Plowshares Theatre Company, Detroit’s only professional African American theatre, is proud to announce the world premiere of “Roberto Clemente: A Diamond Within,” an original play by acclaimed playwright Cándido Tirado.

The production, a key part of the company’s commitment to diverse storytelling, will run from June 5 through June 28, 2026, at the Marlene Boll Theatre, 1401 Broadway, Detroit, MI.

“Roberto Clemente: A Diamond Within” dramatizes the life of baseball great Roberto Clemente, one of the few Latin athletes who recognized his African ancestry. From his origins in Puerto Rico to his lengthy professional career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Clemente advocated for the civil rights of Black and Latino individuals both in and outside of baseball. His life’s motto was “Any time you have an opportunity to make a difference in this world, and you don’t, then you are wasting your time on Earth.”

Honoring an Icon: The Life of Roberto Clemente

The play centers on the life of the legendary Afro-Latino baseball player and humanitarian, Roberto Clemente. A true icon, Clemente was a colossal figure in both sports and humanitarianism. Playing his entire 18-season Major League Baseball career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, he accumulated a magnificent list of accomplishments, including:

• Won two World Series titles (1960 and 1971).

• Earned the 1966 National League MVP Award and the 1971 World Series MVP Award.

• Tied a record with 12 consecutive Gold Glove Awards for his phenomenal defense in right field.

• Reached the coveted milestone of exactly 3,000 career hits in his final professional at-bat.

However, Clemente’s legacy extends far beyond the diamond. A passionate advocate for the equitable treatment of Black and Latino baseball players, he was an advocate and sounding board for other players of color. Additionally, Clemente was known for his immense humanitarian work. He tragically died on December 31, 1972, in a plane crash while delivering aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. He was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973, becoming the first Latin American player to receive the honor.

The Playwright

Cándido Tirado is a highly acclaimed playwright, director, and producer whose impactful work has significantly enriched American theater, particularly for the Latinx community. Born and raised in the Bronx, he draws on his cultural background, frequently exploring identity, family, and the immigrant experience.

Tirado is an award-winning talent whose works have been produced nationally. His play “Fish Men,” produced by the Goodman Theatre in collaboration with Teatro Vista, was nominated for four Jeff Awards and a Steinberg Award. His musical “La Canción,” featuring music by hip-hop artist Vico C, premiered at Repertorio Español in NYC. His Off-Broadway credits include co-writing “Celia: The Life and Music of Celia Cruz,” which ran for 9 months and won an HOLA Award for Best Musical. Other notable productions include “Momma’s Boyz,” which the Huffington Post recognized as one of Chicago’s Top Ten plays.

An accomplished director, Tirado has directed more than 25 plays and co-wrote the award-winning short film “Getting to Heaven.” As a staff writer for the TV show “Ghostwriter,” he earned a Humanitas Award nomination. He is also a four-time winner of the New York Foundation For The Arts Playwriting Fellowship and was recently honored with a prestigious Prime Latino Media Lifetime Achievement Award. Committed to youth education, he co-founded “Educational Plays Production” with his wife, Carmen Rivera, and toured public schools with plays addressing social issues.

A Commission for Afro-Latino Voices

“Roberto Clemente: A Diamond Within” was commissioned by Plowshares Theatre Company as part of its Black Theatre, Latin Roots play development program. This pioneering initiative is specifically designed to identify and collaborate with Afro-Latino theatre artists to develop new plays that explore the rich tapestry of the Black and Latinx experience. The world premiere of Tirado’s play is a significant milestone for this program, reaffirming Plowshares’ mission to tell stories that affirm the legacy and lived experiences of Black communities across the diaspora.

Ticket Information

Group sales and individual tickets for “Roberto Clemente: A Diamond Within” are now available by calling 313-744-3181.

Plowshares Theatre Company invites the community to witness this powerful and essential new work celebrating the life of an American hero.

