NYU Tisch is inaugurating its African Grove Theatre with The African Company Presents Richard III, Carlyle Brown’s play about the country's first Black theater that performed on the same block where its namesake theater now stands.

The production, featuring Tisch School of the Arts students from Grad Acting and Design for Stage & Film, will be performed Nov. 1518 and Nov. 2021 in the new stateoftheart theater on the fourth floor of the John A. Paulson Center.

The play celebrates a new era for the Tisch theater training program by honoring the legacy of the Black theater it is named for, explains Carl Cofield, chair of Grad Acting who is directing the play. Brown’s play is being performed in New York City for the first time.

“I couldn’t think of a better way to pay homage to the artists whose shoulders I stand on,” says Cofield. “We are in the space, on the actual land, where some of our forebears and artists were telling these stories. This play pays respect to the people who paved the road and smoothed some of the bumps. It feels like the absolute right thing at the right moment.”