CTH Presents Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen and Will Power

On Tuesday, July 1, 2025 | 7 PM, host Randy Cohen brings his beloved public-radio show Person Place Thing to Harlem School for the Arts’ Dorothy Maynor Hall for a one-night-only recording with playwright Will Power (writer of CTH’s MEMNON). Will will reveal what shaped his artistic journey—then pull back the curtain on CTH’s upcoming free outdoor epic MEMNON (July 5–27, Marcus Garvey Park).

What to expect

• 45-minute live interview + audience Q&A
• Special musical interludes

WHEN: Tuesday, July 1, at 7:00pm, Doors open at 6:30pm.

WHERE: Harlem School of the Arts, 645 Saint Nicholas Avenue, New York, New York 10030

Musical performances by Young, Gifted & Black's Emery Mason and Melissa Mosley.

This event will be recorded for broadcast on Northeast Public Radio, a 23-station regional network, and a dozen other public radio stations around the country.

About Randy Cohen: Randy Cohen’s first professional work was writing humor pieces, essays, and stories for newspapers and magazines (The New Yorker, Harpers, the Atlantic, Young Love Comics). His first television work was writing for "Late Night With David Letterman" for which he won three Emmy awards. His fourth Emmy was for his work on Michael Moore’s "TV Nation." He received a fifth Emmy as a result of a clerical error, and he kept it. For twelve years he wrote "The Ethicist," a weekly column for the New York Times Magazine. He is currently the creator and host of Person Place Thing, a public radio program. https://personplacething.org/

About Will Power: Will Power is an internationally renowned playwright, performer, lyricist and educator. His plays and performances have been seen in hundreds of theaters and concert halls throughout the world including The Public Theater (New York), The Battersea Arts Centre (U.K.), The Sydney Opera House, as well as numerous venues in Asia, Africa, Europe and throughout North America.

Called “The best verse playwright in America” by New York Magazine, Mr. Power is an innovator and dramatic explorer of new theatrical forms. He is known as one of the pioneers and co-creators of hip hop theater, a late 20th Century art form that led the way for future iconic works such as Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, as well as dozens of hip hop education programs being established throughout the country. Power is also a master craftsman of traditionally based plays and musicals. His straight play, Fetch Clay, Make Man, has been produced in various LORT theaters and regional companies including the McCarter Theater, New York Theater Workshop, the Round House Theater, True Colors Theater Company, The Ensemble Theater, and Marin Theater Company to name a few. Other plays include (Getty Villa, Classical Theater of Harlem upcoming), Stagger Lee (Dallas Theater Company), Five Fingers of Funk (Children’s Theater Company), The Seven (La Jolla Playhouse, New York Theater Workshop, Ten Thousand Things Theater Company), Seize the King (La Jolla Playhouse, The Alliance Theater, Classical Theatre of Harlem), Detroit Red (Arts Emerson), and most recently, MEMNON (Getty Villa and Classical Theater of Harlem upcoming). Power’s collaboration with Anne Bogart’s SITI Company and composer Julia Wolfe resulted in the performance piece Steel Hammer (Humana Festival, UCLA Live, Brooklyn Academy of Music, plus World tour).

Power has received numerous awards for his work as a writer and performer in the field including The Doris Duke Artist Award, an Andrew W. Mellon Playwright in Residence Grant, a Lucille Lortel Award, a United States Artist Prudential Fellowship, an NEA/TCG Residency Grant, TCG Peter Zeisler Memorial Award, a NYFA Award, a Joyce Foundation Award, and 2020 Elliot Norton Award (Outstanding New Script, Detroit Red).

Power is also a passionate teacher of writing and performance. He has held fellowships, residencies and faculty positions at the City College of New York, Princeton University, Wayne State University, The University of Michigan at Flint, the University of Massachusetts (Amherst), and Spelman College. Currently, Will Power is a Professor of theater at Occidental College in Los Angeles.

About The Classical Theatre of Harlem: The Classical Theatre of Harlem (CTH) is an American theatre company that tells stories through the lens of the African diaspora. CTH combines original adaptations, music, and dance to present great classics of world literature and contemporary works that will stand the test of time. Since its founding in 1999, CTH has presented works ranging from traditional classical playwrights (Anton Chekhov, Euripides and William Shakespeare) to established 20th-century playwrights (August Wilson, Langston Hughes and Jean Genet) to new plays by emerging playwrights. CTH also proudly provides theater-based training and live theater experiences to Harlem youth and their families through its arts education program, Project Classics. The organization incorporates other theater-related programming including Future Classics, Playwrights’ Playground, and Revisited Classics to engage new audiences, invest in artistic development and give exposure to emerging creators.

The company serves over 30,000 live audience members per year. Its online offerings have drawn over 500,000 viewers. To learn more, visit https://www.cthnyc.org/.

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