Veteran actor is Hansberry’s 1st female head
Nearly 40 years after its founding, the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre is welcoming its first female artistic director with the hiring of Margo Hall.
Hall, who brings more than 30 years of theater experience as an actor, director, playwright and educator, officially takes the helm at LHT on Wednesday, Sept. 16, succeeding interim Artistic Directors Aldo Billingslea and Darryl V. Jones, the theater company announced Wednesday, Sept. 9.
“She is the perfect fit for this role, continuing the legacy and hard work of the leaders that came before her,” LHT Executive Director Stephanie Shoffner said in a statement. “She is an indelible force of nature in the Bay Area theatre community and outspoken advocate for artists of color . ... Together, we look forward to ushering in a new chapter for the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, one focused on nurturing and promoting exciting new Black theatre makers in the spirit of our namesake.”
Hall told The Chronicle that after years as an independent artist, she began to reevaluate her priorities during the coronavirus lockdown and the emergence of the We See You White American Theatre, which sparked
workplace scrutiny of theaters nationwide and includes demands for change specific to whiteled institutions.
“I’ve always found myself as this liaison between predominantly white institutions and Black and brown folks, contributing to their equity and diversity work, and being a consultant when it came to issues around racial justice,” Hall explained. But she felt she needed to take that a step further, so she called Shoffner and said, “I’m willing to volunteer my time, because I need to focus my energy on helping spaces that are there for our Black and brown artists.”
Now one of her main goals, Hall said, is to honor the theater’s namesake “by focusing on female and nonbinary Black playwrights, and allowing space for them to flourish.”
Lorraine Hansberry, who died at age 34 in 1965 of pancreatic cancer, wrote the critically acclaimed “A Raisin in the Sun.” It opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on March 11, 1959, becoming the first play by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway.
One of Hall’s first initiatives is creating the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre Fund for New Black Voices. The fund aims to support Black playwrights, directors, choreographers, actors and theater makers. It would specifically help finance new works for LHT.
Hall has appeared at nearly every one of the Bay Area’s leading theater companies, including California Shakespeare Theater, American Conservatory Theater and Berkeley Repertory Theatre. She is also a founding member of Campo Santo, San Francisco’s awardwinning multicultural theater ensemble.
“She’s always been a leader, so for her to finally be rightfully placed in that leadership position means so much,” said Sean San José, longtime collaborator and cofounder and program director of Campo Santo.
The lack of a home space has been an issue for the company, which currently performs at the Buriel Clay Theater in the African American Art and Culture Complex on Fulton Street as well as various partnering venues throughout the city. Both Hall and Shoffner said that finding a permanent space for LHT is a priority.
“I think we are the architects of this moment,” Hall said. “We really have the opportunity to be loud and bold with our work. I’m excited to have a space for that, and that is the focus.”
“I need to focus my energy on helping spaces ... for our Black and brown artists.”
Margo Hall