CoStar Group locating one of their headquarters in Richmond has had a significant impact on the local economy and the city skyline. Knock-on effects in the local arts scene may be more subtle but no less profound.

A call to work as a voice-over artist at CoStar lured Emily King Brown back to her hometown after 20 years working in bigger markets like New York and Los Angeles. The actor, singer and creative consultant has plenty of experience working in film, theater and sketch comedy, but she wasn’t familiar with the local scene.

“I had not lived in Richmond as an adult but my family’s still here and I love my friends that still live here,”  Brown says. “So, I was like, why not? Let’s give it a shot.”

She soon found a community among her coworkers and, before long, was co-writing and producing a series of video shorts called “Off Script” starring mostly Richmond actors. That project connected her to Tariq Karriem, the artistic director of Blk VA Theatre Alliance, which led her to directing the company’s next production, “Lungs.”

Written by British playwright Duncan Macmillan, “Lungs” premiered in 2011 when the focus on dangerous changes in global climate was intensifying because of actions like the Climate Change Act, passed in the United Kingdom in 2008. According to the Washingtonian at the time, the play “encapsulate[s] within it almost every debate between nearly every young urban, reasonably well-to-do couple,” including the decision on whether to have children in a world heading into challenging times.

In taking on the play many years later, Brown will spotlight the privilege ingrained in the story. In the current political environment, where women and people of color seem to be facing an increasing number of challenges, the couple in the play being able to focus so specifically on the environment may seem a luxury. “We want to have empathy for and care about these characters,” says King. “At the same time,  I don’t know anybody in my current life having such a privileged conversation other than white straight people.

“McMillan is a straight white man from the UK and, reading this as a neurodivergent queer white woman in the capital of the Confederacy, it feels like the play’s characters are having a very privileged conversation,” she says.

This feeling intensified in the context of Brown directing for a company focused on the Black experience. “As a white director being invited into a Black space, we talked about — and Tariq was absolutely on board with — these interactions being put under a microscope,” Brown says.

Brown says putting her spin on the story is in line with the playwright’s original intentions.

“Duncan encourages artists doing his piece to make the language reflect where you live, make the environment about your environment,” she says. “So our production is depicting right now, Richmond in 2025.”

While the setting is contemporary, Brown says an understanding of history has a big influence on her direction. “It is vital to say that Black audiences are not the people that need lessons on privilege,” she says.

“There’s a long history in America of Black performers having to literally and metaphorically tap dance for white audiences,” Brown continues. “We wanted to kind of turn that around and allow a Black audience, a Black observer, put white privilege under a microscope.”

To complement the play’s theoretical underpinnings, Blk VA Theatre Alliance has committed to a zero-waste production, minimizing the show’s environmental footprint.

“It mostly has to do with the materials we’re using,” explains Brown. “As we put the production together, we’re asking: Are these materials we can reuse or that we can recycle? Then, at the end of our process, how will they be disposed of? Do they go back to a home? Are they donated? The planning is quite in-depth.”

Brown is no longer at CoStar. “I gave myself a year to see if it would be a good fit and I ended up staying for two years,” she says. “It was something I always knew would come to an end just because of the nature of who I am. But I really am thrilled that I was brought back here for this time.”

And while the specifics of her next professional move are developing, Brown is still exploring the local scene: “I intend to continue to invest,” she says.

“Lungs” will play at The Basement, 300 East Broad St., Nov. 20-30. Tickets and information available at https://www.blkvatheatrealliance.org/. To increase accessibility, the run will include both an ASL interpreted and a Spanish translated performance.