Stand Up and Go

Warren, a Tony Award-winning singer and actress, is part of the lineup for this year’s Virginia Arts Festival, an annual, monthslong series of performances in Eastern Virginia that bring international stars to the commonwealth — and occasionally, in the case of Warren, homegrown virtuosos.

None are prouder or more excited for her to be stepping onstage in Hampton Roads than Warren herself. “Virginia is home sweet home to me,” she says. “It’s my vacation, my spiritual rest.”

Warren is no stranger to local spotlights. Two years ago, she performed for the Virginia Arts Festival at Attucks Theatre in Norfolk, a show that sold out so quickly that festival director Rob Cross says he knew he’d have to secure a larger venue the next time around.

Last year, she performed “Tina: A Tina Turner Celebration with Adrienne Warren” at Chrysler Hall with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, electrifying fans with a concert version of her Tony-winning Broadway performance and fulfilling a lifelong goal. “I remember driving by as a kid and wishing I could be there one day,” she says. “Afterward, I was jumping up and down. I’ve headlined Carnegie Hall, but it’s Chrysler Hall that was so important to me.”

Warren also has television and film credits, among them the lead role of Mamie Till Mobley in the historical drama miniseries “Women of the Movement,” along with parts in “The Woman King” and “Rustin” on the big screen.

But it’s Broadway in New York, where Warren lives, that occupies most of her time. She is part of the production team for an upcoming stage adaptation of the popular Netflix series “The Queen’s Gambit” and will be starring in additional Broadway performances in upcoming seasons.

Although she has achieved resounding success on distant stages, Warren hasn’t forgotten her roots, which run deep in Southeastern Virginia. She grew up in a home where education and artistic excellence were priorities. Her mother, Andrea Warren, was president and CEO of Virginia Symphony Orchestra after serving as executive director of The Governor’s School for the Arts in Norfolk.

As a teenager, Adrienne Warren attended half the school day at the Governor’s School after classes at Chesapeake’s Western Branch High School. Although she graduated in 2005, those who taught her at the Governor’s School still remember Warren’s talent and grit.

“She came in as a consummate professional in ninth grade,” says Chip Gallagher, a former teacher of Warren’s and chair of the Governor’s School’s Musical Theatre Department. “She was solely focused and serious about her training. That’s what set her apart. She had the raw goods as well as the determination to do the work.”

Often during her visits home to Coastal Virginia, Warren will stop by the Governor’s School to help students at her alma mater — sitting for Q&As, even offering constructive criticisms on individual performances. “She’s been an expert clinician, incredibly effective in making little changes in what the students are doing,” Gallagher says.

Jeff Warner, also a member of the faculty at the Governor’s School and a former Warren teacher, says that local pride in Warren’s accomplishments stems as much from her motivations as her talent. She uses her achievements to give back. “You can keep going from accolade to accolade, generating roles as you get more success,” Warner says. But Warren approaches her career differently. “I think she looks at it as, ‘What can I do as an artist to improve the community? Does this performing opportunity give me a chance to do something that touches and therefore helps somebody else?’”

For her part, Warren says that the Governor’s School was the place where she truly learned to be a professional in the arts. The instructors explained to Warren and her classmates how rich and layered performances are, teaching them not only the fundamentals but also how to be a storyteller. They instilled in her both the work ethic and discipline needed to be successful in a difficult industry, she says.

There was something larger about growing up in Hampton Roads, Warren says, that shaped who she became as an artist. As a child, she began performing at her church and with Norfolk-based Hurrah Players, a nonprofit theater company. All around her she was immersed in the arts, thanks in part to abundant opportunities — among them the Virginia Arts Festival and a range of exhibitions at area museums, she says.

Her parents, too, were music lovers, toting her to jazz festivals and numerous arts performances. The vibrant cultural scene of Virginia not only shaped her future, she says, but also the fortunes of many other artists that came from the region. “There’s something in the water. All the artists I know who come out of Hampton Roads are phenomenal,” she says.

Cross, of the Virginia Arts Festival, says that including hometown talent in the lineup is especially meaningful given that the artists are world-class performers. “When they originate here, when they are native and this represents their roots,” he says, “the audience likes to celebrate their success on the national stage.”

Warren says that attendees of her Norfolk performance can expect to learn about her personal journey from Virginia to New York and the artists who have inspired her along the way — among them James Taylor, Anita Baker and, of course, Tina Turner.

Warren says that sharing the delight and inspiration she has taken from other artists is a tip of the hat to all who influenced her — both big-name performers known around the globe and family, friends, and supporters in Virginia. “I understand the responsibility, and I see how they’ve moved people,” she says. “It’s just such a joy and an honor.”