2021 Pulitzer Prize Winner 

Pulitzer Prize Winner Katori Hall’s work returns to our stage with her award-winning play, The Hot Wing King, in which Memphis, Tennessee’s annual Hot Wang Festival is quickly approaching, and Cordell Crutchfield is determined to be crowned king of the wings. With support from The New Wing Order, made up of his partner Dwayne and his friends Isom & Big Charles, victory seems inevitable. However, Cordell soon finds himself preparing for the festival while caring for his teenage nephew who moves in after a family tragedy. Will this new arrangement be a recipe for success or disaster?

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What is a Preview?

Previews are an essential part of the theater-making process that allow directors and playwrights to see their plays with audiences for the first time and identify areas for adjustment. These special performances allow you to get a first look at the play and be a part of each shows’ creative journey before it opens officially. 

Content Transparency 

This production includes coarse language, use of slurs, ableist language, and references to offstage violence and death. 

The Hot Wing King runs 2 hours and 30 minutes including a 15-minute intermission.

CoMMUNITY NIGHTS

Community Nights are special nights at BCS, where tickets to our plays are just $5 with the promo code BCSCOMMUNITYNIGHTS! During all our Community Nights, we have pre-show community gatherings where you can support our outstanding tabling partners, connect with fellow community members, and learn about events around Baltimore.

Artists & Makers Night  (April 11) 6:00pm
Small Business Night  (April 19) 6:30pm
Baltimore Collegetown Night  (April 25) 6:30pm 

MORE INFO ABOUT BCS COMMUNITY NIGHTS

Katori Hall – Playwright 

Katori Hall is a playwright and performer hailing from Memphis, Tennessee. Her award-winning play HOODOO LOVE premiered at the Cherry Lane Theatre in 2007. It was developed under Lynn Nottage as part of the theatre’s 2006 Mentor Project. HOODOO LOVE received three AUDELCO nominations (Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, August Wilson Playwright Award). Her other plays include: REMEMBRANCE, HURT VILLAGE, SATURDAY NIGHT/SUNDAY MORNING, THE MOUNTAINTOP, ON THE CHITLIN’ CIRCUIT, and FREEDOM TRAIN (KCACTF ten minute play national finalist). Her work has been developed and presented at the following venues: the American Repertory Theatre, Kennedy Center, Cherry Lane Theatre, Classical Theatre of Harlem, Schomburg Center, BRICLab, Women’s Project, World Financial Center, Lark Play Development Center, New Professional Theatre, The O’Neill, the Juilliard School, Stanford University, and Columbia University. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Lecompte du Nouy Prize, North Manhattan Arts Alliance Fellowship, New York State Council on the Arts Commission Grant, New Professional Theatre’s Writers’ Festival award, Fellowship of Southern Writers Bryan Family Award in Drama, New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship in Playwriting and Screenwriting, Royal Court Theatre Residency, and the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award. She has also been a Kennedy Center Playwriting Fellow. As an actor, her credits include “Law & Order: SVU,” THE PRESIDENT’S PUPPETS (The Public), GROWING UP A SLAVE (American Place Theatre), INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL (American Place Theatre), the world premiere of AMERIKA (Theatre de la Jeune Lune/American Repertory Theatre), SPRING AWAKENING (Moscow Art Theatre School), AIN’T SUPPOSED TO DIE A NATURAL DEATH (Classical Theatre of Harlem), SCHOOLED (WOW Café Theatre), and BLACK GIRL (Sande Shurin Theatre). As a journalist, her work has been published in “The Boston Globe,” “Essence,” “Newsweek,” and “The Commercial Appeal.” She graduated from Columbia University in 2003 with a major in African-American Studies and Creative Writing. She was awarded top departmental honors from the university’s Institute for Research in African-American Studies (IRAAS). In 2005, she graduated from the American Repertory Theatre Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University, receiving a Master of Fine Arts in Acting. She is now a student in the Juilliard School’s Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program. She is a proud member of the Women’s Project Playwrights’ Lab, the Lark Playwrights’ Workshop, and the Dramatists Guild. www.katorihall.com

Christopher D. Betts – Director 

Christopher is The Roberts’ Foundation, Joyce C. Willis Fellow at Hartford Stage. Christopher directed Trouble in Mind in Hartford Stage’s 2022/2023 season. Christopher recently directed The Color Purple (North Carolina Theatre), Dreamgirls (Paramount Theatre, North Carolina Theatre) Choir Boy (Yale Rep), Legally Blonde (NYU Tisch), In the Southern Breeze (Off-Broadway), and Dutch Kings (Off-Off-Broadway). At Yale School of Drama: Is God Is, We Are Proud to Present…, Fireflies, littleboy/littleman, School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play, and The Winter’s Tale. Christopher is also the creator, writer, director, and executive producer of the film MAJOR executive produced by Tarell Alvin McCraney. Other collaborations include: Spring Awakening (NYU Tisch); Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors (PopArt Johannesburg/Market Theatre Lab); The Cave: A Folk Opera (New York premiere); Carrie (2015 Broadway World Best Musical nomination); a series of new works with the OBIE Award-winning Fire This Time Festival; workshops of Goodnight Tyler (Kennedy Center/Alliance Theatre), Refuge of the Damned (Long Wharf Theatre); and Barbecue (movement director, The Public Theater). Betts is a recipient of the Julie Taymor World Theater Fellowship, the Richie Jackson Artist Fellowship, and a two-time recipient of the SDCF Observership. Christopher has been an Artist in Residence at Kampala International Theater Festival and PopArt Johannesburg, a teaching artist at The Market Theatre Lab, and a support team member/facilitator at artEquity. Christopher is currently a professor in the Department of Undergraduate Drama at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, New Studio on Broadway. B.F.A. with triple honors from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts (Bachelor’s Representative). M.F.A. in Directing from Yale School of Drama.