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WINSTON-SALEM — Monday’s opening news conference of the National Black Theatre Festival offered a show in itself.

Stars of stage and screen filled the downtown Marriott Hotel lobby with song, spoken word, laughter and applause to promote the start of the biennial festival.

“It is a marvtastic day today,” said Sylvia Sprinkle Hamlin, using the description coined by her late husband, festival founder Larry Leon Hamlin.

Although Hamlin died in 2007, the North Carolina Black Repertory Company continues to produce the festival he started in 1989 to give actors and theater companies a national showcase for their work.

Through Saturday, 36 professional and collegiate theater troupes will present more than 120 performances of new works and black classics in 18 venues across the city.

Several celebrities will appear in shows.

On Monday night, Tony Award-winning actress Lillias White premiered a new one-woman show, “Lillias White ... Live! at Black Theatre Holy Ground.”

It will be repeated on four other days.

Phylicia Rashad, Tony Award-winning actress best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on “The Cosby Show,” will appear with Hattie Winston (“Becker,” “The Electric Company”) and Kene Holliday (“Matlock”) in a dramatic reading of “A Charleston Olio,” a musical set in Charleston just before World War I.

Dorien Wilson (“Dream On,” “Sister, Sister,” “The Parkers”) wrote and stars in “Un-Ringing the Bell.” Vanessa A. Williams (Showtime’s “Soul Food”) wrote and stars in “Feet on the Ceiling.”

All they need now are audiences.

Past festivals have attracted 60,000 to 65,000 theatergoers.

At Monday’s news conference, celebrity Co-Chairmen T’Keyah Crystal Keymáh of “In Living Color” and “That’s So Raven,’ and Lamman Rucker of the Tyler Perry’s TBS sitcom, “Meet the Browns,” were among those promoting the shows.

“We couldn’t be here if there was no audience, if there were no people buying tickets and supporting all these phenomenal talents,” Rucker told the crowd, which included media, stargazers and supporters.

Those talents included Broadway legend Andre De Shields, who stars as W.E.B. DuBois in the play, “Knock Me a Kiss.” He led the song, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

Helena D. Lewis, who leads midnight poetry jams, offered a performance of spoken word.

Tshidi Manye, who stars as Rafiki in Broadway’s “The Lion King,” sang a sample of “Circle of Life,” which she would later sing at Monday night’s black-tie gala and awards ceremony.

Among those to be honored was Glynn Turman, who was in the original Broadway production of “A Raisin in the Sun.” He received the Sidney Poitier Lifelong Achievement Award.

“Thank you for coming, and tell everybody,” Turman said.

Contact Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane at 373-5204 or dawn.kane@news-record.com