INTERVIEW: NJ’s Crossroads Theatre honors its legacy and looks toward the future
Photo: Ezra Ezzard has built a career that includes time at The Ailey School, BBC Studios and now Crossroads Theatre Company in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Photo courtesy of Crossroads / Provided by Big Smile Co. with permission.
As far as cultural institutions in the New York-New Jersey area go, there are few that have the storied and respected history of Crossroads Theatre Company, located in New Brunswick, New Jersey. This institution, which was founded in 1978 by Ricardo Khan and L. Kenneth Richardson, is only a few years away from its monumental 50th anniversary, and the company has brought in a new managing director to help lead the way. Ezra Ezzard, an accomplished performer and media specialist, has added his name to this vaunted community theater’s history, which produces and celebrates Black artists, and has served as an important location for future mega-stars to reach a captive audience and have their art seen and appreciated.
Crossroads Theatre, which is now located at the recently opened New Brunswick Performing Arts Center, is staying busy this summer. They are currently producing a run of August Wilson’s Fences, directed by Khan, who is working with Ezzard on building the company’s future. Somi Kakoma will also offer three performances of a tribute show to Miriam Makeba, June 7-8.
Ezzard is taking in this beautiful theatrical art and honoring Crossroads’ unique history, all while charting the future of this venerable institution in the Garden State.
“It is an honor, and I am excited about what we can do to amplify the mission and the work that Crossroads has been committed to since 1978,” the nw managing director said in a recent phone interview. “I was at BBC Studios for about nine years with varying jobs. I worked in content acquisitions, content sales, marketing, launching. I was on the team that launched the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, worked across Planet Earth and Enchanted Kingdom. I worked on BritBox, which is the streaming service that was previously owned by BBC Studios and ITV Entertainment, and leading our marketing partnership in that capacity. But prior to that, I was a performer myself, so I have a very extensive background in performing arts.”
Ezzard said he’s a graduate of the prestigious Ailey School, thanks to the Ailey/Fordham BFA program. He came up through the arts and arts administration worlds, but then he took that side path and built a career in the media landscape. Coming back to Crossroads is like coming back to his performing background.
“Coming to Crossroads was kind of a natural evolution, especially considering the way in which the larger entertainment world has shifted, and I think having worked at BBC so long and paying attention to very high-quality creativity and then also having the commercial / business alongside that, that complements it very well,” he said. “And so I had a very unique perspective that I’ve crafted. There is no real separation between art and business, so when I think about Crossroads, I think about this legacy. I think about the rich history, and I think about all the things that I can add based on those experiences.”
Before taking the job with Crossroads, a theater company that won a Tony Award in 1999, Ezzard had never been to New Brunswick before. As a performer in New York City, he had heard about the community theater’s productions, and now he has learned so much more about its expansive history — a history that includes acting parts for Viola Davis, Joe Morton, Isaiah Washington, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Gregory Hines and so many more performers (also, many theater directors, including George C. Wolfe).
“The more I learned, the more I realized the importance of protecting the legacy and safeguarding it for the future and seeing a possibility for deepening the impact not just in New Brunswick but beyond,” said Ezzard, who founded ARTIFICATION, a cutting-edge media production and distribution company behind award-winning, critically acclaimed documentaries. “There’s a rich legacy and a rich lineage of folks that have come through. You have people like Ntozake Shange and Gregory Hines. It’s amazing. I’ve been looking at a lot of archive images and videos, and I’m in awe what Ricardo Khan and L. Kenneth Richardson were able to pioneer. … In 1978, this was a time when Black actors were not able to work in the city in the way that they are now, so it was kind of revolutionary, when you really think about it. It was very radical in some sense, and so I appreciate that tenacity that they carried. And I think that we can carry that same level of tenacity in the future as we think about creating new opportunities for new voices and discovering new talent, creating space for the next George C. Wolfe, creating space for the next Ntozake Shange, the next Viola Davis.”
Ezzard offered some of his vision for the future of Crossroads, and that includes supporting new works by up-and-coming artists, but also respecting and performing the classics, such as the current production of Wilson’s Fences.
“I’m really excited about that,” he said of Fences. “We have the Tony Award-winning Beowulf Borrit doing our sets and a cast full of amazing actors which includes Keith Hamilton Cobb in the role as Troy, which is the same role that Denzel [Washington] played in the movie. We have Jammie Patton in the role of Rose, and that was the role that Viola Davis [played]. So it’s really exciting.”
He added: “It’s a wonderful time for Crossroads, and I think the timing is right for my arrival. The community of New Brunswick is so rich and vibrant and filled with people who love the arts, and so that’s really, really exciting when you think about the potential of impact here and what we can offer, not just in New Brunswick, but New Jersey state and beyond that. … There are many alums that are spread out across the country that love the organization, that have shared the stage with some greats here and been able to have a safe place for their voice to be expressed, so that is paramount for us here. That is indicative of that tenacity and that foresight that I think Rick led with in 1978.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Click here for more information on Crossroads Theatre Company in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Revised 06/24
