Building a Community: D. Wambui Richardson Invites Audiences to Become Part of Jubilee Theatre’s Family

D. Wambui Richardson wants to create one big theater family. As the artistic director for Fort Worth-based Jubilee Theatre, Richardson appears in front of the audience before each show to introduce them to the space or welcome them back. “I say, ‘The rules for the house of Jubilee: if this is your very first time here with us, welcome. This is the beginning of a friendship,” Richardson explains. “If this is your second time, we’ve elevated in relationship status and now we move into companionship. And if this is your third time, you are family.”

Jubilee Theatre has been inviting North Texas theatergoers into its family since 1981. Founded by husband-and-wife Rudy and Marian Eastman, Jubilee is dedicated to providing a year-round space for celebrating and promoting African American artists and their works. “We are a theater where we’re telling great stories, but most importantly, we are bringing the community together for like-minded conversation and engagement,” Richardson says, emphasizing the theater’s goal of fostering “a deeper understanding with each other” while simultaneously “creating a space for artists of color to grow and to be more.”

Richardson joined the theater in 2018 after nearly two decades working in theater and education in Baltimore. At one point, Richardson held three jobs at the same time as resident teaching artist at Baltimore Center Stage, executive director of academies for the National Academy Foundation School of Baltimore and the artist-in-residence at Coppin State University, all while raising his two sons. With his sons’ encouragement, Richardson eventually pursued his dream of becoming an artistic director and became Jubilee’s sixth artistic director.

The storied theater is currently amid its 44th season of shows and working on additional community outreach programming. “Season 44 for us is the season of being rooted,” Richardson says. “You have to be grounded before you can walk forward, and so it’s really important for us to establish those roots.”

A show like The Movement embodies that approach. Written by Kathy D. Harrison and directed by Richardson, The Movement is the theater’s first production for 2025, running Jan. 31-March 2. The acapella musical takes inspiration from the 1963 Children’s Crusade and focuses on the role children played in the Civil Rights Movement. “It’s about how they’re going to use their voice,” Richardson says, describing how the show takes around 20 songs from the era and weaves them through a story of how children came to participate in the movement. He hopes to bring local students to see the show, emphasizing how it can teach younger generations about the early civil rights protests. “It is just a riveting piece of work that we’re looking forward to bringing a lot of students and college students to,” Richardson says.

The following show, Thunder Knocking on the Door, focuses on the roots of today’s popular music. Infused with myth and magic, this “bluesical” tells the tale of a mystical guitar duel entwined with a love story. Directed by Charles Jackson Jr. and written by Keith Glover, the show features music from multi-time Grammy Award-winning blues artist Keb’ Mo’ and runs April 4-May 11. “I love the fact that it’s blues. I don’t think we get enough blues,” Richardson says, adding his excitement for spotlighting the genre’s rhythmic and storytelling influence.

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Crystal Williams in the Jubilee Theatre production of Auntee Explains Christmas. Photo by Tia Kirby.

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Kyra McNeil and Ashely Anderson in the Jubilee Theatre production of Home. Photo by Tia Kirby.

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Kyra McNeil, Gabriel D. Hill, Ashely Anderson in the Jubilee Theatre production of Home. Photo by Tia Kirby.

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Gabriel D. Hill in the Jubilee Theatre production of Home. Photo Credit by Tia Kirby

 

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Jubilee Theatre Artistic Director D. Wambui Richardson. Photo courtesy of Jubilee Theatre.

 

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The Fall of Heaven by Walker Mosley is the theater’s next production, running June 6-July 13. The dramatic comedy is about a man who died too soon and is sent back from heaven with an angel that “basically sits in judgment of him,” according to Richardson. The artistic director says he’s been looking to bring the show to Jubilee for several years now as he’s intrigued by the dynamic of an angel learning the human feelings of love, anger, lust and frustration. Richardson says he picked a director in Calvin J. Walker “who would approach the show with the level of sincerity and sensitivity that the show deserves.”

“The purpose of the show is to ask questions,” Richardson says.

The season’s final show is Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds by Marley’s daughter, Cedella. The family-friendly musical, running Aug. 15-24, uses Marley’s hit songs to tell the story of a little boy overcoming his fears. Richardson, who also directs the show, notes that the theater prefers to take at least one show each year outside of its regular performing space and into a different venue. He hopes to bring this production into a space where Jubilee can engage with more families in the community through a show that helps celebrate the importance of fatherhood.

Each show in the 44th season goes toward Richardson’s goal of presenting Jubilee Theater as “a community, cultural hub for everybody, for every walk of life throughout DFW and beyond.” Richardson says, “What I hope to achieve every night is that we walk into the space as strangers, and when the lights go down and come back up again, we see each other in a different vein. We see each other in one another.”

—BRETT GREGA