Our Theater
The Willie Agee Playhouse is a place where both professionals and novice actors who are passionate about theatre can hone their craft, while audiences can sit back and enjoy in a non-intimidating atmosphere. Emerging writers, directors, producers and actors are encouraged and welcomed to grace our stages with their work. Seasoned veterans of stage and screen graciously bless us with their stunning performances in classic and premiere productions. We provide the best of both worlds. We are dedicated to providing continuous artistic nourishment to our community!
We produce concerts and various full-length productions, play festivals, showcases, staged readings of new works by emerging playwrights, acting workshops, panel discussions with industry professionals and movie nights where we present classic films and documentaries to honor the excellence of writers, actors and directors of yesterday and today. Each program and service we make available and accessible to Inglewood and the surrounding Los Angeles neighborhoods serve to uplift, inspire and empower those who have been made to feel that their voices, their stories, their struggles and their challenges don’t matter in the mainstream. The Willie Agee Playhouse is on a mission to change that sentiment.
Our People
Shelli Boone
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Shelli Boone has been working in Hollywood for over fifteen years, and she is currently recurring on CW’s “All American:Homecoming” and CBS’ “Why Women Kill”. She has guest starred on popular shows such as “NCIS:LA”, “SWAT”, “Dear White People”, “Castle”, “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Private Practice”, “Mr. Box Office” and Tyler Perry’s “House of Payne.” She was also a series regular on FOX’s primetime drama soap “Saints and Sinners”. Shelli is also an accomplished singer, and she was nominated for an NAACP Best Actress Award for her stage portrayal of Dorothy Dandridge in “Dorothy and Otto”. She also embodied the vivacious Josephine Baker in “When Divas Were Divas” which toured both nationally and in Europe.
She has produced several stage productions including her one-woman show “Out West: Women of the Plains” and “The Cell Block Seven”, which premiered in Washington, DC and went on to earn another NAACP nomination for Best Ensemble.
She has expanded her love of the craft by coaching actors - her clients have landed major roles in features and television. Shelli has served as the Artistic Director of the Willie Agee Playhouse
in Inglewood for the past 5 years, bringing quality programming to her community. She most recently directed LaDarrion Williams's “UMOJA” here as well as other showcase pieces. She is proud of the productions and workshops she has developed right in her own backyard. Her faith, family and friends are her biggest sources of inspiration to continue to thrive as an entertainer and creator.