OUR STAGE. OUR STORY.

By the 1960s, the outlook of Bed-Stuy was bleak.  450,000 residents occupied just 653 blocks, making it the second-largest black community in the country. The area’s high schools had a 70% drop-out rate.  Infant-mortality, delinquency, and unemployment rates were twice the city average. Underemployment was at 28% — astounding even today, but especially so when you consider the city’s unemployment rate was just 3.7%. Many of Bed-Stuy’s brownstones had fallen into disrepair. Crime was high; race riots broke out.

Senator Robert F. Kennedy visited on February 4, 1966 to walk the streets of Bed-Stuy.  While Kennedy was meeting with community members, he “was challenged by neighborhood activists to go beyond speeches and help produce something tangible.”  Ten months later in December of 1966, Kennedy, along with Mayor Lindsay and Senator Javits, presented a plan for the Bedford-Stuyvesant Development and Service Corporation.  Kennedy told residents, “The program for the development of Bedford Stuyvesant will combine the best of community action with the best of the private enterprise system. Neither by itself is enough, but in their combination lies our hope for the future.”  

In 1967, 33-year-old lawyer, Franklin A. Thomas was appointed the first president of the newly created Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation.  Thomas established The Billie Holiday Theatre in 1972  “to expose the second largest black community in America to the arts while providing an outlet for local talent.”   Herbert Scott Gibson, was the founding Executive and Artistic Director of The Billie Holiday Theatre.  Marjorie Moon worked with Mr. Gibson for a few years and was later appointed Artistic and Executive Director of the Theatre.  Under Moon's leadership that spanned over 4 decades, “the theatre built a community audience by placing Bedford Stuyvesant citizens on the theatre’s board.” Moon is responsible for establishing the Billie Holiday Theatre as a dynamic destination in the heart of Brooklyn. During her tenure, Ms. Moon produced more than 120 productions there including "Inacent Black and the Five Brothers" by A.Marcus Hemphill, starring Melba Moore, which went on to be the first Broadway production to derive more than 50% of its financing from the Black community.  Her long-standing tenure was followed by several seasons under the helm of Artistic Director Jackie Alexander who also served the theater as a playwright and director.

In 2015, the theatre broke ground and began a complete renovation under the leadership of Dr. Indira Etwaroo, who was tapped as The Billie Holiday Theatre's Executive Director. On May 9, 2017, The Billie Holiday Theatre completed a $4.1 million dollar renovation and re-opened  it's doors.  The first event was the reading of Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, directed by Tony Award-winner Ruben Santiago Hudson, adapted by Arthur Yorinks.

Many of today's successful actors, writers, designers, and musicians developed their craft at The Billie Holiday Theatre. Samuel L. Jackson, Debbie Allen, Tichina Arnold, Bill Cobbs, Jerome Preston Bates, Michele Shay, Phyllis Yvonne Stickney, Carol Woods, Elaine Graham and Ebony JoAnn to name but a few.