The Helen Weinberger Center for Drama & Playwriting

featuring Justin Emeka  
Wednesday, Oct. 20, 7pm - Zoom

Free to all UC students, faculty and staff.
Labor Day Weekend Sale:
Tickets discounted to $15 September 3rd-6th.

Presented by the Helen Weinberger Center for Drama & Playwriting and Black Acting Methods Studio

A roundtable moderated by Sharrell D. Luckett 
Sunday, Oct 24, 7pm - Zoom

Free to all UC students, faculty and staff.
Labor Day Weekend Sale:
Tickets discounted to $29 September 3rd-6th.

Presented by the Helen Weinberger Center for Drama & Playwriting and Black Acting Methods Studio

GUEST LECTURE SERIES
RACE, DRAMA, & PERFORMANCE
Tuesdays- 9:30am-12:20pm
For links to attend events, please contact Dr. Sharrell Luckett, lucketsl@ucmail.uc.edu. 

January 19
Isaiah M. Wooden, PhD
Brandeis University
Assistant Professor
Theater Arts  

February 2
Kashi Johnson, MFA
Lehigh University
Chair, Dept. of Theatre
Professor of Theatre

February 23
Donatella Galella, PhD
UC-Riverside
Associate Professor
Theatre, Film & Digital Production

March 9
Bryant Keith Alexander, PhD
Loyola Marymount University
Dean, College of Communication
Professor of Communication & Performance Studies

March 30
M. Heather Carver, PhD
University of Missouri-Columbia
Chair, Dept. of Theatre
Professor of Performance Studies & Theatre

April 6
Javon Johnson, PhD
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Director, African American & African Diaspora Studies
Assistant Professor
Interdisciplinary, Gender, & Ethnic Studies

April 13
Shamell Bell, PhD
Harvard University
Dartmouth College
Lecturer
Somatic Performance & Contemporary Global 
Perf., Theatre, & Dance

April 13
Kareem Khubchandani, PhD
Tufts University
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Theatre, Dance, & Performance Studies

Theater, Performance, and Collaboration by Tarell Alvin McCraney
Book Release Symposium
Oct 20-22, 2020
A series of events celebrating the work of Tarell Alvin McCraney and the first book that critically engages with his work 

"Teaching Tarell"
Sharrell Luckett, David Roman, and Isaiah M. Wooden (book editors) 
Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020 6:30pm
Discussing practical ways that the book can be used in classrooms when teaching Tarell's work
 
"Moonlight, McCraney, & Mental Health"
Dr. Jonathan Lassiter, expert on Black LGBT health 
Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020 6:30pm
 
"Performing & Directing McCraney"
Thursday, Oct. 22 2020,  6:30pm
Featuring: Phylicia Rashad (Cosby show), Alana Arenas (OWN's David Makes Man & Steppenwolf member), Tina Landau (Broadway director & Steppenwolf member)
Sharrell Luckett, David Roman, and Isaiah M. Wooden (book editors)
This event is restricted to UC, Brandeis, and Univ. So Cal students, and other entities. 

The Helen Weinberger Center for Drama and Playwriting presents:
Guy Thorne, MBA
Former Principal Dancer
of Garth Fagan Dance  
"Dancing with Words"  
February 21, 2020 at 4:00PM
Elliston Poetry Room  

Ever wonder how movement and dance could  inform your writing of plays, monologues, poetry, or prose; or even teaching of writing? Join Guy Thorne, an award-winning critically acclaimed dancer and multi-media artist, as he leads you through an interactive workshop where writing and movement merge. In addition to exploring the significance of embodied and performative writing, Thorne, the co-creator of Reggae Ballet™, will provide insight into his drama and movement work with interdisciplinary artists, such as MacArthur Fellow Carrie Mae Weems. Attendees should bring a few words or a line from their writing that they are interested in exploring with movement.
Co-sponsored by the Department of English and Comparative Literature with participation from CCM (Musical Theatre) and CCM (Dance).
“DANCING WITH WORDS” is organized and curated by Sharrell D. Luckett, PhD, Weinberger Director

Guy Thorne is an award-winning and critically acclaimed dance professional with more than 17 years of experience as a dancer, choreographer, professor, and distinguished visiting artist in higher education. He is also an artistic director, company founder (FuturPointe), multi-media artist, and sound designer. Thorne’s identities as Guyanese, Jamaican, American, black, post-911 immigrant to the US, and most recently, American citizen, provide him with unique insights into the complexity of race and blackness in the 21st century. Thorne moved to the United States upon the awarding of a scholarship to train at Dance Theatre of Harlem in New York City before becoming a principal dancer in 2002 with Garth Fagan Dance (choreographer for Lion King). As a choreographer, Thorne co-created FuturPointe Dance’s signature movement language –Reggae Ballet™. In creating his dance works, he incorporates text, music, audio, digital images, and installation video. Thorne has danced and taught extensively at world-class venues throughout the world, such as Jacob’s Pillow, the Joyce, and the Lincoln and Kennedy Centers. For his performances, he has received critical acclaim from critics in the New York Times and other major publications. He is the recipient of several major awards, including the Lillian Fairchild Award from the University of Rochester and the Distinguished Accomplishment in Dance award from the New York Dance Festival.  

