WE WILL DREAM: NEW WORKS FESTIVAL Announces Community Advisory Board

No Dream Deferred has announced its first Community Advisory Board (CAB) for the inaugural 2023 We Will Dream: New Works Festival. This advisory board will serve as thought partners and co-planners of the festival and will help with festival promotion and partnerships, artist selection, and community engagement.

"We could not be more excited to be working in artistic collaboration with such a dynamic group of creatives, thinkers, and community members. Their knowledge and passion for the people of this city have already proved invaluable." says creative director Chivas Michael.

This year's CAB includes, John "Ray" Proctor (Professor of Theatre), Laura Bernas (Actor, Theater Maker, Non-Profit Specialist), Nick Slie (Co-artistic Director of Mondo Bizarro), Lisa D'Amour (Playwright, Educator, Interdisciplinary Artist and Co-Artistic Director of PearlDamour), Amber Zu-Bolton (Cultural Historian/Copastetic Presents), Nate Lemoine (Designer), Carol Bixler (Emeritus Producing Director of the Center for New Performance at CalArt), Salvatore Mannino (Creative Producer), Dr. Tara Melvin (Director of Community Partnerships and Education New Orleans Opera Association), Sacha Grandoit (Professor of Theatre at Loyola University, Director, Producer, Children's Book Author), Denise Frazier, PhD (Assistant Director of New Orleans Center for the Gulf South), Jenny Mercein (theater maker and an Assistant Professor at Tulane University), and Dr. Robin Vander (Associate Professor at Xavier University of Louisiana,Co-Founder and Director, Performance Studies Laboratory).

"No Dream Deferred's upcoming We Will Dream: New Works Festival is a timely showcase that supports and highlights the complex and multi-faceted stories of people of color. The launch of this festival situates New Orleans as a cosmopolitan/fertile landscape of theatrical, artistic nuance, socio-cultural and ecological complexity while providing much needed agency, resources, and autonomy for our next generation's producers, performers, storytellers, and theater makers," says CAB member Dr. Denise Frazier.

We Will Dream: New Works Festival will run from March 19th, 2023 - June 19th, 2023 at the newly dedicated Andre Cailloux Center for Performing Arts and Cultural Justice on Bayou Road in New Orleans. The festival will premiere full productions of 3 new plays written by Black playwrights with a strong, ongoing connection to the American South - whether born here, currently living here, or involved in an ongoing creative relationship with a Southern city. In addition to the productions, the festival will include a community stage and host other cultural offerings and mini festivals. Submissions are open through Aug 19, 2022. Interested applicants can apply here

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