Maybelle Wallace

Maybelle Wallace was born in 1929, in Tulsa, OK. She was reared on E. Latimer Pl. by Gus and Ella McCray and lived in her childhood home until she married.  She is the mother of five children. Maybelle, a former member of Booker T. Washington High School’s Paul Robeson Players, passed her love of the arts on to her daughter, Sonya, who aspired to be a professional actress. When Sonya read in a magazine that a classmate of hers was involved in a local community theatre, Ms. Wallace drove her to a meeting and became involved with the company to eventually become its leader. 

Theatre North

Maybelle became Executive Director of Theatre North in 1981 and has since supported over 700 people involved with the company. Maybelle was the coordinator of the Greenwood Arts Jubilee from 1982 and 1987. The Juneteenth celebration on Greenwood catapulted the revitalization and preservation of the Greenwood district and future festivals. 

Theatre North has produced shows such as The Me Nobody Knows, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enough, Fences (in collaboration with American Theatre Company), Who Will Sing for Lena, No Child, The Mountaintop, Home, Having Our Say, Seven Guitars, The Green Book, Sty of the Blind Pig, Flyin’ West, The Song for Coretta, and The Face of Emmett Till.

Darktown Strutters´ Ball

Theatre North's Darktown Strutter's Ball, a Greenwood Art Project, is a gala with music, dance, and food commemorating the 1921 good times!

Theatre North's Darktown Strutter's Ball is a Greenwood Art Project, which examines the history of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre with the world. The Project's goal is to support artwork that speaks to Greenwood's history, tragedy, and triumph. Darktown Strutters’ Ball reflects the period leading up to the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre in language, costume, design, setting, music, and dance. It shows an aspect of how we imagine our forbearers lived in the Greenwood District. Back then, African-American residents held service jobs. They were the maids, porters, railway workers, and others who made the city function. Maids had one day off a week and that was when servants prepared for the evening by dressing to the nines. They danced to hot jazz in Art Deco settings. Darktown Strutters’ Ball replicates this atmosphere and takes the hearts and minds of patrons back to 1921 to witness the events that unfolded on one of those cherished celebratory nights. We want to celebrate the good times before the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.