DETROIT, MI — Plowshares Theatre Company, Michigan’s only professional African American theatre, today announced a significant investment in its future leadership pipeline after receiving a $200,000 grant from the Gilbert Family Foundation. The funding will be used to establish the Plowshares Leadership Fellows Program, designed to cultivate the next generation of arts administrators and cultural decision-makers.

The new program aims to address a critical need for experienced leadership in the nonprofit arts sector. The purpose of the Plowshares Leadership Fellows program is to provide gifted, highly motivated emerging leaders with firsthand experience governing arts and cultural institutions and a sense of personal involvement in the artistic leadership of American society.

Plowshares Producing Artistic Director Gary Anderson said, “Essentially, the proof of the healthy performing arts nonprofit sector is in a generous supply of leaders who have an understanding—gained firsthand—of the challenges that our arts organizations face. The Leadership Fellows Program is a three-year initiative that will equip these emerging professionals with a deep understanding of arts management. The curriculum will include season selection, program creation, communication skills, leadership roles and responsibilities, and resources acquisition (fundraising, sponsorships, coproductions, and partnerships).

The Plowshares Leadership Fellows Program is designed to provide exceptionally qualified young Americans with the precise experiences they need. A firm commitment to infusing the Plowshares Leadership Fellowship experience with cross-fertilization of new ideas and methods will ensure it continues to enrich public policy practice for decades.

About the Fellows: The first cohort has been selected. They consist of four remarkable individuals with considerable potential.

Kenndall Wallace is a playwright, producer, and multi-hyphenate artist based in Detroit, MI, specializing in the Black American performing and visual arts. She was an inaugural winner of the Farmers’ Alley Theatre Lumen Playwriting Competition, a Broadcast Education Association winner for her feature-length screenplay, and has been honored with three regional KCACTF Playwriting Awards, being awarded four more times at the national level in 2024 and 2025 for their full-length plays ‘To Cry Into Sand’ and ‘RECKLESS BLACK DROPOUTS.’ She was an inaugural member of the National Black Playwrights’ Gathering in Washington, D.C., a 2025 Torch Literary Arts Fellow, an LTA one-act playwriting award winner, a top 30 playwright for the 50th Concord Off-Off Broadway Festival, and, most recently, a member of Dramatic Question Theatre’s Classics in Color Cohort. Her latest play, ‘RECKLESS BLACK DROPOUTS,’ will be published by 1319 Press in late 2026.

A dedicated artivist, Kenndall recently received Mothering Justice’s Advancing Michigan Youth Fellowship, collaborated multiple times with the award-winning nonprofit W.I.S.E, and is the founder of The Spiral Initiative, an arts-based program in Detroit, Michigan.

Christopher Audain, a native of Nashville, TN, is an artist, arts administrator, singer, humanist, and creative writer. He received his BA in Political Science from Kenyon College, with a minor in Music, and his Master of Arts in Arts Administration from Goucher College, where his thesis focused on advocacy strategies to increase public funding for the arts, particularly from the NEA. Chris has a passion for uplifting and elevating artists because of the incredible impact they can have on our way of life and their unique ability to usher in new, better realities. He is currently the Program Officer at AmbitioUS, an initiative of the Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI). Prior to joining CCI, Chris served as Managing Director for the Arts Initiative at the University of Michigan. Chris also spent 13 years in Chicago, where he worked at several prominent nonprofits, including the Alphawood Foundation, the Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago, and the Art Institute of Chicago. He has served as a grant panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, Arts Work Fund, Arts for Illinois Relief Fund, Cuyahoga Arts & Culture, the City of Chicago, and several others. Chris believes that if we fully support and embrace the arts, we can discover a pathway for a radically better future, together.

Brittini Ward is a Detroit-based storyteller, multidisciplinary artist, and founder of Eye N Eye LLC, a creative studio dedicated to preserving cultural memory through art, performance, and community-centered storytelling. Guided by her original methodology, The Storyholding Framework™, Brittini approaches storytelling as a practice of care, reflection, and cultural preservation. Her work sits at the intersection of art, organizing, and ceremony.

