Productions
A star is born!
Being the baby of the family with an older sister and brother, I was very spoiled and dramatic. I was always the center of attention, and yes, I performed monologues and scenes with my stuffed animals; I was that little girl. My first acting gig was at age four; it was an Easter speech at church. I memorized it and added movement, gesturing, dramatic pauses, intentions, and emotional mapping. Even from a young age, I have always been a theatre artist; it always made sense to me. Participating in plays during elementary, junior, and high school was my performance roadmap, and I was in every play, musical, and performance competition.
Storytelling is at the heart of being a performer, so; I naturally became interested in directing. The director’s function is to ensure the quality and completeness of the theatre production and lead the creative team. I am committed to creating theatre pieces that shift both audience and performers’ very nature. Theatre is transformational. Having the capacity to craft how a story is shared with an audience is empowering. Directing is a huge responsibility with a lot of pressure. You collaborate with scenic and costume designers, technicians, actors, dramaturgy, and many more creatives. The work is research-driven, time-intensive, and has many moving parts that must come together seamlessly. Everyone is committed to your vision and the production’s success. Clear communication is essential, and every decision must support the story and engage audiences.
Below are some images from my favorite and most challenging directing jobs. I recently directed Ernest and the Pale Moon at Western Connecticut State University, and it won Best Show of 2021 – 2022; below is a trailer of that production. Ethel Waters: His Eye Is on the Sparrow is a one-woman show and the true story of a very complicated woman, I have shared a short behind-the-scenes video. Lastly are two reviews of productions I directed Mad at Miles: A Back Woman’s Guide to Truth and Born Bad. The reviews were written by two of the most respected and tough critics in this area.
Acclaimed Works
Ain't Misbehavin'
Buyer and Cellar
This One Girls Story
Breath Boom
Ethel Waters
Mad at Miles
Videos
Reviews
Mad at Miles: A Black Woman's Guide To Truth
Mad at Miles: A Black Woman’s Guide To Truth, Theatre Review
By: Molly McGinn
If you’re expecting a biography on the life of Miles Davis through the eyes of past lovers, forget it. What’s worse, “Mad at Miles” may make you flinch just a bit next time you reach for “Filles De Kilimanjaro” or “Kind of Blue.” You might even be tempted to scratch it.
The three-woman, one act play, “Mad at Miles” plays out more like its subtitle: “A Blackwoman’s Guide to Truth” in the UpStage Cabaret at Triad Stage. It makes the recent Blockbuster “He’s Just Not That Into You” look like a girl scout meeting.
No, “Mad at Miles” walks in stiletto combat boot heels all over that fine line between racism and sexism, genius men and the women who love them, and the stories that sting you awake to the brutal truth of domestic violence.
Recent headlines of love gone violently wrong make it impossible to dismiss as the least of America’s problems right now. On the same night a tearful Jennifer Hudson won her first Grammy, news headlines started to crawl about the alleged Rhianna and Chris Brown incident on the way to the Grammy event. And when those headlines are gone, there’s this one: Every day four women in America die from the hand of a lover.
And while love-turned-hate isn’t limited to genius lovers — such as the fatal shooting of Marvin Gaye by his father — “Mad at Miles” is a kind of a “Vagina Monologues” take on shocking women awake to the truth of domestic violence. And if the “v-word” makes you squirm, this might not be the right play for you.
The only reference to Davis was made when the three women retell a story from a Davis biography about the night he laughed with cops upstairs while girlfriend Cicely Tyson hid in the basement, slapped into silence after Davis hit her.
The play’s three characters wither and rise with vignettes like this, delivered in beat poet-inspired dialogue and wincing observations. More than once, I felt chills go through my legs and spine as playwright Pearl Cleage exposed a demagogue.
Directed by Donna Baldwin-Bradby, the play moves like a synchronized interpretive dance without ever interfering with the dialogue. A mix of recorded and live music, original artworks for a stage set, and performances ranging from explosive to tender from Tennille Foust, Jamila Curry, and TaNisha Shavonne Fordham made it impossible to look away.
There was, only one point, when I struggled over whether to listen to the dialogue or “So What” playing softly in the background.
Cleage’s hilarious commentary on the foibles and flaws of love kept it far from being a straight-up feminist festival. Whether domestic violence is your story or not, you’ll relate to something.
Like why we all — not just women — forgive genius of any kind, choosing instead to play a broken record of war, or business, or flawed leadership again, and again, hoping maybe this time, the rekkid don’t skip.
I mean come on. Just because he hit a woman, you can’t stay mad at Miles, right?
For a closer look at the set, check out Drew Barker’s blog, Inside Triad Stage.
Born Bad
Born Bad theatre review
Winston-Salem Journal
By Bill Cissna, Special Corrospondant
In the bruising, sometimes baffling world of Debbie Tucker Green’s play “Born Bad,” it’s not easy to tell which end is up and who’s telling the truth — if indeed anyone knows the whole truth. It’s not a long play, but that may be in its favor. Emotions this powerful might not be survivable over an extended period of time.
Paper Lantern Theatre previewed “Born Bad” last night at the Mountcastle Forum, Rhodes Arts Center. People who don’t mind some serious with their theater should be lining up for the regular shows. This is a powerhouse production.
Very solidly directed by Donna Bradby, “Born Bad” drops in on a Caribbean-English family at a critical juncture. Literally inside a set designed by Daniel Alvarez, the eldest of four children has decided to finally confront her mother about her complicity with a long-held family secret.
The problem is, it’s far from the only secret — or denial — in this family of six. Though Alvarez’s set could be called an open box, the audience may realize over the play’s single act that it is more likely a very, very restrictive cage.
It’s also a dimly-lit cage most of the time, from lighting designer Adam Taylor, which is fitting for the dark, sad and angry conversations that take place within this space. When Dawta (a strong and believably-hurt Lalenja Harrington) levies her attacks at Mum (Sandra Jones, whose best moments come later in the show) after an opening rendition of “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” it sets off a nuclear blast within the family.
Nearly the entirety of the play is a barrage of words, accusations, denials, counter-accusations and falsehoods. The middle sister (compellingly played by Melat Ayalew) floats in and out of revelations that she constantly counters with claims of insufficient memory. The youngest sister (a firebrand of denial — or is it true she doesn’t know — embodied by Jessica Smith) is not having any of these “stories” until the question marks begin to appear in her eyes.
The roles of Sister 1 and Sister 2 will also be played by Ebony Humes and Sha-Reh Reese, respectively. Into this mix comes Brother (Xavier Harris), who wobbles back and forth on making his own shattering revelation while Dawta at first disbelieves, then begs for his support.
The lurking presence is Father (Jp Pettiford), who is given very little to say, but when he does, it’s strikingly sad and shocking.
This family has so much wrong with it, it’s hard to know if they’ll ever get better, any of them. And though Mum has some words on the subject midway through, by the end, it’s very hard to tell who is actually “born bad” in this story. You should consider going and making up your own mind.