Emergency

Actor and playwright Daniel Beaty presents Emergency, his Obie Award-winning solo performance:  Present day. A slave ship emerges out of the Hudson River in front of the Statue of Liberty sending NYC into a frenzy. Emergency is an intricately woven, urgent, witty and moving exploration of our shared humanity and what it means to be free. An explosive play where rhythm, rhyme and remembrance rise.

Note that both performances of Emergency are FREE FOR ALL UMBC STUDENTS. 

Daniel Beaty is an award-winning actor, singer, writer, and community activist. He is the co-writer and lead actor of the upcoming feature film Chapter & Verse with Loretta Devine and Omari Hardwick about a man who re-integrates into society after eight years in prison. His critically acclaimed plays Through the Night, Emergency, Mr. Joy, Breath & Imagination, and The Tallest Tree in the Forest – Paul Robeson, have been produced at leading theaters across the nation and venues ranging from Lincoln Center to the White House, garnering numerous awards including an Obie award for writing and performance and three NAACP Theatre Awards. A highly requested keynote speaker, Beaty has spoken throughout the U.S., Europe, and Africa.

In 2012, Beaty created I Dream, a nationally recognized social justice initiative that uses the tools of the arts, immersive group exercises, and trauma recovery to support young people to rewrite the story of race and class inequity in America, and create social justice projects to make that new story reality. I Dream has reached over 2,000 young people in three cities across the nation, Watts, California; Omaha, Nebraska; and Boston, Massachusetts.

A graduate of Yale University (B.A.) and American Conservatory Theatre (M.F.A.), Beaty has developed original television shows for Showtime and Fox/Imagine, and recently completed a documentary about the impact of mass incarceration on children and families called Behind the Glass. A child of an incarcerated parent himself, Beaty’s poem “Knock Knock” is an Internet sensation receiving millions of views and has been made into a children’s book, also titled Knock Knock, published by Little Brown Books. Penguin-Random House published his empowerment book Transforming Pain into Power in 2014.

Performances Friday, September 15 and Saturday, September 16 at 8 p.m.

Tickets: $15 General, $10 Students/Seniors, FREE for UMBC students, available online or at the box office one hour before performances.

Enjoy a brief video excerpt from Emergency:

Photo: Lelund Durond Thompson for Lelund Durond Studios

This engagement of Daniel Beaty is funded through the Mid Atlantic Tours program of Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation with support from the National Endowment for the Arts. This event is also sponsored in part by funds from CIRCA, UMBC's Center for Research, Innovation and Creativity in the Arts.