The Ford’s Theatre Legacy Commissions: A First Look

The Ford’s Theatre Legacy Commissions: A First Look is a free, two-day festival, providing a preview of new plays in development, with opportunities for expanded conversations around the work. This year’s festival marks a follow-through on our commitment to BIPOC artists, with readings of the remaining works of our inaugural class of commissions. We will also share the first reading from our second cohort. With A First Look, Ford’s gives audiences an unparalleled inside peek at the process and voices that shaped these works.

Readings will include A Designer of Note, A Woman of Style by Charlayne Woodard, directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, about the life of fashion designer Ann Lowe; SISTER X by Nambi E. Kelley, directed by Hana S. Sharif, about a young mother’s quest to share her life’s challenges with Malcolm X; and The American Five by Chess Jakobs, directed by Aaron Posner, which explores present-day biases and racial discord inside a graduate classroom.

Senior Artistic Advisor Sheldon Epps, Director of Artistic Programming José Carrasquillo and The Ford’s Theatre Legacy Commissions Advisor Sydné Mahone lead the initiative.