Crossroads Theatre Company in New Brunswick, NJ launches its 47th season celebrating two new productions of iconic stories from the diaspora, along with a lineup of new plays from the multigenerational cohort of contemporary storytellers, curated through The Genesis Festival of New Voices and New Plays.
Founded in 1978, by Ricardo Khan and L. Kenneth Richardson, Crossroads has been a sanctuary for some of the world's most celebrated and decorated artists including August Wilson, Ntozake Shange, George C. Wolfe and many more. To date the company has launched 100+ productions, 50 World Premieres and introduced nearly 40 new playwrights to the global theatre canon. With existing partnerships with other theatre companies around the world, the company remains a global leading producer and the only culturally specific company to receive the Tony Award® for Outstanding Regional Theatre.
Ezra Ezzard, Managing Director of Crossroads Theatre Company, and the co-founder of Crossroads Theatre Company and acclaimed playwright Ricardo Khan spoke with WBGO's Doug Doyle about the new season.
Ezra Ezzard, who has worked in marketing and other divisions at BBC Studios and BritBox and founded the media production and distribution company Artification, takes great pride in leading Crossroads Theatre Company into its new season. He's thrilled to be a part of the Crossroads family since 2024.
"It's all about the importance of telling our stories and protecting the capability of those stories being told. My career has been all about creating opportunity and creating safe space for artists of color. This season is a very appealing and compelling one that has a multi-generational touchpoint for us. We get to multi-cultural and international perspective in which Crossroads has always had. It's about us standing on the shoulders of our past while honoring this pathway towards a new future."
Ricardo Khan expressed why CrossRoads is just as relevant today as it was when he started the theatre company in 1978.
"Crossroads plays a role in maintaining the stories of our past, maintaining the hope we have in our present and what we want to leave for our children. These are about stories that few theaters in this country tell. We tell it from a place that is safe for artists of color, for Black theatre and for the preservation of our history and culture."
This year’s lineup includes the following:
CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE OF JOY
Written by Lynn Nottage 2X Pulitzer Prize Winning Playwright Directed by Nataki Garrett Myers Seventeen-year-old Ernestine Crump growing up and navigating the social and political tensions of 1950's Brooklyn. Following the passing of their beloved mother, Ernestine and her sister, Ermina, must cope with their loss, the family’s move from Florida, the disruption that comes with the introduction of progressive Aunt Lily, and their father’s sudden marriage to Gerte, a white German immigrant, amidst the social and political tensions of the Great Migration.
October 23 – November 23, 2025
GENESIS FESTIVAL OF NEW VOICES & NEW PLAYS
Under the direction of dramaturg Sydné Mahone, the 36th season of The Genesis Festival of New Plays will include the expansion of The Genesis Festival which has been an incubator for the discovery of new storytellers from the African diaspora. The Festival has introduced new works from a long list of celebrated artists including, Ntozake Shange, Lynn Nottage, Anna Deavare Smith, Richard Wesley, Ruby Dee, Kathleen McGhee- Anderson and Samm Art-Williams.
SIZWE BANSI IS DEAD
Written by Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona Directed by Ricardo Khan In Collaboration with John Kani One man’s death becomes another’s salvation in this indictment of South Africa’s Apartheid system which lasted through the 1990s. Sizwe Bansi Is Dead, was written by South African playwright Athol Fugard in collaboration with John Kani and Winston Ntshona. Both actors/playwrights, Kani and Ntshona received Tony’s in 1975, for their starring roles in the play’s Broadway production. The Crossroads production of Sizwe is in collaboration with John Kani, the last remaining member of the writing team.
Performances begin May 19, 2025
