Ramy Brook Plans In-store Event Featuring LaChanze and Celia Rose Gooding
Ramy Brook will host an event Wednesday with LaChanze and Celia Rose Gooding to support nonprofit Black Theatre United. The event will be held at Ramy Brook’s Manhattan store at 980 Madison Avenue and virtually on its web site throughout the day. The company is offering 25 percent off for the day. Fifteen percent of sales from the event will be donated to Black Theatre United.
A highlight of the event will be a special performance from the mother-daughter duo LaChanze and Gooding. The performance will be livestreamed at 5 p.m. EST on Facebook and Instagram @ramybrook.
Ramy Sharp, founder and creative director of Ramy Brook, said, “LaChanze and I have been friends for over 10 years. She is a huge talent and an amazing human being. We were having dinner this summer and she told me about a group she was starting for the Black theater community called Black Theatre United. I knew I wanted to get involved — her passion is incredible and her message needs to be heard — so we came up with the event at the store.”
Tony Award winner LaChanze is known for her role as “Celie” in “The Color Purple” and “Diva Donna” in “Donna Summer: The Musical.” Last year, her daughter Gooding made her Broadway debut in the Alanis Morissette musical “Jagged Little Pill,” in which she stars as Frankie Healy.
In the past five months Black Theatre United has received the support of actors, directors, musicians and others, including Audra McDonald, Vanessa Williams, Billy Porter, Brian Stokes and Allyson Tucker. The group looks to develop new mentorship programs for aspiring young Black theater artists, encourage voting and greater participation in the Census, review theater industry practices, and assist Black theater artists.
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