"EXHIBIT is art meeting purpose because now is not the time to be silent. The work is about getting people to use their voices—to get out and vote!" – Regina Taylor
The Apollo Works In Process series continues with a new one-woman play by acclaimed playwright and actor Regina Taylor. EXHIBIT takes us on a gripping journey through history and the present. At its heart is Iris, a powerful artist who relives the memories of a violently fractured civil rights era in America. But these memories are stirred by something unexpected—the resurgence of societal and political forces she never thought she’d witness again. As today’s hard-fought social tides of change are seemingly rolled back, EXHIBIT forces us to confront the echoes of our past in the fierce light of our present.
Winner of the Theatre Aspen Solo Flights Award, EXHIBIT was born at the Hermitage Retreat and is being shared with audiences in cities across the country during this momentous presidential campaign season. This is a play that blends artistry with civic engagement. More than a performance— this work is a movement, a moment, and a message.
PLAYWRIGHT’S NOTE
Exhibit lives as a play that is performed in an actual space- theater, community center- museum gallery. There are slide and film projections throughout the play.
There are actual objects that are on display on the stage/lobby that might spread out into community spaces - storefronts... galleries.... streets… There are eclipse mason jars filled with Iris’s memories. There are photos/pictures- Vinyl records and cassettes peopled with voices and sounds from Iris’s past and present.
There are components that live online: Interviews of actual civil rights workers past and present here and abroad. Films and recordings of those characters are mentioned in the play.
This is created by the author and is a collaboration with other artists who want to add their voices to the topics brought out in the play. Exhibit is not only a play but an actual art showing and juried (audience) indictment of these times.
ABOUT REGINA TAYLOR
Actress/director/playwright/educator/activist
TV credits include : Taylor in her TV role as Lily Harper in "I'll Fly Away” received a Golden Globe Award for Best Lead Actress, 3 NAACP Image Awards and 2 Emmy Award nominations. Taylor was first African American lead in Masterpiece Theatre’s "Cora Unashamed”, starred as Anita Hill in HBO’’s “Strange Justice” (Gracie Award), “A Good Day to Die” (Sidney Poitier) “The Unit”, “CSI Vegas", “Justified”, “First Lady”, “Love Craft Country” and “The Wonder Years”
Film credits include: "The Negotiator,” (Samuel Jackson), "Courage Under Fire,” (Denzel Washington), ”Clockers,” (Spike Lee), “Losing Isaiah” (Halle Berry) "Lean on Me”, (Morgan Freeman) Saturday Church
Taylor was the first Black woman to play Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet" on Broadway - to be lead actress in Master Peice Theatre presentation- “Cora Unashamed” and to win Golden Globe for best Lead Actress in an hour-long tv series.
Playwright credits include:“Crowns” (Helen Hayes award Best Director), "Oo-Bla-Dee,"(Jeff Award, Steinberg-ATCA award) and "Drowning Crow," (Broadway, MTC), “The Trinity River Plays” (Edgerton Award) and “stop.reset” (Signature Theater Residency Five) Bread” (Edgerton Award),
Deep appreciation to The Apollo Theater- Kamilla Forbes, Leatrice Ellzy, Cezar Williams, Kelley Girod, Teresa Cruz for guiding in this great and essential journey. I am honored.
Many thanks to Theater Aspen, Hermitage Artists Retreat, Phylicia Rashad…Jada Dixon… for your support and illumination!
ABOUT CEZAR WILLIAMS
Cezar Williams is an award-winning director. Recent credits include the Off-Broadway premiere of The Bleeding Class (59e59) and the Off-Broadway premiere of Dancing on Eggshells (Billie Holiday Theatre), Till: A Musical (American Theater Group), Mitchelville (Lean Ensemble Theatre), Sweat (Purchase Repertory Theater), Fucking A (Purchase Repertory Theater), The October Storm (Hudson Stage Company), Crowndation (National Black Theatre and CTG Digital Stage), The Hunting Season (Planet Connections Festivity, Award for Best Direction), You Wouldn’t Expect (American Bard Theater), How To Be Safe (The Dirty Blondes Theater), Dream, Girl! (Joe’s Pub), Lunchtime in Heaven (48 hours in Harlem), Nightfall, Slow Gin Fits, Ain’t No Mo’ (The Fire This Time Festival 2013, 2014, 2016, 2024). He is the Artistic Director of the Obie Award winning Fire This Time Festival, a New York University graduate, and an Adjunct Professor of Acting at SUNY Purchase College. Cezar is a NYSCA “Support for Artist Grant Recipient” and a member of the Stage Directors & Choreographers Society.
