LOS ANGELES - Outside In Theatre is thrilled to announce the Los Angeles run of Roger Guenveur Smith’s solo performance In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat, running October 16 through November 9 at Outside In’s Artspace. By staging a dialogue between memory, art, and politics, Smith’s solo work builds a bridge between the visual art world and the theatre, offering audiences a live encounter with Basquiat’s story. The Design team includes Marc Anthony Thompson on Sound, which he will be running live during performances, Arlo Sanders on Lighting and James Cowan of Rewarding, LLC on Scenic.
Native son Roger Guenveur Smith returns to Los Angeles after a tour of three nationally acclaimed performances: his signature Frederick Douglass Now; Otto Frank, distinguished as Bay Area Solo of the Year at the Magic Theatre; and In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat, called by the Minnesota Star Tribune “spellbinding…a storytelling master class.”
In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat was initially improvised for Basquiat retrospectives at the Brooklyn Museum and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as commemorative events at Bootleg Theater. Smith recently engaged in conversation with filmmaker Sophia Heriveaux, Basquiat’s niece, for the Gagosian Gallery’s comprehensive survey of the New York artist’s West Coast work.
In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat is scripted by Smith and scored by Marc Anthony Thompson. Their frequent collaborations include A Huey P . Newton Story, adapted from the Obie Award-winning stage play into a Peabody Award-winning telefilm, as well as the Bessie Award-winning Rodney King, currently streaming on Netflix. Both Newton and King were directed for the screen by Smith’s longtime colleague Spike Lee.
Roger and Jean-Michel befriended each other in Los Angeles, with Basquiat painting in a Venice studio and Smith rapping in the fertile 1980s club scene as “Hollywatts. ” Throughout the decade, Smith’s politically charged soliloquies frequently found their way onto Basquiat’s canvas, and Smith eventually created “Smiley, ” a Basquiat-inspired character for Lee’s classic DO THE RIGHT THING. Tragically, as Roger was improvising the artist/arsonist Smiley in Jean-Michel’s Brooklyn, Basquiat expired in Manhattan.
Smith and Thompson have also devised work inspired by Christopher Columbus, Jimi Hendrix, and Bob Marley, artists Simon Rodia and Charles White, and baseball greats Juan Marichal and John Roseboro, while staging travelogues of Philadelphia, Iceland, San Francisco, and Panama, as well as revivals of Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop and Steven Berkoff’s Agamemnon. Smith directed the Ovation and Bessie Award-winning Radio Mambo: Culture Clash Invades Miami, and, with Mark Broyard, created and performs Inside The Creole Mafia, a “not-too-dark comedy. ” Roger studied at Yale University and Occidental College, and has taught at both institutions, as well as Cal Arts, directing his Performing History Workshop.
Jessica Hanna, Producing Artistic Director of Outside In Theatre, says, ”It is one of the joys of my career to have produced a number of Roger’s solo shows since 2007, including the original workshop of RODNEY KING which then toured the world and continues to resonate on NETFLIX. Our new theatre is built in a warehouse that once was used as a studio for visual artists like Mike Kelley and Paul McCarthy, and Roger’s remembrance of Jean-Michel Basquiat, his artistry and their friendship is a perfect play to resonate in this space.”
Performances of In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat take place from October 16 through November 9, 2025, on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays at 8:00 p.m.
Tickets are $40 for general admission and $25 for students and seniors. Runtime is approx. 60 minutes.
Link to tickets https://outsideintheatre.org/scripted-tickets/
Outside In Theatre is located at 5317 York Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90042. Street parking is available in the area; allow extra time to find parking and to enjoy beverages in our lobby. For more information, visit www.outsideintheatre.org. Instagram: @outsideinthtr
Outside In Theatre is a new non-profit theatre in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. An evolving force in equitable and transformative storytelling. Through multi-platform theatrical experiences, we create art that speaks to our intersectional communities. We have a focus on new work, both Scripted and Unscripted, developing new plays as well as creating improvised stories that will lift up he voices of the Global Majority (a collective term for people of Indigenous, African, Asian, and Latin American descent), Queer, Disabled and other traditionally marginalized groups and their allies. Outside In lives at the intersection of Live & Digital performance, with infrastructure for cameras and streaming that will create greater access to the work of local artists. We believe in making Brave Spaces for All, by creating & supporting daring, dynamic, and authentic untold stories by unheard voices.
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Website: https://outsideintheatre.org
