NEW YORK CITY: Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the nationwide group for theatre and the writer of American Theatre, has named the individuals for the 2024 Rising Leaders of Colour (RLC) Program. The cohort of six gifted early-career leaders, all based mostly in Chicago, are advancing their careers in U.S. nonprofit theatre and associated sectors.

The 2024 cohort contains India Nicole Burton, Nora Carroll, Tiffany Fulson, Jamal Howard, Willow James, and Sierra Rosetta.

“We’re thrilled to welcome this new cohort of Chicago-based theatre leaders to the Rising Leaders of Colour Program,” LaTeshia Ellerson, TCG’s interim chief progress officer, stated in a press release. “We’re grateful to work in partnership with our funders to assist the skilled progress of those leaders regionally and to attach them nationally to an intergenerational community of friends.”

RLC builds on the learnings and momentum of the Younger Leaders of Colour Program (YLC) and the SPARK Management Applications. RLC expands and re-envisions the neighborhood of leaders of coloration as a part of a rising nationwide community. The cohort will take part in skilled improvement workshops and occasions in Chicago throughout TCG’s Nationwide Convention this summer time. Moreover, cohort members will probably be supplied particular person mentorship, webinars, and full cohort conferences by June 2025.

India Nicole Burton is a director, playwright, and producer who holds an MFA in artistic writing from the College of Nebraska-Omaha. She beforehand participated within the Nationwide New Play Community’s Producer in Residence program on the Cleveland Public Theatre for 2 years. Via her work, Burton strives to empower African American communities by offering platforms to manage and form their very own tales.

Nora Carroll is a theatre artist and educator who was beforehand an artist in residence at Wisconsin’s Carthage School. She is at present the director of lifelong studying and schooling at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Carroll is invested in curating areas that commemorate intersectionality, tradition, and empathy by theatre.

Tiffany Fulson is an actor, director, producer, and neighborhood curator who has served as the primary creative producer of modern partnerships at TimeLine Theatre Firm since 2021. She can be the director of the August Wilson New Voices Outreach Program in collaboration with the Goodman Theatre and the League of Chicago Theatres. Fulson is dedicated to reimagining the performing arts by innovation, neighborhood therapeutic, and wellness.

Jamal Howard is a director, choreographer, producer, and humanities administrator. He’s the co-founder and co-artistic director of New American Folks Theatre and is the 2023-24 Michael Maggio Directing Fellow on the Goodman. He beforehand served because the affiliate creative director of Emerald Metropolis Theatre. Howard works to create theatre with vital empathetic impression on audiences whereas caring for the artists and collaborators concerned within the course of.

Willow James is a contract artist, educator, and sound designer whose work facilities round exploring Black identification, new works, and activism. He’s at present the civic engagement director at Definition Theatre, the place he’s additionally an ensemble member. He’s the resident sound designer at Artemisia Theatre and a instructing artist on the Courtroom Theatre.

Sierra Rosetta is an Indigenous theatre artist and scholar who’s a member of the Lac Courte Oreilles Chippewa Nation. Her work focuses on Ojibwe efficiency and tales, public humanities, feminism, and anti-colonial dramaturgy. She is at present pursuing a PhD in Theatre and Drama at Northwestern College. She is an alum of Yale College’s Indigenous Performing Arts Program and was beforehand a literary fellow on the Eugene O’Neill Theater Heart.

The 2024 RLC cohort was chosen by a panel of theatre professionals and is funded partially by the Paul M. Angell Household Basis, Walt Disney Imagineering and Disney Reside Leisure, and the Joyce Basis.

“TCG’s skilled improvement applications are wanted now greater than ever,” Karena Fiorenza, TCG’s interim chief govt officer, stated in a press release. “As BIPOC theatre leaders, we’ve all the time sought one another out for assist and perception in navigating a theatre ecology that too typically nonetheless replicates the racism of our broader tradition. That’s why applications just like the RLC have such a tangible impression on the lives and careers of individuals.”

Based in 1961, TCG leads for a simply and thriving theatre ecology and represents greater than 700 member theatres and affiliate organizations. Via its applications and companies, TCG reaches over a million college students, viewers members, and theatre professionals annually.

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