My directing practice is Black people-centered and rooted in the elaborate, intentional storytelling traditions of my mother, grandmother, aunts, and father. I come from people who knew how to hold a room with their voices and understood timing, silence, humor, suspense, and the power of a story that teaches you something without ever announcing the lesson. This lineage shapes how I work on stage.

I believe storytelling lives first in the body and the voice. Before sets, before spectacle, before language on the page, there is breath, rhythm, gesture, and presence. I direct with intention and attention to how bodies speak to one another, how voices carry memory, and how energy moves between people in a shared space. Theater, for me, is communal listening.

My work is rooted in memory and community. I am drawn to stories that feel lived in and that carry the weight of history while unfolding in the present moment. Characters exist inside real conditions—political, emotional, and spiritual, yet remain oriented toward a future they may never fully see. I am deeply interested in this meantime, the space between survival and hope, between what has been handed down and what must be imagined.

Humor is essential. So is suspense. Laughter and tension are not distractions. They are tools of survival and revelation. Black storytelling has always known how to balance joy and grief, play and danger, intimacy and spectacle. I honor that balance in my work, allowing audiences to be held, surprised, unsettled, and ultimately transformed.

My directing is informed by the teachings of Angela Davis, June Jordan, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, Fannie Lou Hamer, Audre Lorde, and bell hooks, who remind us that freedom is collective, love is an action, and storytelling is a political act. From them, I learn that naming ourselves is power, that care is radical, and that the stories we tell shape the futures we make possible.

In rehearsal, I cultivate spaces of trust, rigor, and generosity. I lead with clarity while honoring collaboration, recognizing that how we work together is part of the story we are telling. I ask actors to bring their full selves, their histories, instincts, and imaginations, into the room.

Ultimately, my work is about connection. Between generations. Between bodies in space. Between the past we carry and the future we are reaching toward. I direct in service of stories that remember us, teach us, and remind us who we belong to and who we are still becoming.

Copyright 2019. 

Walking in Truth: 

A philosophy on compassion, leadership, mindfulness and radical change

 “What we do is more important than what we say or what we say we believe.”

                                                                                                        -- bell hooks

Leadership embodied is the act of walking in one’s truth. Showing up fully and authentically in a way in which the unique energy is so positive and strong that those whom we guide through any given process acknowledge, embody, and exude the same like-minded positive principles and values.  Sharing space with like minds in which love, compassion, bravery, safety, and respect are upheld. Whereby the actions we execute daily reflect our integrity, growth, and eternal work towards self-care and healing. 

Language 

As leaders, it is important to encourage our team of diverse creators to commit to a safe and brave space of leading and learning, committed to compassion, anti-racism, equity, mindful actions and communication, cultural sensitivity, inclusion, respect, and dignity. This language of mindful engagement is important in building a community where powerful and passionate energy toward positive change is transmuted and spread through the actions we engage in, the words we speak, and the spirits we touch. 

Values 

Leading is an act of love. Love is the root of leadership.  More than a belief or value. Acts that reflect our innermost being and how we hope to support the growth of those who come after us. In building a culture and pedagogy rooted in mindfulness, love, compassion, and radical change, wouldn’t it be powerful to create a space where everyone is welcome, hearts are open, and perspectives are evolved?

These values have guided my work as a leader and servant in the community. 

Mindful Modalities: Collaborators are encouraged to participate in their learning from a mindful and differentiated space, whether kinesthetically, orally, aurally, or visually. 

Engaging Environments: Creating an environment where collaborators can apply critical thinking skills to their learning and creating. Leaders who are successful at creating this environment provide space for collaborators to develop powerful ideas and big questions in the creative space. 

Creative Collaboration: Leaders who provide clear and measurable expectations for all collaborators' forms and levels of engagement and learning, with opportunities for collaborators to be co-creators alongside other senior leaders. 

Inclusive Interactions: We interact with simple and clear language where leading and collaborating are explored, while honoring diversity of thought, experience, culture, background, and beliefs. Meeting one another where we arrive in life.  While simultaneously collaborating towards greater positive and influential change.

