparation will yield a better experience for everyone. Jason Thiel, President of the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership, said, “I think the positive story is that we’re so fortunate to have this event and its creation in our city.”
