“Events like this [Young Griots] directed by Professor Hart help us fulfill our role as the center of the Black dramatic narrative. These plays demonstrate rigor, creativity, and a deep seriousness about the craft of storytelling.”
~ Dr. Khalid Y. Long, Associate Dean for Research and Creative Endeavors
I'm Denise Joy Hart.
My work sits at the intersection of theatre, experiential arts, restorative pedagogy and wellbeing.
Throughout my career as a practitioner and an academic scholar I've deepened my knowledge and experience as an educator, play development and production dramaturge, actress, director, playwright and speaker/trainer.
A few of my notable projects include: Restorative Theatre Performance Project, a collaborative theatre arts-based research initiative that employs restorative practices to build bridges between theatre, culture and science to engender social change and curator of the Howard Players Theatre History Archive 1909-2019.
I'm the founder and play deveopment dramaturg of the Play Development Lab, a play development and career incubator for Black women playwrights.
As a restorative practices facilitator I'm experienced in creating transformational trainings that support arts leaders, educators and practitioners, helping them learn from the past, create meaningful change and elevate organizational narrative and image.
Student Success, is a snapshot of how my former students are making an impact in the world and take a peek at my inspirational 20 year career producing children's musicals (TCTW) for the Washington DC community.
For fun I enjoy family history. Check out my ancestry.com commercials One and Two !
"Howard University’s impact on Black theatre."
by Sholnn Freeman (MA '12, PHD '21)
"Few explain Howard’s impact on Black theatre and culture more clearly than Denise J. Hart (BFA ’96), professor of theatre arts and the coordinator of playwriting and scriptwriting in the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts.
She is the recipient of honors including the 2024 Chadwick A. Boseman Full Professor Award and the 2021 Provost’s Distinguished Service Award. A theatre scholar with 26 years of teaching experience, Hart researches the history and dramaturgy of Black performance. Through her Howard Players Theatre History Archives and digital humanities research, she’s one of the foremost anchors and documentarians of Howard’s theatrical lineage."
FULL ARTICLE CLICK HERE
Upcoming Projects...
I am bursting with excitement to facilitate a Restorative Theatre Training Method training for my colleague Allison McCartney Ognibene and her students at Sussex Community College!
My research, the Restorative Theatre Training Method (RTTM) ), focuses on deconstructing and reimagining audition, rehearsal and performance practices and processes. This is a new model that places wellbeing at the center of applied practice for theatre actors, directors, writers and audiences.
It’s this kind of forward thinking that empowers each one of us, faculty, administrators and students to be the change we need for a theatre industry that hasn’t always kept pace with the ways of being and ways of knowing that make theatre more than a labor extraction practice.
#RestorativeTheatre #RestorativePedagogy #RestorativePractices #Wellbeing
Professor Hart is thrilled to announce the first collegiate world premiere to be fostered through he Play Development Lab, her play development incubator for Black women playwrights!
Co book writers, Marjuan Canady and Christin Eve Cato, semi-finalist participants in the 2025-2027 Play Development Lab cohort will receive a collegiate world premier production at Howard University in SP2027. The new musical Tap IN, is written by Marjuan Canady and Christin Eve Cato. With Original Music by Muhsinah. With Lyrics by Muhsinah and Christin Eve Cato. Produced by Howard University Department of Theatre Arts SP2027.
Professor Hart will serve as the Musical Development Dramaturge for the production.
Co-Bookwriter / Co-Lyricist BIO
Christin is a playwright and performing artist from the Bronx. She holds an MFA in Playwriting from Indiana University and completed her BA degree at Fordham University. Cato is also a graduate of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School for Music and Art and the Performing Arts. She is affiliated with NYC theater companies, Pregones/PRTT (resident dramaturg & ensemble member), INTAR Theatre (UNIT 52 ensemble member), and the Latinx Playwrights Circle. Honoring her Puerto Rican and Jamaican roots, Cato’s artistic style is expressed through Caribbean culture and the Afro-Latinx diaspora. She has developed her work with The Classical Theatre of Harlem, Harlem9, Pregones Theater, Milagro Theatre, Borderlands Theater, Teatro Vivo, Indiana University, Texas State University, Cardinal Stage, Conch Shell Productions, KCACTF, and The Silverton Theatre Mine. Cato is also the recipient of the 2020 Greater Good Commission for Afro-Latinx writers. She is currently repped by 3 Arts Entertainment.
Co-Bookwriter / Lead Producer BIO
Named as a 2023, Woman to Watch on Broadway, Marjuan is a Tony® Nominated Broadway Producer and award-winning
Caribbean-American film and theatre artist, entrepreneur, educator, and mom to her five year old daughter. A DC native, her work spans theater, film, and children’s media. Broadway Co-Producing credits include: “Purple Rain”, “The Wiz”, “Hell’s Kitchen”, and “Death of a Salesman”. Marjuan was the 2021 inaugural Front Row Productions Fellow at Columbia University MFA Theatre Management and Producing Program. Her original work has been seen on Hoorae Media, Sensical TV, Sesame Street, at The John F. Kennedy Center, The Smithsonian, The Lincoln Center, The Folger Shakespeare Library, Harlem Stage, and The National Theatre. She is the Co-Founder, CEO and Writer of Callaloo Kids. She is the Founder of her production company Sepia Works and non-profit, Canady Foundation for the Arts. Canady is a graduate of Duke Ellington School of the Arts, and holds her BA in Theatre and African Studies from Fordham University and her MA in Arts Politics from NYU Tisch. She is an Associate Professor of Theatre and Film at Montgomery College.
I'm so proud to have submitted my recent co-authored article for peer review, "HBCU Theater Training as a Case Study for Restorative Justice, Well-Being, and Institutional Practices” for the International Journal of Restorative Justice! 🎊🎉🎊
My co-author, Kiyaana Cox Jones, is a brilliant social scientist currently with the International Institute for Restorative Practices Graduate School and I had the privilege of having her as a student in the early part of my 27 year career teaching theory, acting, and playwriting at Howard University!
My research initiative the Restorative Theatre Performance Project (RTPP), is a collaborative theatre arts-based research initiative that employs restorative practices to build bridges between theatre, culture and science to engender social change. Having the opportunity to write about the application of the research with Howard students is a highlight of my academic career!
Once published I will share the links here on my site.
Denise J. Hart, an award winning playwright, dramaturge and director has created an incubator to help black women develop process, craft and career. Play Development Lab is an intensive development opportunity for professional black women playwrights to develop their work through one-on-one meetings, table work and rehearsals with a cast of actors and developmental readings.
Kudos to me! I've been elected to serve on the Association of Theatre in Higher Education Governing Council as the Vice President of conference 2027! Looking forward to seeing colleague/old friends and meeting new colleagues over the next two years!
I was honored as a finalist in the 2025 ACLS HBCU Fellowship for my "works in progress" article, Decolonizing the Curriculum Through Black Power: Howard Players Theatre History 1969-1979