ABOUT GOLDIE PATRICK
Goldie E. Patrick is a playwright and television writer, and director originally from Detroit, Michigan. She is a creative partner, cultural worker and professor of performance in Black Theater and Hip Hop Culture and Theater, with over 20 years experience in community engagement and education. Former founder and executive artistic director of FRESHH Inc Theater company in Washington DC for close to a decade, Goldie has advocated and centered Black women and girls in her work and her art. Goldie holds a BFA from Howard University and MFA in playwriting from Columbia University. Her art and activism has forged relationships globally from Accra and Soweto to Trinidad to South Carolina. She is a staunch womanist committed to use art as a vehicle to liberation.
SOUND DESIGN
Joe Cerqua
MUSIC
Miguel de la Cerna
PROJECTION DESIGN
Jackson Knowles
ADDITIONAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Hermitage Artists Retreat
Theater Aspen Developmental
International Black Theater Festival// Garland Thompson Jr. Reader's Series
Curious Theater - Denver full production directed by Jada Wilson in May 2025
Apollo Works in Process Series is part of Apollo New Works - a program that expands our commitment to supporting creative innovation by emerging and established artists whose work challenges, reflects and is in dialogue with the most pressing issues within our communities.
Apollo New Works is generously supported by the Ford Foundation with additional funding from The Mellon Foundation and Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
"EXHIBIT is art meeting purpose because now is not the time to be silent. The work is about getting people to use their voices—to get out and vote!" – Regina Taylor
The Apollo Works In Process series continues with a new one-woman play by acclaimed playwright and actor Regina Taylor. EXHIBIT takes us on a gripping journey through history and the present. At its heart is Iris, a powerful artist who relives the memories of a violently fractured civil rights era in America. But these memories are stirred by something unexpected—the resurgence of societal and political forces she never thought she’d witness again. As today’s hard-fought social tides of change are seemingly rolled back, EXHIBIT forces us to confront the echoes of our past in the fierce light of our present.
Winner of the Theatre Aspen Solo Flights Award, EXHIBIT was born at the Hermitage Retreat and is being shared with audiences in cities across the country during this momentous presidential campaign season. This is a play that blends artistry with civic engagement. More than a performance— this work is a movement, a moment, and a message.
PLAYWRIGHT’S NOTE
Exhibit lives as a play that is performed in an actual space- theater, community center- museum gallery. There are slide and film projections throughout the play.
There are actual objects that are on display on the stage/lobby that might spread out into community spaces - storefronts... galleries.... streets… There are eclipse mason jars filled with Iris’s memories. There are photos/pictures- Vinyl records and cassettes peopled with voices and sounds from Iris’s past and present.
There are components that live online: Interviews of actual civil rights workers past and present here and abroad. Films and recordings of those characters are mentioned in the play.
This is created by the author and is a collaboration with other artists who want to add their voices to the topics brought out in the play. Exhibit is not only a play but an actual art showing and juried (audience) indictment of these times.
ABOUT REGINA TAYLOR
Actress/director/playwright/educator/activist
TV credits include : Taylor in her TV role as Lily Harper in "I'll Fly Away” received a Golden Globe Award for Best Lead Actress, 3 NAACP Image Awards and 2 Emmy Award nominations. Taylor was first African American lead in Masterpiece Theatre’s "Cora Unashamed”, starred as Anita Hill in HBO’’s “Strange Justice” (Gracie Award), “A Good Day to Die” (Sidney Poitier) “The Unit”, “CSI Vegas", “Justified”, “First Lady”, “Love Craft Country” and “The Wonder Years”
Film credits include: "The Negotiator,” (Samuel Jackson), "Courage Under Fire,” (Denzel Washington), ”Clockers,” (Spike Lee), “Losing Isaiah” (Halle Berry) "Lean on Me”, (Morgan Freeman) Saturday Church
Taylor was the first Black woman to play Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet" on Broadway - to be lead actress in Master Peice Theatre presentation- “Cora Unashamed” and to win Golden Globe for best Lead Actress in an hour-long tv series.
Playwright credits include:“Crowns” (Helen Hayes award Best Director), "Oo-Bla-Dee,"(Jeff Award, Steinberg-ATCA award) and "Drowning Crow," (Broadway, MTC), “The Trinity River Plays” (Edgerton Award) and “stop.reset” (Signature Theater Residency Five) Bread” (Edgerton Award),
Deep appreciation to The Apollo Theater- Kamilla Forbes, Leatrice Ellzy, Cezar Williams, Kelley Girod, Teresa Cruz for guiding in this great and essential journey. I am honored.
