The Living Word Project Proudly Presents, as part of the Under the Radar Festival Try/Step/Trip

“Don’t miss this one.” – Los Angeles Times

Written by DAHLAK BRATHWAITE

Starring
​TYRESE SHAWN AVERY, DAHLAK BRATHWAITE, JASMINE GATEWOOD, MAX KATZ, RICHARD PEREZ, JR., FREDDY RAMSEY, JR., ​ KRYSTAL RENEE, DANTE ROSSI

Choreography by TORAN MOORE

Directed by ROBERTA UNO

THREE-WEEK LIMITED ENGAGEMENT
​JANUARY 8 – 25 2026 ​
​AT THE JEFFERY AND PAULA GURAL THEATRE A.R.T/NEW YORK THEATRES

OPENING NIGHT IS SATURDAY, JANUARY 10th, AT 8:30 P.M.

TICKETS ON SALE NOW AT 

EVENTBRITE.COM/TRY/STEP/TRIP

THE LIVING WORD PROJECT, as part of the Under the Radar Festival, is pleased to announce the award-winning dramatic auteur Dahlak Brathwaite’s (Helen Hayes Award winner for Long Way Down) new hip hop concept musical, Try/Step/Trip, choreographed by Toran Moore, directed by Roberta Uno. Try/Step/Trip, will play a four-week limited engagement at The Jeffery and Paula Gural Theatre A.R.T./New York Theatres (502 W. 53rd Street New York, NY 10019.) Performances begin Thursday, January 8th, and continue through Sunday, January 25th. Opening Night is Saturday, January 10th, 2026 (8:30pm.) ​ Tickets begin at $35 and are available at EVENTBRITE.COM/TRY/STEP/TRIP

Inspired by Brathwaite’s own history, TRY/STEP/TRIP is a rite of passage orchestrated to save one of the justice system’s newest inductees from the ultimate plight of criminalization. Try/Step/Trip is a high-powered theatrical mixtape that fuses spoken word, hip-hop, step, and ritual to tell the story of “Anonymous,” a young Black man navigating a court-mandated drug rehabilitation program and the larger systems shaping his identity. Guided and provoked by “The Conductor” and a chorus of fellow participants, Anonymous is pushed through memories, music, and mythologies that reveal the tension between who he is, who he’s told to be, and who he wants to become. As the group’s movement and storytelling intensify, from confessional meetings to ecstatic club nights to reimagined church rituals, the piece unravels the cycles of punishment, performance, and possibility embedded in America’s criminal justice and cultural narratives.

Try/Step/Trip becomes a live excavation of Blackness, transformation, and the struggle to find freedom within and beyond the systems determined to define you.

"The act of speaking back against my shame has liberated me, and I want everyone to have that experience - of not letting the things that shame you, silence you" - Dahlak Brathwaite, playwright

"An incendiary performance exquisitely executed by a multigifted ensemble who expose Brathwaite and Uno’s collaborative vision in an often disturbing but always necessary light. ​ Essential wartime viewing." - Roger Guenvere-Smith, (Do The Right Thing, Malcolm X)

"After the confinement and deprivation of stay-at-home orders, Try/Step/Trip reminds me how magical it is to witness live movement. Dahlak has crafted this story to have a theatrical language all its own. ​ It's everything I love about theater that I survived the worst of the pandemic to come back to." - Kristina Wong, Pulitzer Prize Finalist

TRY/STEP/TRIP is an explosion of senses, poetry, music, movement, and a phenomenon called Dahlak Brathwaite. Powerful and profound, this exhilarating theatrical work provokes a crucial national dialogue about black men and our flawed justice system. Don’t miss it. This is required viewing. ​ - Chay Yew, Doris Duke Artist Award Recipient

The production stars Tyrese Shawn Avery (Long Way Down - Olney Theatre Center), Dahlak Brathwaite, Jasmine Gatewood, Max Katz, Richard Perez Jr., Freddy Ramsey, Jr., Krystal Renee (Stomp -Off Broadway, World Tour), and Dante Rossi.