Brittini is the creator of Many Tongues™, a multimedia storytelling exhibition, the founder of Baba Juke™, a music and oral history project honoring musical fathers and daughters, and the director of the Detroit Poetry Archive™ in partnership with Black Bottom Archives. Her libretto The Seer, commissioned by the Washington National Opera at The Kennedy Center, explores Black dignity and future imagination. Through her work, she continues to develop creative systems that transform story into memory, memory into archive, and archive into legacy.

Detroiter Lawrielle West is a dynamic social entrepreneur, cultural curator, and the visionary Founder of KwanzaaMe, a vibrant lifestyle brand dedicated to celebrating Black history and heritage year-round. Through KwanzaaMe, Lawrielle designs, finances, and implements purpose-driven arts programming and creative products that foster joyful, meaningful community connections.

As the inaugural Executive Director of the African American Cultural & Historical Museum of Washtenaw County, Lawrielle is the primary steward of its strategic vision and organizational health, bridging the gap between historical preservation and modern executive authority. Her portfolio includes coordinating high-profile initiatives such as the African World Festival.

Lawrielle’s professional practice is rooted in academic rigor as a Lecturer at the University of Michigan School of Social Work, where she teaches graduate-level courses. A two-time alum of the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor (B.A. in English; Master of Social Work), Lawrielle’s work has been featured by Fox 2 News, CBS Detroit, The Michigan Chronicle, and Metro Times.

About Plowshares Theatre Company: Founded in 1989, Plowshares Theatre Company is Michigan’s only professional African American theatre. Its mission is to produce plays and programs that celebrate the American experience from the African American perspective and to provide a nurturing, collaborative environment for artists of color.

About the Gilbert Family Foundation: The Gilbert Family Foundation is a private nonprofit organization founded by Jennifer and Dan Gilbert to accelerate change in areas of passion and purpose for the Gilbert family. The Foundation supports collaborative solutions that drive economic equity, increase access to opportunity, and build thriving communities, with a focus on its hometown of Detroit.

DETROIT, MI – Plowshares Theatre Company, Michigan’s only professional African American theatre, will spend 2026 celebrating several important anniversaries in American cultural history. This year is the 100th Anniversary of historian Carter G. Woodson’s establishment of Negro History Week, which evolved into Black History Month. It’s also the 100th Anniversary of cultural researcher Arturo Schomburg’s early development of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The Schomburg Center has become an essential institution in documenting Black culture throughout the diaspora. Finally, this year marks the 100th Anniversary of cultural activist and social scholar W.E.B. Du Bois’s call for the establishment of Black Theaters across the nation.

All three of these men were motivated by the same impulse: they sought to liberate Black people from the racist distortions created by white people. A century ago, the prevailing belief was that Black people had no history or culture of any importance to even study.

Black Theatre 100 Schedule

Throughout 2026, Plowshares will present “Black Theatre 100,” a series of staged readings and workshops focusing on the breadth and depth of Black Theatre. “Black Theatre 100” will also include the world premiere of Roberto Clemente: A Diamond Within.”

STAGED READINGS

“Unentitled” by Charles White, March 28, 2026, at TechTown Detroit
CLICK FOR TICKETS https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/unentitled-a-black-theatre-100-staged-reading

“Weathering” by Harrison David Rivers, April 11, 2026, at TechTown Detroit
CLICK FOR TICKETS https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/weathering-a-black-theatre-100-staged-reading

“She Is” by Cynthia Barnes, May 1, 2026, at TechTown Detroit
CLICK FOR TICKETS https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/she-is-a-black-theatre-100-staged-reading

“Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” by Jocelyn Bioh, May 2, 2026, at TechTown Detroit
CLICK FOR TICKETS https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/jajas-african-hair-braiding-a-black-theatre-100-staged-reading

WORLD PREMIERE PRODUCTION

“Roberto Clemente: A Diamond Within” by Candido Tirado. Running June 5-28, 2026, at Marlene Boll Theatre, Downtown Boll Family YMCA

Ticket Information

Tickets for “Roberto Clemente: A Diamond Within” will be available for group sales beginning March 23, 2026. Individual ticket sales will begin on April 6.