Many thanks to Theater Aspen, Hermitage Artists Retreat, Phylicia Rashad…Jada Dixon… for your support and illumination!
ABOUT CEZAR WILLIAMS
Cezar Williams is an award-winning director. Recent credits include the Off-Broadway premiere of The Bleeding Class (59e59) and the Off-Broadway premiere of Dancing on Eggshells (Billie Holiday Theatre), Till: A Musical (American Theater Group), Mitchelville (Lean Ensemble Theatre), Sweat (Purchase Repertory Theater), Fucking A (Purchase Repertory Theater), The October Storm (Hudson Stage Company), Crowndation (National Black Theatre and CTG Digital Stage), The Hunting Season (Planet Connections Festivity, Award for Best Direction), You Wouldn’t Expect (American Bard Theater), How To Be Safe (The Dirty Blondes Theater), Dream, Girl! (Joe’s Pub), Lunchtime in Heaven (48 hours in Harlem), Nightfall, Slow Gin Fits, Ain’t No Mo’ (The Fire This Time Festival 2013, 2014, 2016, 2024). He is the Artistic Director of the Obie Award winning Fire This Time Festival, a New York University graduate, and an Adjunct Professor of Acting at SUNY Purchase College. Cezar is a NYSCA “Support for Artist Grant Recipient” and a member of the Stage Directors & Choreographers Society.
ABOUT GOLDIE PATRICK
Goldie E. Patrick is a playwright and television writer, and director originally from Detroit, Michigan. She is a creative partner, cultural worker and professor of performance in Black Theater and Hip Hop Culture and Theater, with over 20 years experience in community engagement and education. Former founder and executive artistic director of FRESHH Inc Theater company in Washington DC for close to a decade, Goldie has advocated and centered Black women and girls in her work and her art. Goldie holds a BFA from Howard University and MFA in playwriting from Columbia University. Her art and activism has forged relationships globally from Accra and Soweto to Trinidad to South Carolina. She is a staunch womanist committed to use art as a vehicle to liberation.
SOUND DESIGN
Joe Cerqua
MUSIC
Miguel de la Cerna
PROJECTION DESIGN
Jackson Knowles
ADDITIONAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Hermitage Artists Retreat
Theater Aspen Developmental
International Black Theater Festival// Garland Thompson Jr. Reader's Series
Curious Theater - Denver full production directed by Jada Wilson in May 2025
Apollo Works in Process Series is part of Apollo New Works - a program that expands our commitment to supporting creative innovation by emerging and established artists whose work challenges, reflects and is in dialogue with the most pressing issues within our communities.
Apollo New Works is generously supported by the Ford Foundation with additional funding from The Mellon Foundation and Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has selected the 47th Honorees for lifetime artistic achievements: acclaimed director and filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola; legendary American rock band the Grateful Dead (Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Bobby Weir); blues rock singer-songwriter and guitarist Bonnie Raitt; jazz trumpeter, pianist, and composer Arturo Sandoval; and The Apollo, which will receive a special Honors as an iconic American institution.
The Nuyorican Poets Cafe presents the Grand Slam of 2024 a spoken word extravaganza hosted by Tony McPherson with sounds by DJ Luna Rosa. After eleven months of weekly slam winners competing every Final Friday the time has come for one poet to be named the Grand Slam Champion and win $1,000, a produced show in the new building and potential spot on our 2025 national slam team.
The Nuyorican Poets Cafe is a nonprofit organization rooted in the legacy of spoken word truth-telling. Founded by Puerto Rican /Afro Caribbean poets and visionaries, we honor this sacred history by creating an accessible forum for developing poetic theatrical, musical, and visual media works in the spirit of downtown New York subculture and experimentalism. Since closing our building for a major renovation, we have taken our programming offsite at different locations throughout NYC, the country, and the world. We are happy to bring the 2024 Grand Slam to the Apollo Stages at The Victoria.
The Apollo is proud to present Loss, produced by The Theatre Centre, at the Under The Radar Festival.
Loss brings an intergenerational family story to life through a stunning blend of live music, video, and powerful storytelling. Created by the Canadian visionary Ian Kamau and his father, famed documentarian Roger McTair, this multimedia performance dives deep into grief, healing, and the strength of community.
This isn’t just a show—it’s a journey that will move your spirit and spark conversations. Don’t miss your chance to witness the future of theater, where every moment pulls you deeper into an immersive, emotional experience.
The Apollo celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Black women-led theatrical dance company and social activism ensemble, Urban Bush Women with a stunning visual exhibition in the Laura and Frank Baker Gallery. With special pop-up performances on select dates, Lineage Legacy and Liberation: An Examination of Urban Bush Women’s Art-Making and Community Organizing Praxis contains rare photographs, performance footage, manuscripts, costumes and memorabilia from the groundbreaking ensemble’s 40-year history.
