Perisphere Theater rounds off its 2026 season with a fierce and funny solo show devised by Perisphere Co-Artistic Director Gerrad Alex Taylor. I Know How to Curse: a re-blackening of shakespeare confronts the legacy of minstrelsy in American theater. Using the structure of a minstrel show to critique the casting politics of the classical canon, the play interrogates how Black actors are seen — and unseen — onstage. A radical blend of Shakespeare, satire, and self-reflection, it reclaims space for Black artists in the roles we’re too often denied.
Part manifesto, part mirror, and fully unflinching, this play is a reclamation — a re-blackening — of Shakespeare and the stages that keep rewriting the same story.
Perisphere Co-Artistic Director Gerrad Alex Taylor brings a deeply personal and sharply political reflection on being a Black actor trained in the canon — knowing how to “speak the speech” and still being reduced to tokens, symbols, or sacrifices. He asks, through a satirical and sometimes sardonic tone: What space is truly available to Black performers in the worlds of Shakespeare, Chekhov, Ibsen? And what does it cost to gain entry?
Content Disclosure: This play contains racially and sexually charged language, including derogatory and offensive language. There are also moments of staged violence, including the use of a prop gun. This play deals with themes of racism and sexism.
I Know How to Curse: a re-blackening of shakespeare runs April 3-25, 2026, at The Writer’s Center, 4508 Walsh St, Bethesda, MD, where Perisphere is in residence. Pay close attention to the performance dates as there will be a break in performances in the middle of the run, which is a small change from Perisphere’s usual performance schedules. Tickets are $35 ($30 for seniors 55+ and $20 for students) and available online.
About the Production
Gerrad Alex Taylor is an award-winning director and multidisciplinary theater artist based out of the Greater Baltimore region and an assistant professor in the Department of Theatre at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. His current creative work and research centers around creating space that preserves history and celebrates culture of the Global Majority.
In 2021 he was named one of Baltimore’s “40 Under 40” by the Washington Business Journal. In 2020, he founded Chesapeake Shakespeare’s Black Classical Acting Ensemble (BCAE), an affinity space for black actors interested in training and exposure of the “classics” and what an expansion of the classical canon may look like today. In 2024, Gerrad joined colleague Lizzi Albert to take on the roles of Co-Artistic Directors of Perisphere Theater in Montgomery County, MD.
I Know How to Curse will be directed by Baltimore-based Nigel Semaj. Nigel is a Baltimore-based director, movement director, and educator originally from Washington, DC. As an Assistant Professor of Performance and Affiliate Assistant Professor of Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Nigel’s work is rooted in fostering inclusive and equitable theatrical spaces through anti-racist pedagogies and restorative practices.
Nigel’s directing career spans a wide range of work, including the Off-Broadway premiere of Bloodshot by Elinor T.Vanderburg, Ntozake Shange’s Spell #7, and most recently Bryony Lavery’s Slime. Nigel’s work speaks to those who have let the sadness in — for those who have been attuned to the haunting wail of the banshee. Often exploring themes of grief, violence, and the hardships of life, their work seeks to embrace the darkness from within. Their adaptation work includes 10,000 Moor, an all-woman adaptation of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus exploring rage and violence, For Hylas — an adaptation of the Hercules myth exploring love, loss, and grief, and Call Me By Any Other Name…Just As Sweet, a queer deconstruction of Romeo and Juliet.
Having trained under companies such as Frantic Assembly, Pig Iron, and Tectonic Theatre Company, Nigel approaches movement as a pivotal tool in storytelling. Their work can be found in plays, operas, musicals, and films. Notable credits include movement direction and fight choreography on Heartbeat Opera Company’s Fidelio, fight and movement for Sarah Young’s award-winning short film Not Him, and Federico Lorca’s Blood Wedding. Nigel is a board member of the American Alliance for Theatre Education and co-chair of the Irene Ryans Acting Scholarship for Region II’s Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.
The rest of the team includes La’Trelle Jamez (Assistant Director), Megan Eich (Stage Manager), Oscar Escobedo (Scenic Designer), Tessara Morgan Farley (Properties Designer), Cheryl J. Williams (Sound Designer), Dean Leong (Lighting Designer), Shana Laski (Dramaturg).
New Programming for the Community
Shana Laski was brought into the Perisphere family this year as the Resident Dramaturg for the season. “Given Perisphere’s commitment to interrogating history,” said co-artistic director Gerrad Alex Taylor, “we are thrilled to introduce a dedicated member of the team who can bring historical context and further clarity to both the audience and the artistic team.” Shana will play an essential role in contextualizing the work for the community including crafting Perisphere’s signature pre-show offering context to patrons about the show they are about to watch. Shana is a director, actor, choreographer, and dramaturg. Her dramaturgy has been featured by Round House Theatre, Theater J, Mosaic Theater Company, and others. She is so excited to be working with Perisphere for the 2026 season as the Resident Dramaturg and looks forward to more community programming!
About Perisphere Theater: Founded in 2015 by Heather Benjamin, Perisphere Theater produces plays that examine personal and collective history and the notion of history itself. Perisphere strives for a theater experience that gives audiences a greater appreciation of history and of those who are often left out of its retelling. In 2023, the Washington Post included Perisphere on its list of small companies worth bookmarking as a “thought-provoking company.”
