Due to high demand, we are extending our February discussion "If your skin can talk" on Tuesday, April 23rd, 2019.
In celebration of black theatre artists, New York Theatre Salon is thrilled to invite a brilliant panel to share their stories of working and living in current social environment, and encourages everyone to express their voices.
Panel will be hosted by Cassandra Nwokah, features Adeyinka Adebola, Jendaya Dash, Kristin Dodson, Freddie Fulton, and Marcus Scott!
(Seats are limited, please RSVP in advance)
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Bios:
Adeyinka Adebola. Expressing his passion for performing while as middle school student in Ogun State, Nigeria, Yinka brought his vigor and talent for the stage back to NY to pursue a career as a percussionist and actor in New York. While in highschool, he became one of the founding members of the black Brazilian group Harlem Samba, as well as with the Aquila Theater company, performing classics such as A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet. He continued his multi-faceted training at Herbert H. Lehman College where he further developed and broadened his skillset into production, theater management, and directing, graduating with a Multimedia/performing arts BFA. He Currently performs In Film, TV, Theater and Music productions throughout New York City all year round. He has trained at the Susan Batson Studio, The Castillo Theater, The Stella Adler Studio of Acting, and the Creative Arts Team to name a few. Recent credits Include Ruined at The Height's Players, Son's of Johnny Johnson at the Davenport theatre. Macbeth with Lehman Stages, The Escape at Columbia University, and Our Father at the Secret Theater's Unfringed festival. Upcoming shows include I come from a people, Friendly's Fire, and Austin.
Jendaya Dash is a freelance dancer/photographer born and raised in Queens. Jendaya’s primary interest as an artist and choreographer lay in projects that highlight, and give voice to marginalized peoples, especially those who are considered children of the African diaspora. She works to form collaborations that are interdisciplinary and multimedia focused to tell a story. Jendaya is a firm believer in telling stories for “us”, by “us” so that marginalized people’s voices are never lost, altered or minimized. In December of 2017 she put on her first stage production, “Dimensions Within” which consisted of various dance solos and poetry to tell the stories of 3 different woman of color.
With a strong theater background, Kristin Dodson, signed with Abrams Artist Agency, does theater, film, commercial and voiceover. She has played roles in works such as Noises Off, Waiting for Godot, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Prior to acting, Kristin was a paralegal for a few years before realizing that working to be a lawyer wasn't her passion any longer. She would star in her first short film, "Ambition" two years after graduating college. That short film would start Kristin on the path of being a professional actor. She has starred in her first off- Broadway play in the role of Beneatha Younger, from A Raisin in the Sun, then in the Sundance/Netflix film Roxanne Roxanne, and won the 2017 Audelco Award for best Ensemble Cast. She has studied with NY Film Academy, Weist Barron, and Berg Studios. Kristin has recently trained at The British American Acting Academy at Oxford University, where she studied both Shakespeare and modern British playwrights. Kristin is also a proud member of the historic Negro Emsemble Company.
Tasha Dougé is a Bronx-based visual artist and cultural enthusiast. Over three years ago, while working at a Harlem based non-profit, her art practice came to her as an epiphany. She was working in the women’s department and was investigating how to could create more of an impact within her community. Art became her method of activism because it was a glaring opposition to how she was feeling and presented as an avant garde approach to what she was currently doing. In essence, art symbolized freedom. Tasha's artwork primarily revolved around these topics: women empowerment, health advocacy, sexual education and self-esteem. However, it quickly expanded to address elements within the Black community like self-image and social injustice. It’s very important and fundamental to her artistic practice to shift narratives to depict a more holistic description of who we are and what we have contributed. Her art is a tool to exercise expression, enact empowerment and serve as a bridge to connect and highlight those that may feel excluded and/or overlooked. By creating provocative works that elicit authentic, raw and at times, uncomfortable feelings, Tasha aims to spark open and honest conversations that lead to change and REFORM.
Freddie Fulton is from Little Rock, Arkansas and a graduate of the acting programs at Drake University (BFA) and Columbia University (MFA). He’s a co-founder of Pyramid Theatre Company, a summer rep company that shares and showcases works of the African American experience, and Squeaky Wheelz Productions, a company with the goal to produce, create, and/or help diverse art be heard and seen in all platforms. Theatre credits include: Long Wharf Theatre’s Paradise Blue (P-Sam), Classic Stage Company’s Julius Caesar (Brutus), Seven Guitars (Floyd), The Seagull (Medvedenko), Fences (Cory), A Soldier’s Play (PFC Peterson), The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World (Black Man with Watermelon), etc. He is so grateful to be a part of this event, thank you to all involved!
MARCUS SCOTT is a playwright, musical theater writer, journalist and blogger challenging the representation of race, gender, sexuality, class and intersectionality in popular media, the performance arts and international affairs. His writing has appeared in Soule, Elle, Out, Essence, Uptown, Clutch, Trace, Backstage, Playbill, Passport, Edge Media Network, Broadway Black, Giant, Hello Beautiful, NewsOne, The Urban Daily, Madame Noire, Styleblazer, Bleu, Krave, among others. He also served as a Writing Fellow for Crazy Town Blog. He has appeared in interviews, features and reviews conducted by The New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Wall Street Journal, Into, Very Good Light, Get Out Magazine, Estadão, Stage Buddy, American Theatre, Broadway World and NPR. Scott was the 2016-17 Musical Theatre Fellow at Playwrights Horizons.
Host:
Cassandra E. Nwokah (Acting, 2017) is a Nigerian American theatre artist and a 2017 graduate of Columbia University’s MFA acting program. She is the founder of Smash the BOX, a theatre collective for women of color. Her work explores identity and where it intersects in political and social spaces. Her poetry play i come from A People is part of the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning’s 2019 First Friday series (March 1st).