DCA Performing Arts

10/01/2025

City of LA's Channel 35 did a spotlight on the Vision Theatre Performing Arts Center where I serve as Project Manager overseeing its renovation and construction through its grand re-opening, and where I will serve as co-director with WACO Theatre Center, our partner operator!

LA City Department of Cultural Affairs supports the Vision Theatre in Leimert Park. The building has been completely restored to highlight its original Art D...

05/16/2025

https://www.facebook.com/thevisiontheatre/posts/pfbid06Sk5ofYpqnrbwpTdZrvkCCQ2KFWBsMm655H7ofEB5nLbHmQgioMzs1rNazJJMDmLl

09/28/2024

Join us at the Nate Holden Theatre for an evening of staged readings by Allison M Keating and Stephan Collins-Stepney. Then, a post-play conversation with the playwrights and representatives from the City’s environmental justice team and community activist groups.
The inaugural Leimert Park Cultural Hub Festival of New Works: Short Plays on Environmental Justice challenges local playwrights to develop, write, and present a short subject stage play in the areas of Health, Air Quality, Open Space, and/or Climate Change.
Nate Holden Performing Arts Center, 4718 W. Washington Blvd. 90016, on Monday, September 30, 2024 at 7:00 p.m.
The program is free and open to the public. Reservations can be made at Brown Paper Tickets. https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/6418153

09/17/2024

Allison M Keating is an interdisciplinary artist and director of provocative live performances. Her artistic projects are relevant to our specific contemporary moment of NOW, charging people to examine and question to provoke community-engaged discussion in a hopeful effort towards perception change and empathy. Keating works to ensure the experimental arts thrive in Los Angeles by fueling a culture of collaboration, resource sharing, support, and sustainability, both economic and environmental. Recent projects include On Death Paper Tape at Angels Gate Cultural Center; Finally, a Play about Joy at El Segundo Museum of Art; The Identity Project at Highways Performance Space; Hiking Podcast at Machine Project; and various trans-media performances online and at non-traditional sites across LA. Keating’s artworks have been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts’ National Park Centennial Program, California Arts Council, Center for Performance at CalArts, Center for Cultural Innovation, and the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. Keating has a dual MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in theater directing and integrated media.

09/17/2024

Stephan Collins-Stepney is a professional playwright, screenwriter, actor, and theatre director. Holding an MFA in Writing for the Stage and Screen from Queens University of Charlotte, his plays have been produced throughout the U.S. Collins-Stepney’s stage play, FREEDOM, and his one-person Black history show B.A.D. (Black And Defiant) were considered ‘Best Bets’ at the Capital Fringe Festival in 2007 and 2008. His play about the lives of Bert Williams and George Walker, Williams & Walker: The Legacy of Two Real Men, was featured at the International Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. As a screenwriter, Collins-Stepney is an alum of RespectAbility’s Entertainment Lab, Kidscreen Diverse Voices Mentorship, and the Athena Film Festival Writers Lab, for which he received the Loreen Arbus Fellowship. His work is unapologetically Black, and his goal is to dispel damaging Black stereotypes. Collins-Stepney is currently a remote English professor at his undergraduate alma mater, Morgan State University.

09/13/2024

The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) Performing Arts Division (PERF) announces the launch of its Leimert Park Cultural Hub Festival of New Works. The initiative invites South Los Angeles artists to create short subject works in the disciplines of theater, dance, music, and film. The inaugural Leimert Park Cultural Hub Festival of New Works: Short Plays on Environmental Justice challenges local playwrights to develop, write, and present a short subject stage play in the areas of Health, Air Quality, Open Space, and/or Climate Change.
PERF is proud to announce Allison M Keating and Stephan Collins-Stepney as the commission winners, selected through a peer panel review process.
A 30-minute research session with representatives from the Los Angeles City Planning’s Environmental Justice Policy team has also been granted to assist in the development of their stage plays.
A staged reading and talkback for each playwright with representatives from the City’s environmental justice team and community activist groups at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center, 4718 W. Washington Blvd. 90016, on Monday, September 30, 2024 at 7:00 p.m.
The program is free and open to the public. However, due to limited seating, reservations are recommended. You can make reservations at Brown Paper Tickets.
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/6418153

09/01/2024

We hope you'll join us for the 2nd Annual Barbara Morrison Jazz & Blues Festival on Saturday September 7th from 12 noon to 8pm in Leimert Plaza Park! This outdoor event is free and open to the public. Capacity is limited, reservations at Eventbrite are recommended.

2nd Annual Barbara Morrison Jazz & Blues Festival

03/13/2024

DEADLINE MARCH 15!! An OPEN Call for Spoken Word and Dance/Movement Artists for the 2nd annual EMPOWERMENT PROJECT: Maxine+Bella. Info and application at https://culture.lacity.gov/calls/empowerment-maxinebella-call/

03/01/2024

Happy February 29, 2024! , , ,

02/28/2024

The Spirit Chorale of Los Angeles Performs in the Los Angeles City Hall Rotunda!

DCA’s Performing Arts Division (PERF) is proud to announce that The Spirit Chorale of Los Angeles has been selected, via peer-panel-review, as the awardee of its Call for Concert Choral Choirs Specializing in the Negro Spiritual.

The commission is funded through DCA’s Leimert Park Cultural Hub which supports local artists, arts organizations, and community festivals in South LA.

The 18-person choral ensemble will perform a ca****la in the Los Angeles Association of Black Personnel’s (LAABP) African American Heritage Month annual awards ceremony held in the Los Angeles City Hall Rotunda on Thursday February 29, 2024 from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m.

All are invited to this free and open event, however RSVP’s are required. Click on link to reserve your place and parking spot. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/laabp-aahm-celebration-honoring-city-employees-and-swearing-in-ceremony-tickets-819244862437