Education and Community

Neighborhood Play Program

Name: Paradigm Marketing and Creative
Price range: $

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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.

Coming Soon

Theatre |

Centenary United Methodist Church

Gold In Our Bones: A Soulsville + South City Play

Nov 6 - 8, 2026

When a forgotten ancestor appears with a stolen song and a long‑buried curse, Chaos is forced to confront his name and his truth: there is gold in his bones and somebody has been trying to steal it.

Learn More

Free Admission

Get Involved

Attend the Play

Volunteer

Donate

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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:

STAX Music Academy, The Soulsville Charter School

Cornelia Crenshaw Memorial Library

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.