The Lower Bottom Playaz

The Lower Bottom Playaz

Founded 1999

Mission- Creating community one story at a time.
Motto- To create what we need from what we have been gifted.

Invested in the equitable representation of Black people in the Arts and the world since creation.

We Art

The primary purpose of the Lower Bottom Playaz, Inc is to foster the creation, production, and presentation of quality theater in the tradition of the Black Arts continuum. 

Lower Bottom Playaz, Inc is dedicated to the excavation, critical examination, and illumination of the conditions of North American cities and the lived realities of disenfranchised communities though the creation of original works, production of material available from the North American African canon, and the works of artists considered marginalized and/or whose works center Blackness.

We employ artist to perform, create work, present work, and engage youth in civic participation though theater arts. 

We concentrate on the presentation and creation of work from a Black lens that connects us to the universal in the human condition, and enables dialogues that engage perceptions of difference.

The Lower Bottom Playaz, Inc purposefully use performance as a way of increasing social awareness, providing an entry point to community concerns, as well as to stimulate, celebrate and enhance understanding of ourselves and others through the shared experience of live theatre. 

The Lower Bottom Playaz, Inc. utilize the arts to create a more conscious and compassionate public sphere, as well as to inspire, nurture, challenge, educate and empower artists and audiences. We intend to foster more conscious and compassionate communities, to inspire in all of us the willingness to explore new ideas, and to generate civic dialogues.  Our intentions are to entertain, inform, and educate, thereby enriching all we engage and adding value to the cultural fabric of the spaces we enliven.

Through practice and training we enable actors to succeed in all aspects of the arts, our primary goal is to prepare artists for commitments to lifelong learning through the arts, and an investment in the use of the arts to engage those around them in building a world in which all thrive.

Our association with other nonprofits, institutions of higher learning, diverse theatrical communities, and our presence in community spaces, enriches every aspect of our programing and intentionally brings artists, audiences  and communities of many backgrounds into close contact with artists from multiple performance based disciplines. It is through the immersion in creative work, our commitment to training novices,  our connection to our audiences and our commitment to the communities we represent—that we experience and benefit from what live performance offers to the cultural life of a community. 

Community Activism through the Arts

Since its inception in 1999, Lower Bottom Playaz has advocated for community through art that opens a space for critical discourse, provides community education, encourages civic engagement, facilitates networking, embodies individual and communal agency, amplifies community voice, and supports investments in self- determined solutions for disenfranchised communities.

For that purpose we will fund raise, seek grant funding and community investment in the service of our beloved community, understanding the undeniable power in art we claim the space to create what we need from what we have been gifted.

Contact us for options for  performances at community events, collaborative projects, ways to support our work.

Join our mailing list for free ticket offers for community based organizations and educational institutions.

We are a research resource for performance activism andrelated studies.