With her version of “The Tempest,” third-year directing graduate student Manna-Symone Middlebrooks offered audiences a newly imagined, contemporary version of Shakespeare’s classic at The Wirtz Center...

When first-year MFA directing student Manna-Symone Middlebrooks was asked to pitch and direct a play for the Wirtz Center, she chose a play about Black love, intergenerational pain and Black joy. “The...