Plowshares Theatre Company invites the community to witness this powerful and essential new work celebrating the life of an American hero.

Architect of 20th Century Black Theatre

Throughout 2026, Plowshares will present “Black Theatre 100,” a series of staged readings, full productions, and workshops focusing on the breadth and depth of Black Theatre.

It has been forgotten that W.E.B. Du Bois was a major architect of Black Theatre in the 20th Century. We comprehend that Du Bois’s extensive writings and tireless activism profoundly shaped the civil rights movement and continue to be studied for their insights into race, identity, and social justice. What we aren’t aware of is that the arts were an important battlefield on which he fought for freedom from white oppression. He advocated for art that could serve as a tool for liberation. In “Criteria of Negro Arts,” he wrote:

“What we need is not a history of selected facts to prove our worth, but a portrayal of the soul of a people through art that compels the world to recognize our humanity.”

“We Black folk are supposed to have no art, no appreciation of the beautiful. But we have, and our art must be the voice of our emancipation, telling the world what we have suffered and what we hope.”

The tragedy is that these concepts, which were widely accepted 100 years ago, are held by only a few people today.

In 1926, he wrote an essay entitled “Krigwa Players Negro Theatre: The Story of a Little Negro.” Du Bois knew we needed the creative power of artists to help build the narrative infrastructure to combat stereotypical depictions of Black people on the stage, radio, and the new medium of film.

Published in Crisis, the NAACP magazine, Du Bois’ article was a manifesto promoting a national movement to establish theaters that would be ‘for, by, about, and near’ African Americans.

The movement Du Bois inspired led to the formation of theaters that represented and elevated Black life across the country, including in New York, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Chicago, St. Louis, and many other cities with significant Black communities.

About W.E.B. Du Bois

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868-1963), widely known as W.E.B. Du Bois, was a highly influential American sociologist, historian, author, editor, and civil rights activist. He is recognized as one of the most important Black protest leaders in the United States during the first half of the 20th century.

Here are some key aspects of his life and contributions:

• Education: Du Bois was a brilliant scholar, becoming the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1895.^. He also studied at Fisk University and the University of Berlin.

• Early Academic Work: He conducted pioneering sociological studies, including “The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study” (1899), which was the first comprehensive case study of an African American community.⁵ His work emphasized empirical inquiry and data analysis in sociology.

• Key Concepts: Du Bois introduced and popularized important concepts such as:

  • “The Veil” / “Color Line”: The unspoken barrier between white and Black Americans that prevented Black people from having the same rights as white people. He famously declared, “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line.”

• “Double Consciousness”: The internal conflict experienced by African Americans who must view themselves not only through their own eyes but also through the eyes of a society that often holds them in contempt or pity.
  
  

• Activism and Leadership:

• Niagara Movement: He was a key figure in the founding of the Niagara Movement (1905), which advocated for full civil rights and opposed the “Atlanta Compromise” put forth by Booker T. Washington, who favored vocational education and a more gradual approach to equality.
  
  

• NAACP: In 1909, Du Bois co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), becoming its director of research and editor of its influential monthly magazine, The Crisis. He used The Crisis as a platform to draw attention to issues like lynching, advocate for women’s rights, and promote unionized labor.
  
  

• Pan-Africanism: Du Bois was a staunch proponent of Pan-Africanism, the belief that all people of African descent share common interests and should work together for their freedom. He organized and played a leading role in several Pan-African Congresses.

Towards the end of his life, disillusioned with the pace of racial progress in the U.S., He moved to Ghana and became a citizen there in 1963, dying on August 27, 1963, the day before Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.