Curators:
UBW Co-Artistic Directors Mame Diarra Spies & Chanon Judson and Pia Monique Murray
Curatorial Consultant:
Laura Steward
Producers:
Jonathan D. Secor & Pia Monique Murray
Presented in Partnership with Urban Bush Women
ABOUT URBAN BUSH WOMEN:
Urban Bush Women is a groundbreaking Black women-led theatrical dance company and social activism ensemble, founded in 1984 by visionary choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar as an engine and an amplifier for the unheard stories of Black Women+. Today, under the artistic leadership of Chanon Judson and Mame Diarra Speis, UBW combines revolutionary performance, deep-healing community engagement, and ancestral knowledge from the African diaspora into a cultural force that is urgent, forward-looking, and essential.
UBW embraces the power of radical storytelling to activate social change. Whether creating genre-defying work for the stage, guiding the development of Black Women+ choreographers and producers, organizing for justice through art-making, or inspiring leaders across generations, UBW is an innovator, operating at the vanguard.
Celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1974 classic film Claudine and the life of the late James Earl Jones at The Apollo Stages at The Victoria, in partnership with the Harlem Festival of Culture Foundation.
Experience the powerful performances of Diahann Carroll and James Earl Jones in this timeless story of resilience, love, and community. Claudine tells the tale of a strong-willed single mother raising six children in Harlem, whose budding romance with a charismatic garbage collector is tested by the struggles of life within an oppressive system.
This annual event from WNYC and the Apollo Theater will explore Dr. King’s enduring legacy through the lens of belonging, reflecting on his vision for a just and inclusive society. Through powerful conversations with prominent public intellectuals, community and faith leaders, authors and artists, we will ponder democracy and civil rights under a second Trump administration. Join us for this inspiring tribute as we honor Dr. King’s dream and engage in a timely dialogue on the ongoing project of forging an equitable society.
Apollo Education invites the community to join this year’s MLK Young Changemakers event, honoring Dr. King’s powerful legacy in a modern context. MLK Young Changemakers is a series of conversations in recognition of Dr. King’s impact and the National Youth Day of Service where local and national youth leaders will explore how environmental and food justice impact our lives and communities.
Join Apollo Education for a full-day Professional Learning Workshop to explore the digital learning hub, Apollo Stories. This online resource of educator-created materials sparks critical thinking in students and ignites thought-provoking discussions on justice, culture, and identity.
Led by The Apollo Stories team, educators will receive expert guidance on integrating and adapting the free lessons featured on the platform into their classroom curricula. Gain hands-on facilitation experience, feedback, and dive into engaging, practical, classroom-ready activities.
Presented in partnership with Bob Sumner (producer of Def Comedy Jam, creator of Laff Mobb on Aspire), the Apollo Comedy Club celebrates these rich comedic roots with an evening of comedy on the Apollo’s Stages at the Victoria to serve as a late-night hotspot featuring the best emerging talent in comedy today.
The Apollo has a long history of launching the careers of countless legendary artists and performers in a variety of genres, including comedy. Comedic legends Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx, Monique, Jamie Foxx and Jackie Mabley (a.k.a. Moms) have all delighted audiences from the Apollo stage.
Falling on the heels of Valentine’s Day, the singer, songwriter and poet known as sahn has taken pen to paper to create an introspective musical love letter that covers the elements of loss, renewal and everlasting love. sahn delivers a powerful evening of smokey, jazz-infused, songs and stories from her debut album “the mornings”.
Embark on a vibrant journey through the cultural traditions of Africa, the Caribbean, and other areas of the Black Diaspora with School Day Live: Jump Up Jamboree!
Master of Song and Apollo Legend, Luther Vandross is one of the most important voices of all time. On this night, his greatest hits are effortlessly covered with classics such as “Never Too Much”, “A House Is Not a Home”, “So Amazing” and more. It’s a night like no other with no stop to love!
Accessibility
The Apollo is here for everyone. Artists, audiences, and all supporters should be able to experience The Apollo fully and in a way that is comfortable for them.
The Apollo has taken comprehensive steps to ensure that entrances, seating, restrooms, and more are as accessible and compliant as possible. Learn more about accessibility options and support services that might be right for you.
All persons and bags are subject to search. Bags that have passed inspection must fit comfortably under your seat. Oversized bags are prohibited.
No outside food or beverage. Accommodations are made for patrons with medical needs. Please email access@apollotheater.org or call the box office at (212) 531-5305 for assistance.
