Eighteen-year-old Dontrell Jones the Third decides that it is his duty and destiny to venture into the Atlantic Ocean in search of an ancestor lost during the Middle Passage. But his family is not at all ready to abandon its prized son to the waters of a mysterious and haunting past. Blending poetry, humor, wordplay, and ritual, Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea is a present-day hero’s quest exploring the lengths and depths we must go to redeem history’s wrongs.

Set in Baltimore (and partially developed here back in 2014!), this is a true Charm City story with stops at Johns Hopkins, The National Aquarium, and the Eastern Shore. Staged in the round for maximum audience immersion, director Makeima Freeland’s vision puts the emphasis on the rhythm, poetry, and flow of Nathan Alan Davis’ incredible script.

Performed at The Peale Museum (Baltimore’s Community Museum & the first building in the Western Hemisphere to be designed and built specifically as a museum!) during Black History Month, Dontrell is is a story that asks how we can move forward, venture, and ascend to new heights within our lineage without forgetting where we’ve come from but appreciating it fully.

What is justice, really? With our political landscape in tatters and talk of another Civil War on the horizon, The Day We Killed J. W. B. tackles the present through the lens of history. Presented during election season, this ambitious new play challenges us to look at race & justice in America in a new way…and it’s also kind of fun??

It’s the year 1878 & African-American siblings Alice and Samuel are out West working with a traveling theatre company. One day during a performance of King Lear, the lead actor falls ill and a mysterious stranger offers to replace him. This leads to a tragic turn of events, leaving Samuel in search of justice and nature itself planning its own retribution.

Baltimore playwright Sean Coe flips the script on history by placing our heroes in the path of one of history's most notorious men. With a playful, self-conscious tone and vivid characters, The Day We Killed J.W.B. tackles difficult, well-trod subjects–with real historical ties to Baltimore!--with a breath of fresh air.

(And yes, it’s that J.W.B.)