Using Creativity to Better Understand What it Means to be Human
COMMUNITY BASED DRAMATURGY
"Freedom is not a state; it is an act. It is not some enchanted garden perched high on a distant plateau where we can finally sit down and rest. Freedom is the continuous action we all must take, and each generation must do its part to create an even more fair, more just society.”
-US Representative John Lewis
Community Based Dramaturgy is a civic minded dramaturgical practice in community engagement and social justice rooted in the development of compassion and critical thinking."
WILSON PICKETT LEGACY FOUNDATION
Guest Dramaturg & Facilitator
January 2023
Wilson Pickett (1941-2006) was an American singer/songwriter and a major figure in the development of "Soul Music." Functioning as a significant contribution towards bringing Wilson Pickett’s story to life for the stage, this community conversation focused on Pickett's humanity as a Black man navigating the pressures of success and white supremacy during Jim Crow.
Pickett's forceful, passionate style of singing was developed in the church and on the streets of Detroit, under the influence of recording stars such as Little Richard, whom he referred to as "the architect of rock and roll." Pickett was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, in recognition of his impact on songwriting and recording. Among his best-known hits are “in the Midnight Hour”, “Land of 1,000 Dances”, “634-5789”, and “Mustang Sally.”
WORKING TITLE PLAYWRIGHTS
DRAMATURGY INTENSIVE
Guest Dramaturg & Facilitator:
June 2021 & April 2022
Form Follows Function:
Suzan-Lori Parks and the Unpacking of Flow in Dramatic Structure
January 2021 & October 2022
Adrienne Kennedy:
Supporting Playwrights Who Write Outside of the Funnyhouse
A dialogue and personal-response driven course designed to investigate ways of reading, communicating and listening. This class covers best practices to support playwrights at all levels of experience; analyze new and published plays, short stories and critical writing--serving playwrights, directors and dramaturgs who seek to grow and expand their knowledge and practice in professional new development dramaturgy.
INTIMATE APPAREL
Talk Back Panel
Actor's Express
April 2022
In 1905 New York, an independent woman named Esther creates beautiful lingerie for clients that range from white society mavens on the Upper East Side to prostitutes in the Tenderloin district. And when she enters into a romantic correspondence with a mysterious pen pal, her quest for empowerment and self-actualization takes unexpected turns. A landmark play from MacArthur Genius Grant recipient and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage.
KENNY LEON'S
TRUE COLORS THEATRE COMPANY
Community Conversations Series:
“The Right to the Stage:
Access for our Youth”
Panelist
April 2021
“The Right to the Stage: Access for our Youth,” community conversation, part of True Colors' Joy & Pain Season, is in partnership with the Atlanta Music Project. This conversation centers on the challenges to accessing the arts that many of our Black youth continue to face in conversation with Angela Farr Schiller, PhD, Director of Arts Education for the ArtsBridge Foundation, Freddie Hendricks, Co-Founder of the Youth Ensemble Atlanta, and Dantes Rameau, the Chief Executive Officer of the Atlanta Music Project.
HUSH HARBOR
New Play Development
Conversation Series:
The Dramaturgical Perspective with Angela Farr Schiller, PhD
November 2020
Sponsored by Fulton County Arts and Culture Visual Arts Initiative Grant, this Hush Harbor Lab Conversation focused on the new play development process from the perspective of a dramaturg and theatre scholar.
AURORA THEATRE:
2 THE LEFT
Moderator
Community Conversation:
About Music, Mindfulness and Mental Health
November 2020
Dedicated to to the memory of Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, from the multi-Grammy award wining group TLC, this community conversation sits at the intersection of music, mindfulness, and mental health.
Existing in the shadow of both Daniel Prude (New York) and Walter Wallace Jr (Philadelphia) both murdered by the police after experiencing mental health episodes, this community conversation engages the challenges, and even the dangers, of being black and suffering from mental health issues in the United States. Especially when, according to the American Psychiatric Association, only 1 and 3 African Americans who need mental health services actually receive them.
THEATRE THROUGH THE YEARS
FROM A BLACK PERSPECTIVE
The Suzi Bass Awards'
Judge's Round Table Salon:
in conversation with Angela Farr Schiller, Tom Jones & Gary Yates
October 2020
This salon, hosted by the Suzi Bass Awards, engages the breath, depth and history of Atlanta's Black Theatre and Black Arts Community, along with the unique contributions of Black Atlanta Artists in the face of system inequities. The Suzi Bass Awards celebrates and promotes Atlanta professional theatre through the evaluation and recognition of excellence.
TOWN HALL 1.5:
A PATH TO RECONCILIATION
Facilitator
Coalition for Racial Equity in Atlanta
& Inclusion, Equity, and Diversity
in the Arts ATL
October 2020
In the effort to continue the work begun at the Town Hall for Racial Reckoning in June, IDEA ATL and CREAT are partnering again for the next step. The passion and vulnerability offered as a gift during and outside of the town halls cannot be ignored, nor can it lead to nowhere. Changes must be addressed. We believe we must work together to build a stronger, more inclusive community.
The goal is to address as a collective, our theatres’ vision/mission (as well as your personal vision), build and revise equitable plans of action, prepare for CREAT’s accountability rating system and workshop behaviors and language towards racial equity and understanding bias.
OUT OF HAND THEATER
Moderator
Equitable Dinner Series
"Setting the Table for Racial Equity"
February 2020
September 2020
*Winner of the New York Times Best Theatre of 2020
Out of Hand Theater hosts the Equitable Dinner Series. These dinners are a chance for communities to come together and engage in a brave and fruitful facilitated dialogue regarding race and equity.
THE LOWERY INSTITUTE:
SOCIAL JUSTICE &
THE ARTS CONVERSATION SERIES
Moderator
Visual Art@the Intersection of Social Justice
with Anne Collins Smith,
Curator of Collections at Spelman College Museum of Fine Art &
Tara Pixley, PhD,
photojournalist, filmmaker and
visual media consultant.
August 2020
The Lowery Institute's Social Justice and the Arts series is an artist lead dialogue in theatre, music, visual art, and dance with discussions centered around positive and empowering social change. The Joseph & Evelyn Lowery Institute for Justice and Human Rights is dedicated to training, developing, empowering, and inspiring leaders to improve their communities for the common good. It serves this mission by focusing on: civil and human rights; social justice; education; and community health locally, nationally, and abroad.
TOWN HALL FOR RACIAL RECKONING_ATL
Moderator
Coalition for Racial Equity in Atlanta Theatre &
Inclusion, Diversity and Equity in the Arts ATL
June 2020
How do we move forward?
That’s the question being asked in a three-night virtual town hall hosted by the Coalition for Racial Equity in Atlanta Theater and Inclusion Diversity Equity in the Arts Atlanta. “For too long, BIPOC artists have felt forced to stay silent due to fear of retaliation but the survival of our industry now requires that we speak up. This is one small step toward creating a more equitable and just theater community, metro region and country.”
—Coalition for Racial Equity in Atlanta Theatre & Inclusion, Diversity and Equity in the Arts ATL
LINFIELD UNIVERSITY
Artist-in-Residence
The Dramaturg & Her Craft
2019-McMinnville, Oregon
A 2-day guest artist residency that includes classroom visits on the craft of dramaturgy, a community talk, hosting a talk-back for their production of Cabaret, and a hands-on intensive dramaturgy workshop.