Tisch Drama Faculty Joshua Williams Co-authors New Musical 'At Buffalo' Featured in TED Talk

In a lively, featured TED talk, Tisch alumna Amma Y. Ghartey-Tagoe Kootin (class of 2009) offered a sneak peek of her forthcoming musical At Buffalo, co-written by Tisch Drama Assistant Professor Joshua Williams.

The new musical theatricalizes questions of race and belonging at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, Williams noted—"drawing virtually verbatim from thousands of archival materials."

"The work explores how definitions of blackness and Americanness were literally written, directed, choreographed, and performed in the wake of the Civil War," he said. "I've been developing the musical with collaborators Amma Ghartey-Tagoe Kootin (Tisch Performance Studies, class of 2009) and Khalil Sullivan for many years, working across book, music, and lyrics. We've developed the work at a number of different festivals and residencies and are looking forward to a production in the next year or two. It has been a real honor to be involved with the project and I can't wait to see what's next."

For more information, visit atbuffalomusical.com.