The Broadway Stage Management Symposium has announced the five stage managers who will receive the 2023 Charlie Blackwell Symposium Scholarships for BIPOC stage managers.

The recipients include Refilwe Kekana, a theatre major at SUNY Purchase; Kassandra Melendez-Ramirez, who comes to stage management after training as an actor at Manhattanville College; Jacoby Jenkins, who studies stage management and directing at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University; Lulu Kachele, who is from Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she has worked at a variety of theatres; and Whitney Renell Roy, who joins the Symposium following her fellowship with Black Theatre Coalition’s Management Fellowship.

The Broadway Stage Management Symposium is an educational intensive, open to the public, and designed for the growth of stage managers at all levels and experience. The ninth annual BSMS will be held May 21 in a hybrid format, available live in New York City and online.

The recipients were chosen by a committee of veteran Broadway stage managers of color: Narda E. Alcorn, Lisa Dawn Cave, Beverly Jenkins, Kenneth J. McGee, and Cody Renard Richard. Each recipient receives a complimentary pass to join the Broadway Stage Management Symposium and will meet with one of the adjudicators on the committee.

The Charlie Blackwell Symposium Scholarships for BIPOC stage managers is named for the late Charlie Blackwell, a Black stage manager whose Broadway credits included Nine, Sunday in the Park with George, and Jerome Robbins Broadway. The scholarships honor his legacy, opening doors for future generations of BIPOC stage managers.

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