About Plowshares Theatre

Plowshares Theatre Company is a not-for-profit, professional live theatre company dedicated to producing plays that affirm, exhibit, and inspire African American life. Additionally, Plowshares serves as an incubator for the next generation of actors, directors, designers, and playwrights.

Plowshares’ vision begins with the artist and ends with the audience. Our challenge is to nurture both.

“Every play, workshop, and panel discussion Plowshares produces is designed to celebrate, support, and sustain the creation of Black art.” - Gary Anderson, Producing Artistic Director

“We believe that theatre has the power to change lives and create a more just and equitable world by inspiring our audiences to cultivate empathy for people not like them,” said Producing Artistic Director Gary Anderson. “By infusing a social justice mission into our work, we hope to increase the relevance of our programming by connecting it to the lives of our audiences.”

Plowshares Theatre Company has a long history of using the arts to address social justice issues. Recently, the company has produced plays such as “Hastings Street,” “The Magnolia Ballet, Part One,” and “The House That Will Not Stand,” all of which explore themes of race, class, economic, and gender inequality.

The Reasoning

“Black Theatre has always tackled the conditions under which Black people live,” said Anderson. “The complexity of navigating a life challenged by systemic racism has given the Black artist rich material for exploration. Black playwrights, actors, directors, and designers have interpreted those conditions and helped focus us on the possibility of creating a just world where all of us are free.”

Anderson concluded: “We are excited to embark on this new chapter in the company’s history.”

The Plowshares team will incorporate a social justice framework into every aspect of its operations. This means that the company will produce plays that explore and challenge systems of oppression, develop new works that center the voices and experiences of marginalized communities, and offer audience enrichment programming that inspires critical thinking, dialogue, and social action. Additionally, educational programming will help participants develop the skills to inspire change in their communities through art.

About Plowshares

Plowshares Theatre Company is a not-for-profit, professional live theatre company dedicated to producing plays that affirm, exhibit, and inspire African American life. The company began producing in 1990 and has received many local awards and accolades. Now in its third decade, Plowshares serves a diverse audience of theatergoers across Michigan, northern Ohio, and Canada. A founding member of Cultural Source, Plowshares is a leader in the Michigan Cultural Community. (See Plowshares' Harambee giving principles)

About Gary Anderson

As Co-Founder and Producing Artistic Director for Plowshares Theatre Company, Gary Anderson has produced, directed, and developed numerous award-winning plays throughout his 35-year career. With a home base in Detroit, he is a nationally recognized director working in New York, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Denver, and Houston. Each of his productions is a unique portrayal of the African American experience. His work usually unearthed some lost fact from history or examines a current topic with a fresh perspective.

Anderson’s leadership and expertise are evident through his service as a founding member of the National Advisory Committee of the Black Seed, a first-ever national strategic plan aimed at creating an impact for Black theater institutions. The $10 million initiative offered financial support over the three years of the pandemic.

The recipient of numerous awards, including a Kresge Foundation Artist Fellowship, he is a noted expert in Black Theatre. His numerous awards include the 2002 Michiganian of the Year Award from The Detroit News, the Alain Locke Cultural Arts Award from The Friends of African and African American Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the Lawrence DeVine Award for Outstanding Contribution from The Detroit Free Press. Anderson has served on the board of several local and national theatre organizations.

Anderson has been a Senior Fellow at the Full Frame Initiative for two years. His area of investigation has been looking at the intersection of the arts and their impact on our well-being. Most recently, he authored an essay linking artistic engagement to achieving America’s inalienable rights and a life of well-being. Anderson argues that centering the arts in our lives can enhance our ability to achieve such a life.

Social Justice Organizations

ACCESS

Detroit Justice Center

Detroit Urban League

Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice

Economic Justice Alliance of Michigan

Equality Michigan

LA SED

LGBT Detroit

MANA de Metro Detroit

Michigan Coalition for Human Rights

Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion

Michigan United

NAACP - Detroit Branch

New Detroit