Restorative Theatre Performance Project (RTPP), is an academic training model designed to work in tandem with existing collegiate theatre performance training philosophies. 

RTPP is expanding on a the theoretical examination of academic performance methodology that centers the student and faculty training experience on mutual collaboration, care,  wellness, safety, protected intimacy and specialized mentorship. The fall 2025 vehicle for the applied methodology was a curated production at Howard University, Young Griots: New Works for the Stage, which I also curated and directed. 

The restorative process is one that moves away from a theatrical training and performance culture that centers "the show must go on" and oftentimes mimics the punitive white supremacist hierarchical power structure that is pervasive in audition, rehearsal and performance spaces. The methodology interrogates the inherited theatre training culture that has largely been controlled by the ideologies of a small number of white actor performance training practitioners who have become synonymous with "the great white way" culture.  Instead, RTPP seeks to empower students, faculty and staff through training that equips them to transform academic and eventually professional theatre performance spaces. Because we are not human doings, we are human beings,  we should center this truth in all artistic endeavors. 

The Restorative Theatre Performance Project will help emerging artists to participate in, create and manage audition, rehearsal and performance spaces that will center process, knowledge, curiosity, care, empathy, wellness, wholeness and transmute principles of restorative justice into the theatrical audition,  rehearsal and performance experience.

Phase 2 will take place in fall 2026. During phase 2 I will secure a team and gather more qualitative data as I make adjustments to discoveries made during phase 1. 

How I Met My Cousin: The Genealogical Saga of the Bailey Family Tree tells the story of the rich legacy of freedom and justice in the life of Sue Bailey Thurman, founder of the Boston Museum of African American History. 

An auto-ethnographic solo performance, curated, written and performed by Sue’s “family history” obsessed 3rd cousin, Professor Denise J. Hart, the play, a form of public scholarship, takes the audience on a journey through the highs and lows of African American genealogical research using documentary style narrative story telling. The world of the early 20th century and beyond come alive with a cornucopia of familiar and famous African Americans, both friends and colleagues who stood alongside Sue Bailey as they fostered a pathway for African Americans to thrive.

Commissioned by the Museum of African American History in Boston, my solo-play, How I Met My Cousin: The Genealogical Saga of the Bailey Family Tree will be presented during Juneteenth weekend in Boston along with an lecture in conversation with museum director Dr. Noelle Trent.

Lecture: A Blueprint for Freedom & Justice: The life and legacy of Sue Bailey Thurman

• Lecture Date: Friday June 19, 2026 from 3-4:30pm. 

My scholarly research is focused on the intersection of African American Theatre and history.  Memory, history and the largely under-investigated impact of white supremacy on family is a guiding force in my work as a researcher. Using story to create an entry point for self and community introspection and interrogation are the twin light bearers that fuel me to continue to craft stories that center the underrepresented African American experience.  My scholarship is driven by a commitment to document and preserve under researched narratives in the history of theatre.