Austin's inaugural poet laureate, Zell Miller III, will introduce his new all-ages theater company this summer with the premiere of his original play And She Was Loved, a personal story about love and grief. The production will run Thursdays through Saturdays September 3-12 at Hyde Park Theatre.

Called Black Rose Theater ATX, the company serves "to tell American love stories through an African American lens," a press release says, "while building artistic spaces that foster healing, connection and meaningful dialogue." Miller will lead the company himself, with help from a board of nonprofit and creative leaders. The company is all-ages, or in Miller's more impactful explanation, it's "a theater company for the entire family."

"Black Rose Theater ATX was created because I've been producing under ZM3 Live Productions for 25 years in Austin, and so I didn't realize until, like, three or four years ago when I was talking to certain people that no one does Black children's theater work on a consistent basis in the city of Austin, Texas," says Miller in a phone call with CultureMap. "And I honestly couldn't believe it. I was like, somebody has to be doing it, right? So I started doing my research, and nobody's doing it on a consistent basis."

The company also centers perspectives from women and Brown cultures, Miller says. In addition to bringing authentic stories to light, Miller hopes the company will create safe spaces for people to heal together. Eventually, that will include workshops and immersive summer and winter camps.

Miller explains that due to Elevate grant structuring from the city, Black Rose Theater's inaugural season will include And She Was Loved as its full production, and then he'll work with a group of playwrites 18-21 years old on a workshop to reinterpret famous 1985 film The Breakfast Club for Black, Brown, genderfluid, and LGBTQIA+ youth.

Then in December, the company will wrap up the year with a family pajama party at Hyde Park Theater, with appearances by children's book author Anne Wynter, musician Daniel Fears, and other special guests. There will be raffles and other fun activities to keep the kids engaged.

The company's first production is fittingly personal as well as community-minded. And She Was Loved, a one-act play, honors Miller's mother, Vernell Miller, and his longtime mentor, Laurie Carlos, who was known for her role in For colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf. The two major figures in Miller's life died 16 months apart.

And She Was Loved is a choreopoem, Miller says, referencing Ntozake Shange, who coined the term. That means it doesn't have a firm plot, and instead uses poetry and movement to elicit emotion. Actors correspond to characters in Peter Pan, and instead of Neverland, they come from Miller's Land of Never. A performance by Marley Miller, Vernell Miller's granddaughter, helps tie the piece together.

"Captain Hook is grief, and I'm [Peter] Pan, and my daughter is Shadow," Miller says. "My Tinker Bell is played beautifully by Siobhan Alexis, who is a world-class tap dancer. Siobhan communicates to me with lyrical gibberish, or she communicates through her feet, sort of the way Tinker Bell communicated. I clearly understand what she's saying. Other people don't, and so that is the ethos that I pull from Peter Pan, that I have to get off the Land of Never."

In the play, Miller uses real quotes from both his mother and Carlos to piece together two monologues each. Miller's mother is voiced by Dexxi Vaught, and Carlos is voiced by someone else she mentored, Renita Martin. Miller realized he'd been carrying the grief of their deaths for 10 years when he decided to write the play, intending to let it go through expression.

Miller says as Austin's first poet laureate, he's had to build infrastructure for his art, in some ways merging what his mother and mentor wanted for him.

"[Laurie] would always say, 'How long is this going to be a hobby for you? Because you're so gifted, like this should be your job,'" he recalls. "And then here's the practical side of my mom: [she's] like, 'You always have to have a job as a Black man in America. ... The art stuff is cool, but you need to make sure that your bills are getting paid with a consistent income.' So that's the dichotomy of the two. I call them my twin towers."

Carlos also drove home the point home that "you're not worth your salt as an artist if you're not giving back to your community," Miller says. Black Rose Theater is poised to keep that legacy alive as Austin finds its next poet laureate in the spring of 2027.

Tickets for And She Was Loved ($17.82-38.92) are available via hydeparktheatre.org.