Last week, Black playwrights and Broadway performers celebrated longtime New York Amsterdam News theater critic Linda Armstrong at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
The panel discussion touched on Armstrong’s 40-year career as a theater critic with the AmNews and other outlets. Panelists, including New Federal Theatre founder and producer Woodie King Jr., president of AUDELCO, Jackie Jeffries, Tony Award winners Kara Young and Brian Stokes Mitchell, actor and jazz artist Rome Neal, playwright Keenan Scott II, and NY Times theater critic Brittani Samuel, shared how influential Armstrong has been overall and in their careers specifically.
“When you cover us, you cover us with such love and respect for Black theater that one does. There’s no one else in this town that does that. No one else in this town cares the way you do and shares the way you do,” Neal said.
Young spoke about her close bond with Armstrong, who views her like one of her daughters.
“It felt like heaven because we were able to see what we were doing and being reviewed in a way that was not only meaningful, but spiritual,” Young said about Armstrong’s reviews. “You were pouring literally into us by listing every little detail about what we were doing.”
Jeffries praised how “meticulous” Armstrong is in her reviews.
Scott II wrote and produced the Broadway show, “Thoughts of A Colored Man,” which opened in 2021. Armstrong had labeled the most important play of the 21st Century in her review. He recalled Armstrong’s review as the first one that was able to understand his work, which he says single-handedly saved him and his career, as it gave him confidence.
“It feels very good to be able to have somebody that has your back, that’s just in the room, that is just a safe space for you, especially with the work that we do that is nuanced and that isn’t always received when it’s from a Black lens,” Scott II said.
A focus on highlighting Black theater companies and Off-Broadway and “Off-Off Broadway shows and performers has been a focus for Armstrong. In her series, “Blacks on Broadway” for Harlem Community News, Armstrong includes a list of all Black performers on Broadway and notes the improvements over the last 20 years, when it started at around 50 performers, and increased to over 300 today.
“While I love covering all types of theater when it comes to Black theater, I believe it is part of my purpose in life to make sure that the public knows what Black theaters are doing as they superbly tell our stories,” Armstrong said in her remarks. “I think my people are so incredibly talented that I just want to shout from the rooftops what is going on and that people need to come out and support it.”
“It’s not just about them having jobs. It’s about them being able to bless an audience with this beautiful work that they’re doing in this story they’re telling,” she continued.
Among the attendees was long-time New Heritage Theater president Voza Rivers. Watching proudly were also Armstrong’s two daughters, Linda, 32, and Jasmine, 23, who were seated up front.
As a social worker, daughter Linda says her mother’s work and her focus on mentally taking a break and fully experiencing the theater have deeply helped her in her career.
“My mom does not know that, but that is what she’s done for me, in many ways, of me growing up is me being able to understand and learn who I am as a person, why it’s important for people to actually take a pause, sit down, process it,” Linda said. As she was watching the event, she realized how much of herself she took from the way her mother had always worked. “My mom contributed to how I thought about feelings.”
Jasmine has more directly followed in her mother’s line of work in theater, as she is currently a student at Armstrong’s alma mater, Hunter College, majoring in theater, and also freelances with the AmNews like her mother.
“She’s literally the reason why I’m doing what I do, and the love I have for my craft, but also she’s the reason why I am so observant, so thorough, so detailed when it comes to not only my work as an actor, and also being able to see other fellow actors act and appreciate what they do,” Jasmine shared.
Brian Stokes Mitchell gave an impromptu performance of “The Impossible Dream” dedicated to Armstrong.
On Nov. 17, Armstrong will once again be honored by AUDELCO with a Board of Directors Award.