Tariq Karriem was barely 13 when he pulled his first all-nighter. It was after seeing his first large-scale, musical production, “The Lion King,” at Altria Theater. “When I came home that night, I gathered milk jugs and recycling stuff and cardboard and, in the morning, I made my grandmother watch me and my cousins do the ‘Circle of Life’ number,” he says.
He booked his first professional show at 17 at Virginia Repertory Theatre and says he has since worked at “at almost very venue” in the city as a stage or production manager. Karriem founded BLK Virginia Theatre Alliance (BVTA) his senior year of high school after realizing that he did not see a lot of people in the field who looked like him. A 2021 New York Times piece covering the homogeneous nature of theater refers to a study from the Actors’ Equity Association which found that between 2016-2019, only 2.63% of stage managers in the country were Black.
Born and raised in Richmond, Karriem is proud to represent the city as an ‘artivist,’ a portmanteau that encapsulates his two passions of art and activism. He sees the roles as necessary complements to each other. “I love the art form of theater, and I love creating theater,” he says. “I think it is so important to make that connection to actual community.”
Through BVTA, he spends his time hosting youth training programs, traveling workshops and partnering with Richmond Public Schools. He’s also active on the current theater scene; this summer he and Dogwood Dell put on a show, “Once on This Island,” which featured an all-Black cast, creative team and orchestra pit for the first time in Dogwood Dell’s 60-year history. “It was magic cultivating that space,” he recalls. “It was a big moment, but I also think it’s important to acknowledge, ‘Why is this the first time that this has occurred and it’s 2025?’”
Karriem believes that the strongest way to address disparities in the theater industry is to keep putting in the work. He is slated to be the stage and production manager for “Annie” at Dominion Energy Center this December and will be involved with a Richmond Triangle Players production in spring 2026. At just 21, Karriem is already city hopping between Richmond and New York City, where he works on various fashion shows and does “similar advocacy work.” He admits that he may fly the coop soon if opportunity knocks. But while he’s here, he’s fully immersed.
“There is something so divine about this being my city and me being a multidisciplinary artist born and raised here,” says Karriem. “So much of the influences that I got from life here are in my art.”