The Helen Weinberger Center for Drama and Playwriting presents:
REVOLUTIONARY PEDAGOGIES
“Hip-Hop Theatre” and “Theatre of the Oppressed”
an interactive seminar for students & professors
Kashi Johnson, MFA
Chair and Professor
Hip-Hop Theatre
Daphnie Sicre, PhD
Professor and Director
Theatre of the Oppressed & Latinx Theatre  
 
Friday, October 18, 2019 @ 4pm
Elliston Poetry Room, Langsam Library   

Join Kashi Johnson, a pioneer and scholar of Hip-Hop Theatre pedagogy, and Daphnie Sicre, a scholar of Theatre of the Oppressed and Latinx theatre as they demonstrate exercises and techniques that can invigorate the classrooms for instructors and students. During this interactive event, professors Johnson and Sicre will chart their careers and use of revolutionary pedagogies, in addition to providing concrete ways that instructors and students can use these pedagogies to inform their design or completion of assignments. Attendees are encouraged to bring an assignment to work with during this event.

Kashi Johnson, MFA, is Chair of Lehigh University’s Department of Theatre where she serves as Professor of Theatre. A trailblazer in the field, Johnson teaches courses in performance, directs plays and specializes in Hip Hop theatre pedagogy. In her work she builds on the foundational elements of Hip-Hop to introduce her students to the world of performance, identity exploration and truth telling. Act Like You Know is her signature course that garnered several awards and national acclaim. Johnson recently published scholarship on her work in
Black Acting Methods: Critical Approaches and the Routledge Companion to African American Theatre and Performance.

Daphnie Sicre, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Directing and Theatre for Social Justice in the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance at Loyola Marymount University. Reared in Madrid, Spain, but born in Guayaquil, Ecuador to Peruvian and Spanish parents, she shares a deep passion for discovering multiple Latinx and African-American perspectives in theatre. She recently published “Afro-Latinx Themes in Theatre Today” in The Routledge Companion to African American Theatre and Performance, and is currently working on two invited
book chapters, “A Time of Protest; Exploring Activism through Newspaper Theatre” and “Romeo y Julieta; Staging Shakespeare in the Park in Miami” for Latinx Shakespeare: Performance, Appropriation and Pedagogy. She is directing In the Heights this spring at LMU.
Co-sponsored by CCM (Acting), The Department of English, and the Black Acting Methods Studio.
“Revolutionary Pedagogies” is organized and curated
by Sharrell D. Luckett, PhD, Weinberger Director  

The Helen Weinberger Center for Drama and Playwriting presents:
Ntozake Shange (1948-2018)
Celebrating an artistic legacy through conversation and performance.
Aku Kadogo, Professor and Broadway Actress (originated role of ‘Lady in Yellow’)
Shirlene Holmes, Ph.D., Playwright and Professor 
RAHBI, composer and recording artist
Moderated by Sharrell D. Luckett, Ph.D., Director of the Weinberger Center 

Friday, February 15, 2019 4:00 pm  

Featuring performances by the College-Conservatory of Music (Acting), the Cincinnati Black Theatre Company, The School for Creative and Performing Arts, and RAHBI. 

Co-sponsored by the Black Acting Methods Studio, CCM (Acting), the Cincinnati Black Theatre Company (CBTC), the Department of English and Comparative Literature, and The School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA).

Sharrell D. Luckett, PhD, is Director of the Helen Weinberger Center for Drama and Playwriting and Associate Professor of Drama and Performance Studies in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Cincinnati. She is also Affiliate Faculty in the departments of Africana Studies and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and faculty collaborator with the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). Luckett is the co-editor of Tarell Alvin McCraney: Theater, Performance, and Collaboration; editor of African American Arts: Activism, Aesthetics, and Futurity; author of YoungGiftedandFat: An Autoethnography of Size, Sexuality, and Privilege; author of Transweight: a chapbook; and lead editor of Black Acting Methods: Critical Approaches, a best-selling and award-winning book that highlights diverse acting and directing methods rooted in Black American culture. She is also founding Executive Director of the Black Acting Methods Studio. A sought-after scholar and artist, Luckett has had residencies at renowned institutions, such as the Lincoln Center, Harvard University, and 92Y. Her upcoming book projects engage with transweight celebrity performance and her theoretical offerings in the area of performance training.