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Acting Thesis: 'The Colored Museum'


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By George C. Wolfe
Music by Kysia Bostic
Directed by Nigel Semaj

Columbia University School of Arts MFA Acting Cohort of 2025 presents George C. Wolfe’s The Colored Museum directed by Nigel Semaj.

In Wolfe’s 1986 classic The Colored Museum, 11 satirical exhibits take aim at the most pernicious American stereotypes of Black culture. Through provoking throughout, at times mournful, aspirational, uncomfortable, and riotously funny, The Colored Museum asks audiences of all colors to look beyond the overworked ideas of how Blackness is represented and to create space for a bigger, broader, more full future.

As Wolfe writes in the show: “So, hunny, don't waste your time trying to label or define me… 'cause I'm not what I was ten years ago or ten minutes ago. I'm all of that and then some. And whereas I can't live inside yesterday's pain, I can't live without it.”

Produced by special arrangement with Broadway Licensing.

Showtimes

Thursday, November 14 @ 8 PM
Friday, November 15 @ 8 PM
Saturday, November 16 @ 2 PM
Saturday, November 16 @ 8 PM
Sunday, November 17 @ 2 PM

Ticketing Notice: When advance registration for a performance has closed, tickets are often still available at the door. A standby list will be started in-person at the box office beginning one hour before the performance.

Content Warning

The Colored Museum is a satire that directly addresses stereotypes of the Black experience in America, and is presented by a cast composed entirely of performers of color. This play contains references to and depictions of enslavement; descriptions of physical violence, including intimate partner violence; and the use of race-based and gender-based derogatory language, including the n-word.

Run Time

1 hr, 35 minutes, no intermission

Featuring

Isaiah Brown ­– SON (WALTER LEE), KID, ANNOUNCER
Milton Espinoza ­– JUNIE ROBINSON
Sarah-Michele Guei ­– MISS PATT, MAMA, ADMONIA
Jaucqir LaFond ­– THE MAN, GUY, NARRATOR, MISS ROJ
Yvonne Pruitt ­– LALA, GIRL, LAWANDA, MEDEA
Scenarious Thurmond ­– ETHEL, WOMAN, NORMAL JEAN, TOPSY, LADY IN PLAID

Production Team & Crew

Playwright George C. Wolfe
Music Kysia Bostic
Director Nigel Semaj
Dramaturg Sophia Parker (current student)
Production Stage Manager Miranda Tejeda (current student)
Stage Manager Anica Acuña (current student)
Company Manager Nala Johnson (current student)
Scenic Design Teresa L. Williams
Costume Design Jessica Irvin
Lighting Design Jennifer Fok
Sound Design Devin Wong
Music arranged and recorded by Matthew M. Nielson
Music Director Alecsys Proctor-Turner
Props Design Jacqueline Brockel
Assistant Props Designer Lily Rand
Video/Projection Design Etzu Shaw
Run Crew Anna Ladokhin, Eric Flores, Joy Callwood (current students)
Light Board Operator Echo Shen (current student)
Sound / Video Board Operator Zoe Stanton-Savitz (current student)

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Shahzia Sikander

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Lights on the Plaza