S T A R R Busby Brings Music, Spirit and Black Fem Expansiveness to Baltimore Center Stage’s (pray)

When audiences enter Baltimore Center Stage for (pray), they should not expect a traditional play, musical or church service. According to S T A R R Busby, the production lives somewhere between all of those forms and beyond them.

“It is a multimedium piece,” S T A R R said. “It is a play with music. It is in the style of the choreopoem, like Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls. It is a church service that takes some turns.”

Those turns include moments that may feel familiar to anyone raised in or around the Black church, along with moments designed to surprise, challenge and expand the audience’s imagination. Baltimore Center Stage describes (pray) as a kinetic and vibrant choreopoem that channels the energy of a Sunday Baptist church service while celebrating and confronting the complexities of spiritual inheritance.

The production runs June 13 through July 5, 2026, with opening night set for June 20. Community Night will be held Friday, June 19 at 7:30 p.m.

Written, directed and choreographed by Brooklyn-based artist, educator and activist nicHi douglas, (pray) features original music by JJJJerome Ellis and S T A R R, who also serves as music director and appears as part of the cast.

For S T A R R, the project represents one of the most involved music creation experiences she has had for a theater piece. She said the work began several years ago after douglas was commissioned to create the piece and invited her and Ellis into the process.

S T A R R said the collaboration with Ellis came naturally.

“It was a fast, easy collaboration between the two of us,” she said.

Over several years of workshops, the creative team continued shaping the sound, structure and spirit of the production. S T A R R said douglas provided specific texts that became the foundation for several musical pieces. She set much of that text to music and also contributed lyrics to a new apostles’ creed featured in the show.

The production premiered in New York in 2023 and now comes to Baltimore with a cast that blends returning performers with Baltimore-based and Baltimore-rooted artists. Featured performers include Tony Award winner CJay Philip, Scott Patterson, Ray Winder and Asya Melan Shaw, along with a larger ensemble of acclaimed multidisciplinary performers.

S T A R R said the Baltimore cast has brought something special into the room.

“Everyone is bringing something really unique and is being very generous with their spirits,” she said. “There’s just a beautiful sense of community being built in the room, and I’m hoping that people feel that as well.”

While everyone is welcome to experience (pray), S T A R R is clear about who the piece centers.

“Very deliberately, this piece is for Black women and femmes,” she said.

For her, “Black femme” means Black femininity beyond the gender binary. It is, as she described it, the energy of a grandmother, an auntie or a cousin whose presence carries feminine love, power and care.

Her hope is that Black women and femmes see themselves in the work and feel the most expansive versions of themselves reflected back. For other audience members, she hopes the production opens a wider understanding of who Black women and Black femmes are.

“We contain multitudes,” S T A R R said.

That idea of expansiveness also shows up in her own name. Born Star, she stylizes her name as S T A R R, giving each letter space and intention.

“Give me all of my letters, give me size, and give me a little room,” she said.

For S T A R R, that spacing is more than a visual choice. It is a reminder not to rush into assumptions about who she is, what she carries or what she can offer.

“You might think you know what’s going on, but you don’t,” she said. “Take your time, engage with it, and let’s really see what’s up.”

S T A R R’s relationship to music and spirituality began early. A native Texan, she spent her first years in Beaumont before growing up primarily in Houston. Her family roots stretched across several church traditions, including COGIC, Catholic and Baptist spaces.

She credits those early church experiences with teaching her how to listen, wait and improvise.

“That’s where I learned how to be patient and wait and listen and then know when it’s time to offer up another song, know when it’s time to stay in a song for a while,” S T A R R said.

That musical foundation continued through school. Encouraged by music teachers who recognized her gifts, S T A R R attended Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts before studying classical voice at Northwestern University. While there, she fell in love with theater and began thinking about voice not only as a musical instrument, but as an instrument of expression across genres, styles and mediums.

After moving to New York, S T A R R immersed herself in experimental theater while also performing with the gospel-funk group Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens. That blend of church, classical training, experimental theater, gospel, funk and soul continues to shape her artistry.

She said (pray) has given her a chance to bring those worlds together and honor the people and places that shaped her.

“I feel like (pray) has given me the opportunity to bring all that together and say thank you for that investment in me,” S T A R R said.

S T A R R is also preparing for the release of her first full-length studio album, Working Up a Surrender, due this fall on Switch Hit Records. The first single is expected in July, with more music to follow ahead of the album’s October release. Produced by Adam Schatz, the project blends soul, gospel, funk, experimental sounds and elements of 1990s and early 2000s alternative rock.

Before that release, Baltimore audiences will have the opportunity to experience S T A R R’s artistry live through (pray), a production that uses music, movement and testimony to ask deeper questions about faith, inheritance and liberation.

S T A R R believes the piece has a long life ahead of it. She would love to see it travel to the Deep South and reach Black women and femmes across the country and beyond. But for now, she is excited for Baltimore to receive it.

“I really think it belongs wherever it is welcome,” she said.

Tickets for (pray) are available at www.centerstage.org/events/pray/, by calling the Baltimore Center Stage Box Office at 410-332-0033, or in person at 700 North Calvert Street in Baltimore.