Ricardo Khan is a director, writer, educator and the Tony Award-winning Artistic Director who co-founded the Crossroads Theatre Company, one of history’s few African American theatres to ever rise to both national and international prominence as a major professional arts institution.
For two decades Khan nurtured and guided the creation of well over one hundred new works that have forever enriched the cannon of the American theatre, while launching countless careers for writers, directors, designers, composers, managers and actors of color. Through Crossroads he worked with and provided a creative home and premiering stage for Ntozake Shange, August Wilson, George C. Wolfe, Anna Deveare Smith, Melba Moore, Leslie Lee, Denise Nicholas, Kathleen McGhee-Anderson, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, Mbongeni Ngema from South Africa, Rani Moorthy from Malaysia, Linda Nieves-Powell, former United States Poet Laureate Rita Dove and many more. As the originating producer of the groundbreaking “The Colored Museum” and “Spunk”, both by George C. Wolfe, “Black Eagles” by Leslie Lee, “The Love Space Demands” by Ntozake Shange, “Sheila’s Day” by Mbongeni Ngema, and “Two Ha Ha’s and a Homeboy” written and starring Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis and Guy Davis, Khan established Crossroads as a major player on the American theatre scene. Khan was the originating producer of the production of “Paul Robeson” starring Avery Brooks, which went on from Crossroads to Broadway in 1988, and in 1998, the Tony Award-nominated Broadway musical, “It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues”. And shortly after the passing of esteemed playwright August Wilson in 2005, Khan returned to Broadway to write, stage, and together with co-producer Woodie King, Jr., present the New York tribute to August Wilson in the Broadway theatre that now bares Mr. Wilson’s name.
Mr. Khan’s New York directing credits include works at the Negro Ensemble Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, Lincoln Center, the Signature Theatre and the world famous Apollo Theatre. He was Associate Producer for a number of Crossroads productions at the New York Public Theatre for the late Joseph Papp, and in 2006 served as Associate Director for “Hot Feet!”, a Broadway musical developed by Maurice Hines with legendary songwriter Maurice White and featuring the music of Earth, Wind and Fire. In 2009 he co-wrote “FLY” with Trey Ellis about the esteemed Tuskegee Airmen of World War II, which has been produced in numerous major cities across the country and most recently, for its Pasadena Playhouse engagement, received the prestigious NAACP award for Best Theatre Production in Los Angeles, 2016. “Satchel Paige and the Kansas City Swing” followed that, a play inspired by myths and stories from Negro Leagues baseball and American jazz. Khan’s latest projects, “Freedom Rider” and “Letters From Freedom Summer”, will both receive world premiere productions at the Crossroads Theatre Company in 2021. And of his most high profile achievements recently, Ricardo Khan was the Producer and Director of the highly acclaimed opening night gala ceremonies for the Smithsonian’s new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC on September 24, 2016, with performers and creatives that included Yolanda Adams, Daniel Beaty, Dave Chappelle and Frederic Yonnet, Ava Duvernay, Savion Glover, Oprah Winfrey and Stevie Wonder.
Ricardo Khan holds an MFA in both acting and directing from Mason Gross School of the Arts, and an Honorary PhD from Rutgers University where he is also in the University’s Hall of Distinguished Alumni. He served as President of the Board of Theatre Communications Group, the national organization of America’s professional theatres, from 1995 to 1998, and is proud to have been named Artistic Director Emeritus at his celebrated Crossroads Theatre Company.