The production features lighting design by Sim Carpenter and Sound Engineering by Saida Joshua-Smith. The Stage Manager is Cassiel Fawcett, and Publicity and social media support by Katie Rosin/Kampfire PR. 

Tickets begin at $35 and are available at EVENTBRITE.COM/TRY/STEP/TRIP

Running Time: 85 Minutes

TEASER: Try/Step/Trip Teaser 2026 

Instagram: @trysteptrip

MEDIA KIT WITH PHOTOS

BIOGRAPHIES

Dahlak Brathwaite (Writer/Composer/Performer) is an award-winning dramatic auteur: playwright, composer, performer, director, and filmmaker. His work has been presented at The Smithsonian, The Wallis, Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, REDCAT, MCA Chicago, Ars Nova, The Public Theater, The Apollo, SXSW, and on HBO’s Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry. Dahlak’s trilogy of works – Spiritrials (solo play), Try/Step/Trip (musical), Adapting History (documentary film) – takes a personal look into the criminal justice system and the relationship between Black American music and Black American subjugation. Development of the work has been supported by CalArts, A.C.T., Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Montalvo Arts Center. Dahlak is a Princess Grace Award winner. He has received awards and support from NEFA, the Doris Duke Foundation, the Black Genius Foundation, Creative Capital, MAP Fund, California Arts Council, and has taught workshops internationally as a two-time fellow of the U.S. State Department. ​ He was The York Theatre’s inaugural Micki Grant Artist-in-Residence and a member of The Public Theater’s 2023 Devised Theater Working Group cohort. His musical adaptation of Jason Reynolds’ Long Way Down premiered at Olney Theater Center, broke box-office records, and won the Helen Hayes Award for Best New Musical. Dahlak is a graduate of NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, where he was awarded the Dean’s Full-Tuition Fellowship, and served as the Assistant Director for the national tour of the Tony-winning revival of Oklahoma. He has been a visiting professor at UC Davis and is currently part-time faculty at Berklee College of Music.

Roberta Uno (Director) is a theater director and dramaturg. She founded and was Artistic Director of New WORLD Theater 1979-2002 in Amherst, MA. Her numerous directing credits include The Dance and the Railroad by David Henry Hwang, Clothes by Chitra Divakaruni, Unmerciful Good Fortune by Edwin Sanchez, Flyin’ West by Pearl Cleage, Stop Kiss by Diana Son, Sneaky by William Yellow Robe, Sheila’s Day by Duma Ndlovu, I Land by Keo Woolford, the bodies between us by thuy le, and the musical theater concert Bone Hill, co-written with and composed by Martha Redbone and Aaron Whitby. She was the last theater director to work directly with James Baldwin; directing Blues for Mr. Charlie and as a dramaturg she has spanned generations working with Pearl Primus, Alice Childress, Sekou Sundiata, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Crystal Truscott, Dionna Daniel and others. She directed a large-scale devised theatre work, We the Peoples Before at the Kennedy Center July 2022, a multi-year commission celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the First Peoples Fund. She is also currently directing Waihona Kino (Body Archive) featuring Peter Tau Espiritu, which will premiere September 2026 at Leeward Theatre, O’ahu

About The Living Word Project: ​
​The Living Word Project (Lead Producer): Founded in 2001 by Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Joan Osato, The Living Word Project is a theater commissioning, developing and producing company, whose work crosses disciplines integrating photography, film, visual arts and new media into its creations. ​ As a collective of designers, performers, directors and technicians, our work endeavors to break open new modes of narrative, employing emerging aesthetics and techniques that push the possibilities of storytelling and theater.

https://utrfest.org/program/try-step-trip/

UNDER THE RADAR FESTIVAL
​For over two decades, the Under the Radar Theater Festival has brought bold, risk-taking work to New York City, celebrating groundbreaking theater and performance from around the world and just down the street. Produced in collaboration with venues across the city, the festival showcases innovative multidisciplinary artists whose work speaks powerfully to the present moment. Under the Radar Festival® returns in January 2026 with a signature slate of more than 25 new productions staged throughout the city.