‘Power’ Star Marcus Callender Sets ‘Spades: The Play’ National Tour Dates
Actor and playwright Marcus Callender, known for roles in Power and Wu-Tang: An American Saga, is taking his stage production Spades: The Play on a national tour this autumn. The production, which he wrote over ten years and directs, follows a group of twenty-somethings whose weekly card game in 2013 Harlem gives way to candid conversations about love and friendship; it is based on true events from Callender's own life. The tour follows a sold-out four-week debut run in Harlem last November and reflects Callender's ambition to bring theatre "directly to the people" outside conventional venues.
The tour comprises 76 performances, opening with a one-off show at the Studio Museum in Harlem on 3 September before moving to Washington, D.C. (9-20 September), Los Angeles (23 September-18 October), Atlanta (21 October-15 November) and New Orleans (18-29 November), concluding in Miami during Art Basel. Each stop is held at a culturally significant venue, including a former Black church in Washington and Wendy Raquel Robinson's Amazing Grace Conservatory in Los Angeles. The cast includes Broderick Clavery, Akilah A. Walker, Derrick Alexander and Erin Nicole Washington, with tickets sold exclusively through Posh.
- Marcus Callender takes Spades: The Play on 76-date national tour
- Tour runs September-November across DC, LA, Atlanta, New Orleans, Miami
- Play draws on Callender's own life, set in 2013 Harlem
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Marcus Callender is an actor and playwright whose screen roles include Power and Wu-Tang: An American Saga. He also wrote and directs Spades: The Play, drawing on events from his own life and more than a decade of work on the script.
The play centres on a group of young adults meeting for a weekly card game in Harlem in 2013. As they talk about love and friendship, the game becomes a setting for personal conversations. Its tour follows a sold-out run in Harlem and takes the production to venues with cultural significance in several US cities.
Callender has said he wants to bring theatre directly to people beyond conventional venues. The tour’s locations and its focus on friendship and everyday experience place the production in community settings as well as on the stage.