Education and Community
Neighborhood Play Program
Neighbors Celebrating Neighbors
The Neighborhood Play Program is a community play-making program that explores the stories of a local neighborhood and collaboratively creates a play with and about the community. The Orpheum Theatre Group facilitates a series of free interactive story-based workshops between neighborhood residents and artists, creates a fictional play inspired by the stories, and invites community members to audition and participate in the production alongside professional Orpheum teaching artists. The program culminates in a free public performance.
Announcing the South City/Soulsville Play!
We’re excited to be collaborating with the South City/Soulsville neighborhoods in 2025-2026! Follow along with our play-making progress.
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Fall 2025
Story Circle Events with Community Partners
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Winter 2025
Interactive Theatre Workshops with Community Partners
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Spring 2026
Readings of the Play for Community Feedback
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Fall 2026
Rehearse and Perform the Play in South City/Soulsville.
Neighborhood Play Auditions
WHEN: August 26
TIME: Anytime from 5:00pm-9:00pm
WHERE: Score C.D.C. (571 Vance Ave.)
Join our Soulsville + South City Community Play!
Calling All Community Artists, Actors, Singers, Dancers, Musicians, and Poets!
No experience necessary! No preparation required. First time performers and all ages welcome! Come as you are!
We’ve been making a play with and about the Soulsville + South City neighborhoods and we need YOU!
Over the past year, the Orpheum Theatre Group has been collaborating with the Soulsville + South City neighborhoods to hear real stories of the people that live, work, worship, and go to school in the neighborhood. After meeting with hundreds of community members, we have created a fictional play inspired by the stories they told. This fall, we will be rehearsing and performing the play in Soulsville + South City and we need you to join us onstage or behind the scenes to bring this production to life!
About the Play
In a Memphis neighborhood built over an underground river of history, Chaos is just trying to keep his head down. When a forgotten ancestor appears with a stolen song and a long‑buried curse, he is forced to confront his name and his truth: there is gold in his bones, and somebody has been trying to steal it — from him and his neighborhood — for generations. Gold In Our Bones is a history‑haunted, music‑infused play that asks who gets to profit from Black genius and what does it take to stop letting everyone else mine our lives.
Want to get involved behind the scenes?
Share Your Story and Get Involved
If you are an individual or organization that would like to collaborate on the project by sharing your story or connecting us with your organization, please contact Taylor St. John, Director of Education and Engagement at stjohn@orpheum-memphis.com or (901) 529-4282.
Meet Our Partners
In 2025-2026, we are excited to be partnering with the South City/Soulsville neighborhoods to create a play made in collaboration with the following partner organizations:
Past Plays
We All We Got: A Binghampton Play (2024)
Conceived by the Orpheum Theatre Group and the Binghampton Community.
Written By Ann Perry Wallace.
Inspired by hundreds of real Binghampton stories, this fictional Binghampton introduces a colorful community of characters bringing up their young people and holding on to hope in one of Memphis’ most diverse—and fast-changing—neighborhoods.
Shavonne is the IT Girl from a Black family that goes back generations. Bakari is a refugee with big dreams and even bigger obstacles. Two girls with starkly different lives come of age in the same vibrant and unpredictable neighborhood. Inspired by hundreds of real Binghampton stories, this fictional Binghampton introduces a colorful community of characters bringing up their young people and holding on to hope in one of Memphis’ most diverse—and fast-changing—neighborhoods.
Play commissioned and originally produced by the Orpheum Theatre Group, Memphis, Tennessee made in collaboration with the following partner organizations and the Binghampton neighborhood:
Refugee Empowerment Program, SOS, Memphis Parks, Lester Prep, Inspire Community Cafe, First Baptist Church-Broad, Compass Community Schools, Collage Dance, Carpenter Art Garden, Capstone Education Group, W.H. Brewster Elementary School, Binghampton Development Corporation, and Backbeat Tours.
The Neighborhood Play Program is Made Possible By
For More Information or Assistance
TAYLOR ST. JOHN
Director of Education and Engagement
901-529-4282
stjohn@orpheum-memphis.com