Chicken & Biscuits announced by Stage Center

November 21, 2024

Stage Center (SC) proudly announces the first Mainstage production of their 14th Season, Chicken & Biscuits, opening December 27, 2024, for a one-week run at Marjorie Lyons Playhouse on the Centenary College Campus. Tickets go on sale Monday, December 9 online at StageCenterLA.com or call/text (318) 218-9978.

In 2021, Shreveport’s own Zhailon Levingston made history, becoming the youngest black director ever on Broadway. This Christmas, he brings his history-making Broadway comedy, Chicken & Biscuits, written by Douglas Lyons, home to Shreveport!

Can rivaling sisters Baneatta and Beverly bury their father without killing each other? This proves difficult when Beverly shows up to the chapel with her “blessings” on display. Meanwhile, Baneatta’s son brings his neurotic Jewish boyfriend along, knowing Baneatta disapproves, and Beverly’s nosy daughter keeps asking questions no one wants to answer. Baneatta’s pastor husband tries to mediate the family drama, but when a shocking family secret reveals itself at the pulpit, the two sisters are faced with a truth that could either heal or break them.

Starring (in alphabetical order) DESTIN BASS, ROBERT S. BLUE, JADE BROSSETT, ANGELIQUE FEASTER EVANS, BARBARA HOLMES, ANGELA LACEY, EMILY MWAKITAWA, and ADARIAN D. WILLIAMS.

Performances will be held at Marjorie Lyons Playhouse at Centenary College of Louisiana at 7:30 PM, Friday & Saturday, December 27 & 28; and 2:00 PM, Sunday, December 29. Tickets are $25 for adults, $22 for seniors/military, and $20 for students.

About Zhailon Levingston

Zhailon Levingston (NYC, NY) is a Louisiana-raised storyteller, director, and activist. A graduate of Captain Shreve High School, he is a board member at Stage Center, and the Broadway Advocacy Coalition, where he co-created and taught the Theatre of Change course at Columbia U.

He is a Music Mentor Fellow working with Idina Menzel’s A Broader Way Foundation. His recent directing credits include: the world premiere of “PATIENCE” (Second Stage), “Neptune” (Brooklyn Museum), “The Years That Went Wrong” (MCC), “The Exonerated” (Columbia Law School), “Chariot Part 2” (Soho Rep.,for The Movement Theatre Company), “Mother of Pearl” (LaGuardia Performing Arts Center).

He is the co-director of “Reconstruction” with Tony® Award-winner Rachel Chavkin, which just had a developmental production at Brooklyn Academy of Music, and “Runaways” at the famed Public Theater with Sam Pinkleton. In 2021, he became the youngest black director in the history of Broadway, when he directed the premiere of “Chicken and Biscuits” at Broadway’s Circle in the Square Theater. He reunited with author Lyons when he directed “Table 17,” starring Tony® Award-winner Kara Young, at MCC earlier this fall.

His radical reimagining of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats” (newly subtitled “The Jellicle Ball”) recently enjoyed a sold-out, three-times extended production as part of the inaugural season at the Perelman Performance Arts Center at One World Trade Center.

He is directing the classic “Wonderful Town” as part of the popular Encores! Series at New York City Center this spring before his, as yet unannounced, second Broadway show begins performances this June. Zhailon is the original resident director at “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical”, also on Broadway, and the associate director of “Hadestown” in South Korea.