The Las Vegas-based theater and arts nonprofit Broadway in the HOOD has helped inspire the Valley’s underserved youth through programs like summer camps and stage productions since 2010. But until last month, that work had always taken place in borrowed spaces like the Smith Center, local libraries and even the occasional public park.
Now, after years of planning and fundraising, the organization finally has its own headquarters. The Legacy Theatre of Excellence is “the first African American-owned and operated performing arts and education complex in Las Vegas.” The new 15,000-square-foot facility provides the nonprofit with a long-awaited opportunity to consolidate everything under one roof near the corner of Flamingo and Pecos roads.
Torrey Russell
“It can be difficult to do all the programming you’ve envisioned in someone else’s house, but we’re now able to do as much or as little as we’d like here,” Broadway in the HOOD founder Torrey Russell says. “We’re blessed to have a space like this that’s ours to call home, even if I don’t really think it’s fully sunk in for me yet.”
The multimillion-dollar theater was made possible by money from the state as well as private donors including the Engelstad Foundation.
First-time visitors are immediately greeted by vibrant decor that reflects the center’s African American heritage—from traditional drums and wooden lion sculptures to a series of life-sized wall panel photos depicting a hand-picked cast of legendary Black artists and entertainers. Famed poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou welcomes guests near the entryway, while others like Hollywood trailblazer Sidney Poitier and iconic choreographer Alvin Ailey keep watch over the 500-seat theater and dance studio, respectively.
Scattered elsewhere in the building are classrooms, rehearsal spaces, recording studios, media labs and a kitchen area. Russell—who spent eight years serving as Angelou’s tour manager—says every room, resource and aesthetic feature throughout its walls was carefully chosen because they all “mean something significant” to his program’s past, present and future.
Broadway in the HOOD’s impact and influence was on full display as leaders unveiled the building to the public on October 10. Longtime program collaborator and Tony Award-winning actor Ben Vereen—also honored with his own portrait inside—cut the ribbon himself. A handful of students sang songs before four-year participant Akaylah Ishmael offered a powerful reflection on how her involvement came to shape her personal journey through adolescence.
Justin Bryant, artistic dance director, gets a high five from Amari Childs, 7, the son of a dance student, during a class at the Legacy Theatre.
“Every single mentor and instructor always spoke life into me and believed in me before I even believed in myself, to be honest. They taught me that I am loved, I am needed and am more than enough,” Ishmael said. “This place is not just a building, but a legacy—somewhere where people can walk in feeling lost and lonely and finally feel seen, just like me.”
Russell teared up a bit that day as he thought back to his own experience growing up in a Norfolk, Virginia, neighborhood where “entertainment was not something that was looked at as positive.” Drugs and gang violence were often a fact of life, but he managed to find a different path forward.
Though he struggled with his grades early on, Russell credits a handful of his middle school teachers and mentors who stepped up to help cultivate his innate interest in performing arts when he was a teenager. Their guidance marked a turning point in his life that ultimately led him to pursue theater and eventually launch Broadway in the HOOD (Helping Others Open Doors).
“As Dr. Angelou would say, they were the ‘rainbows in my cloud’ who helped me realize the neighborhood I grew up in did not dictate who I was going to become,” Russell says. “I vowed to myself that if I ever had the opportunity to make a way for young people like they did, I’d take it.”
Actor Ben Vereen’s sneakers are displayed at the Legacy Theatre.
Decades later, Russell and his team have now served hundreds of local youth, including seven who have gone on to perform in Broadway productions like Hamilton, Dreamgirls and The Lion King. One of their earliest students, Cameron “C.H.” Miller, later served a term as a Nevada Assemblymember. Another pair is currently studying to become doctors. Another is now a master carpenter who volunteered to help construct the new Legacy Theatre stage.
Many more played behind-the-scenes roles in developing the new space, which Russell says offers Broadway in the HOOD the ability to “reach out to the community almost 24 hours a day.”
“We’re now able to do more on the weekends and potentially even open things up for senior citizens who live right beside our venue while our students are at school on the weekdays,” Russell says. “We can have 50 young people practicing in our dance studio while another 50 rehearse in the theater. And out in the back parking lot, we’ll have even more dedicated space to build sets and work on lighting.”
The first chance to see this progress in action will come through the nonprofit’s upcoming 2026 programming, which at this point is set to include performances of The Meeting in January, Baby Girls Mirror in March, Sister Act in April and I Got the Last Laugh in May.
Beyond that, the possibilities seem endless, and Russell’s enthusiasm is palpable.
“For us, this is the continuation of an even bigger vision,” he says.
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