Facilitating and Guiding Collective Leadership

An Invitation to Brave Space by Mickey ScottBey Jones

Together we will create brave space

Because there is no such thing as "safe space"

We exist in the real world

We all carry scars and we have all caused wounds.

In this space

We seek to turn down the volume of the outside world,

We amplify voices that fight to be heard elsewhere,

We call each other to more truth and love

We have the right to start somewhere and continue to grow.

We have the responsibility to examine what we think we know.

We will not be perfect.

This space will not be perfect.

It will not always be what we wish it to be

But It will be our brave space together,

And we will work on it side by side.

Guiding is not a power-charged action as much as it is empowering those to cultivate their own voice, power, and leadership towards positive and radical change. The following actions have been my guiding light in empowering teams to prosper.

Mindfulness and Gratitude

It is important to always root ourselves in the present. Seeing each other. Acknowledging each human that crosses our path.  Understanding that the way we speak, react, and engage must be mindful.  We all come with trauma and triggers that we must respect.  With any human that comes our way, may we always acknowledge each other in gratitude and love.  Every interaction impacts our lives, and we impact the lives of others.

Compassion

Acknowledging the suffering, oppression, trauma, and existence of all human beings with love and understanding. Knowing that we do not all arrive or leave each other’s energy at the same level of evolution and understanding. Knowing to see each other first has humans who deserve love and respect. 

Sharing Space and Amplifying Voices

An influential leader/facilitator shares the load and light in the collective. The influential leader supports and knows when to speak up and when to amplify the voices of the co-creators and collaborators whom we guide on any given team. Creating is never autonomous. We are guided by those who came before us and those with whom we work. So it is imperative to make space for their talents and creations to be seen and shine.

Equity and Release of Bias

Bruce Springsteen said it best: “Nobody wins unless everybody wins.” An evolutionary nod to Fannie Lou Hamer’s “Nobody is free unless everybody is free.” Everyone will arrive as they are, and a leader who believes in growth and truth will give them the tools they need to be successful. They will see the inherent resources of self that they possess, given their experience, education, culture, personal narrative, etc., and their value. Seeing the other without bias, assumption, or hesitation that they will lead the team in the right direction. Working from a decolonized approach to leadership, dismantling the hierarchy to create an even playing field for success and support. 

Leading is an act of love and a walk of truth. Leaning on the idea that one must engage in their own unique forms of progressive understanding, acceptance of self, self-care, and healing to evolve and understand others who arrive at any stage of their existence. Creating mindful, compassionate, and inclusive spaces that foster others to grow and stand in the truth that they, too are strong and influential leaders and creators. 

Community Catalyzing through Collective Consciousness

When shifting towards higher consciousness, you engage in truth seeking, observing the world around you, no longer recognizing who you were, and yet totally aware and present of the vessel in which you have been given to exist. You begin to walk and engage in your divine purpose and soul’s mission. This new level of consciousness moves beyond the ego and begins to see the beautiful light in others that exists in oneself. Seeing the beauty, talent, truth, and purpose in any and all divine beings that walk this earth. You see others’ worth because you know your own. You see the value of others because you value your own existence. Working to use yourself as an instrument to connect the resources and tools around you with the beings, you can continue the work of cultivation, collaboration, and catalyzation with others. When you connect with other beings, you begin to exist in a collective consciousness. An appreciation of the people, places, experiences, cultures, and traditions around you. Knowing that everyone is a resource, stakeholder, and of inherent value to the community. Thus creating transformation and healing in any given community.

Copyright 2021.

Producing is the practice of holding the whole: the art, the people, the resources, and the impact of the work on the world. A producer is responsible not only for what gets made, but for how it gets made and who is held in the process.

My producing is rooted in service to artists and audiences, with a commitment to stewarding institutions and resources in ways that are ethical, sustainable, and just. I believe theatre is a collective endeavor, and that producers must create the conditions for bold artistic work while protecting the people who make it possible.

