When Keenan Scott II needed to develop his latest work, the groundbreaking playwright knew where to go.
Professor Anthony Stockard, the founder and director of Norfolk State University’s nationally acclaimed theater program, greenlit the idea with an enthusiastic, “Let’s do it!”
“The Migration LP,” co-commissioned with Virginia Arts Festival, premieres Wednesday at NSU’s Brown Memorial Hall Mainstage Theater. The drama explores how a family patriarch's decision reverberates across generations, touching on lineage, ambition, sacrifice and legacy.
The play runs through Sunday.
“It’s very important to develop pieces in places that understand you on multiple different levels, and I feel like Norfolk State and Anthony Stockard cross off a lot of boxes when it comes to that,” Scott said. “I thought of no better place to start this particular piece.”
In March 2023, Scott’s drama “Thoughts of a Colored Man” went from Broadway’s John Golden Theatre to NSU. Scott is confident “The Migration LP” is also on track for a Broadway run.
Norfolk State Theatre Co. was the first to get the license for “Thoughts of a Colored Man,” one of the few Broadway shows written, produced, directed by and starring all Black artists. The production earned NSU more than 20 national Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival awards.
“That was exciting to me,” Scott said. “That was the first time the play was no longer going to be in my hands because I had been working on it for the greater part of 15, 16 years at that point.”
Back then, the Frostburg State University alumnus wasn’t familiar with NSU’s program. Scott attended the Norfolk premiere and came away impressed.
“I was taken aback by the performances and how well they nailed some nuances in my play,” he said. “I’ll never forget that night.”
That was when he promised Stockard he would return.
“If this is what you’re doing," Scott told him. "I want to be a part of it.”
Two years ago, Scott returned to workshop “The Migration LP.” Stockard invited subscribers to a stage reading. The place was packed.
“I got a lot out of the workshop, a lot out of the students,” Scott said. “Seeing that the community supported a brand new work that they hadn’t heard of, that hasn’t been done anywhere, told me this place is special.”
The opportunity to stage a world premiere is a first for the company.
“It’s insane,” Stockard said. “We’ve hosted collegiate premieres, but this is a world premiere.”
Three of the nine cast members are NSU seniors. Five are NSU theater alumni and the other is a guest artist. The stage management team is all students. Stockard is an artistic director. Scott has worked with the team in person since Oct. 5.
“To commission a work is a different level,” Stockard said. “I remember the first week Keenan did a pass exclusively listening to the words with this cast. By Monday, the changes were significant enough that we had to print a whole new set of copies of the script.”
Scott wants to establish an incubator program for Black playwrights to partner with Historically Black Universities and Colleges.
“Why not create a pipeline between HBCU’s and the commercial industries to where it could be a developmental stop before the inevitable commercial or regional run?”
“The Migration LP” stems from a solo show he wrote years ago called “Black Cotton.” In that touring production, he showed the evolution of the Black man and systemic oppression through seven distinct characters. The characters weren’t related, but Scott realized the potential of representing one generation. He built out the identities of five of the characters for the current show.
Scott always had the play starting in 1926. Somehow, the stars aligned.
“I’ve been working on this piece so long, I realized coming into this year, it was 2026 — the play spans a century,” he said.
“The Migration LP” balances how much and how little has changed for Black men. The backdrop is the migration of Black families from the South seeking better opportunities in the North and West.
Among the themes: Black family life isn’t only filled with trauma.
“It isn’t always downtrodden,” Scott said. “There are so many laughs in this piece and so much joy.
Scott likens the play to a long-playing album, with the griot in the story a DJ who inherited an album he had never heard of that was about his family.
“The actual story for the audience is the record he’s playing for them, which is the play,” Scott said.
The original music evolves with the years. Act I is A side of the album, and Act II, the B side.
G.W.C. Brown Memorial Hall, 700 Park Ave., Norfolk. Visit NSUTheatre.com for tickets and more information.