Jillian Walker’s The Whitney Album Announces World-Premiere Casting

Casting has been announced for the world premiere of Jillian Walker’s The Whitney Album, running from May 24-July 2 with an official June 6 opening at Soho Rep.

The Whitney Album is described as “a meditation on the artist’s relationship to Whitney Houston’s work and personal life, and perceptions of both in the American imagination.” The cast will feature Portia (To Kill A Mockingbird), Jillian Walker (SKiNFoLK: An American Show), Stephanie Weeks (SKiNFoLK: An American Show), and Ben Jalosa Williams (Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge).

The creative team will also include set designer Peiyi Wong, costume designer Jojo Siu, lighting designer Oona Curley, sound designer Ben Jalosa Williams, and dramaturg/archivist Abigail Jean-Baptiste. Shiku Thuo is the production stage manager.

Walker was one of eight artists in the inaugural, 2020-21 cohort of Soho Rep’s Project Number One. The Whitney Album follows Walker’s 2019 work SKiNFoLK: An American Show, a concert/play co-produced by the National Black Theater and the Bushwick Starr that retold Walker’s family history.