I’ve always been drawn to people’s stories. Long before I understood why, I was watching closely, how people moved, how they spoke, how they carried themselves when they thought no one was looking.

Theater and film became places where I could sit quietly and learn. Learn how others survived. How they loved. How they found joy, even when the world made that difficult. In many ways, I was growing up alongside the characters I watched.

My name is David Ricardo. I write from the space where memory, performance, and Black interior life meet.

The Black Playbill grew out of a desire to make that access visible to document the lineage, brilliance, and complexity of Black art across Broadway, film, and the wider cultural imagination.

I write criticism, but I’m not interested in distance. I write personally, but never only about myself. What matters to me is how art carries memory, instruction, survival, and joy sometimes all at once.

Growing up, theater felt just out of reach. When I finally encountered it on screen, on stage, and later in person it felt like coming up for air.

This site is a continuation of that moment. A place to think out loud, to honor what came before, and to point toward what’s still possible.

If you’re looking for a starting point, I recommend beginning with Start Here.

If you stay, I hope something here opens a door.