I center equity and access in my practice, with particular attention to marginalized and global majority communities whose stories, labor, and leadership have historically been undervalued or excluded. At the same time, I center our shared humanity by producing work that speaks across difference and builds connection, empathy, and understanding among all people.

I approach producing with compassionate curiosity by asking questions, listening deeply, and remaining open to change. I practice community care by prioritizing safety, consent, clarity, and adequate resources for collaborators. I practice upstander support by intervening when harm or inequity occurs and advocating for artists and staff within institutional systems.

I believe producers must be transparent, communicative, and accountable. We translate between artistic vision and organizational reality, balance ambition with capacity, and ensure that agreements, expectations, and power dynamics are clear. We protect time, labor, and dignity, and we honor relationships through respect and reciprocity.

Ultimately, I see producing as both leadership and stewardship. It is enabling artists to dream, building structures that sustain those dreams, and ensuring that the work serves the community with integrity.

Copyright 2023.

I facilitate learning because education is a practice of guidance, not control. After sixteen years as an educator in the arts, I understand my role not as the center of knowledge, but as a facilitator of learning, a guide for those who are often overlooked, unheard, or lost within the majority. My work has always been rooted in supporting students who exist at the margins, particularly those who see themselves reflected in me, students from minority communities seeking inspiration, representation, and permission to imagine beyond imposed limits.

Facilitating learning, for me, means offering creative tools that allow students to rise above circumstance, division, and confinement. It means moving beyond arbitrary boundaries, whether they are social, cultural, or systemic, and helping students access the gifts they already carry but may not yet know how to use. I aim to guide artistic expression by supporting students in developing the confidence to see themselves as creators, thinkers, and leaders.

In her poem Still I Rise, Maya Angelou writes,
“Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave,
I rise, I rise, I rise.”

As a Black woman, these words continue to shape my practice and my responsibility as an educator. They remind me that facilitating learning is not separate from legacy. It is an act of continuation. Much of my journey has been shaped by the urgency to support the Black community, particularly young people who will become the leaders, artists, and workers of tomorrow. Education, especially arts education, remains one of the most powerful tools we have to cultivate agency, empathy, and critical thinking.

Throughout my career, student diversity has been central to my pedagogy. I believe deeply in cultural pluralism and in creating learning environments where students are not asked to abandon their identities in order to succeed. Culture is not an accessory to learning. Culture is life. In my classrooms, difference is not something to be flattened or absorbed into a single narrative, but something to be honored, shared, and explored. Theater, in particular, offers a rare and powerful opportunity to bring multiple histories, perspectives, and truths into conversation with one another.

My philosophy aligns closely with progressive educational practices that emphasize experiential learning. Students learn best by doing, exploring, questioning, and testing ideas in real time. In performance-based work, students engage with stories and social issues through movement, voice, collaboration, and reflection. This process allows them to examine the world as it is, imagine what it could be, and understand how their own cultural perspectives shape meaning.

As a theater educator and professor, I have seen how creative practice allows students to confront challenges they may not yet have the language to address in daily life. Through drama, students build collective responsibility, trust, self-confidence, and the ability to engage complex emotional and social realities. The classroom becomes a rehearsal space for the world beyond it. I strive to create environments where students feel safe to experiment, fail, revise, and grow.

My goal has always been to foster a student-centered learning space where students are recognized as artists and collaborators. Over the years, I have cultivated classrooms grounded in mutual respect, inquiry, and shared responsibility. I encourage students to become leaders within the learning process, developing skills they carry with them far beyond the stage.

Ultimately, my philosophy is not aspirational alone. It is grounded in practice, shaped by years of facilitating learning, listening, adapting, and growing alongside my students. I see my work as part of a longer continuum, guided by those who came before me and accountable to those who come after. I facilitate learning so that students who once stood where I stood can recognize their own power, claim knowledge as a tool for change, and rise in ways both visible and profound.

Copyright 2007-2023.