Broadway is changing — and the issues of diversity and inclusion continue to bring powerful, new voices to the forefront. One of those creatives is Broadway playwright, Keenan Scott II, who wowed audiences and critics, this year, with his punch-in-the-gut play, “Thoughts of a Colored Man.”
Producer Kandi Burruss recently announced that Scott will be the youngest African American playwright to be honored with a Sardi’s portrait – one of the most enduring and coveted theatrical traditions.
In the theater community, this is a great honor because Sardi’s is a Broadway institution and has amassed over 1,200 caricatures of famed faces,connected to the theatre industry with approximately 900 portraits on display. Scott’s portrait will go up at Sardi’s in the next few months.
“I can’t tell you how proud it makes me that our brilliant Keenan’s face will be up on the walls of Sardi’s alongside incredible luminaries from the theater community – present and past,” said producer Burruss. “It is truly an honor both for Keenan and our show, ‘Thoughts of a Colored Man.’”
When “Thoughts of a Colored Man”opened on Oct. 13, 2021, it made history as the first Broadway show to be written, directed by, starring and lead produced by Black men.
Scott was chosen to be a part of the 2021 TED Fellow cohort to be among a global community of artists, inventors and scientists. His latest work, “The Migration LP,” and new original musical, “The Return of Young Boy,” is currently being developed at New York Stage & Film, while his other stage plays are in various stages of development.
He is a part of the creative team of the miniseries, “A Luv Tale by Sidra Smith,” now on BET+. He is also developing an array of projects for television and film, currently developing a pilot with UCP of NBCUniversal and adapting a novel by JJ Bola called “The Selfless Act of Breathing” with BRON Studios.
