The 3rd Annual Obsidian Theatre Festival

We need your support.

The Obsidian Theatre Festival (OTF) launched back in March 2021 as a platform for emerging Black voices in theatre and film – but, the idea for OTF started that previous summer, June of 2020.

To say that was a crazy time feels like a massive understatement.

Protest marches and rallies filled the streets; shouts of “BLACK LIVES MATTER” echoed throughout the country; and a global pandemic ground the economy to a halt. And for us, for Black artists across the world, we felt stuck, stifled, confined. Simultaneously feeling a need to speak out and shout from the rooftops, while also being forced to stay home; unable to reach our stage.

This is why we started The Obsidian Theatre Festival, to give Black artists a platform, an opportunity to tell their stories and make their voices heard.

Since that first season in 2021, OTF has created a space for Black artists in the city of Detroit, and across the country. Based in Detroit, a cradle of Artistic creativity, Obsidian builds an innovative space – one that allows for audiences and artists alike to celebrate the diversity of Blackness.

There is no “singular, monolithic Black experience”. Every story deserves to be told. And the barriers we break down from learning about each other create new pathways – ones where compassion meets understanding, and “community” becomes more than a buzzword.

Over the course of one weekend we present original plays, musicals, cabaret performances, and panel discussions. All of this is done at no cost to the artists or audience.

That’s right. Once accepted, the new pieces are produced entirely by OTF. We hire the directors and the actors, build the sets, and everything in between. From Thursday through Sunday, there are 12 individual performances, multiple opportunities for audience participation. And, as if that wasn’t enough, each and every piece we produce is filmed and streamed on our website. So, just in case you can’t make it to Detroit, you can still participate and catch all of this amazing work.

And, we don’t charge the audiences anything either. Our gift to the community.

But free to the community, isn’t cheap for us.

Each year we hire over 100 artists (90%+ identify as BIPOC), and we need your help to make sure we can continue to support this community.

We are so close to our goal, and this last $25k is vital to making sure we can produce our 3rd Annual season.

In 2021, we were doing something new at a time when gathering for the theatre in person was nearly impossible. Now, we need your help to make sure we can continue to overcome impossibility.

Check out the video for a message from our Producing AD. Give what you can and then share this campaign with your friends, family, frenemies, …the guy at your corner store.

Thank you for helping us bring Black Stories to this New Stage.