Director spotlight for SWEET LORRAINE: Camille A. Brown is a 5 time Tony Award nominated director and choreographer and the Artistic Director and Choreographer for her company, Camille A. Brown & Dancers. Her trilogy on race, culture, and identity has won accolades: Mr. TOL E. RAncE (2012) was honored with a Bessie Award in 2014, and a 2003 Bessie Award nomination for Outstanding Revival; BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play (2015) was Bessie-nominated; and ink (2017) premiered at The Kennedy Center, was performed at The Apollo Theater in 2022, and has received critical acclaim. In 2022, she made her Broadway directorial debut for the Broadway revival of for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, making her the first Black woman to direct and choreograph a Broadway play since Katherine Dunham in 1955. The production received seven Tony Award nominations including Best Direction of a Play and Best Choreography for Brown. The New York Times proclaimed the production “triumphant.” Brown received the 2022 Drama League Award Nomination for Best Direction and the show received a nomination for Outstanding Revival of a Play. Brown also received the 2023 Broadway Black Award for Best Direction. Within the same season, Brown became the first Black artist at The Metropolitan Opera to direct a mainstage production, co-directing alongside James Robinson on Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones (2021), which she also choreographed. The production was included in The New York Times “Best Dance of 2021” list. Fire was triumphantly brought back to the MET again this 2024 spring season. Also at The Metropolitan Opera, she choreographed Porgy & Bess and Terence Blanchard’s Champion. Brown’s first musical for theater was The Fortress of Solitude directed by Daniel Aukin, written for stage by Itamar Moses, and with music & lyrics by Michael J. Friedman. For Fortress, she received a Lortel nomination for Outstanding Choreographer. She received the Audelco Award for Choreography for Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare in the Park. Her Broadway choreography debut was with A Streetcar Named Desire, followed by the Tony Award-winning musical, Once on This Island. Brown has been nominated for five Tony awards including for Choir Boy, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, Hell’s Kitchen- with music and lyrics written by Alicia Keys, and Gypsy. For Hell’s Kitchen, she also received her fourth Drama Desk nomination and won The Chita Rivera Award for Outstanding Choreography and the Audelco Award for Best Choreographer. Brown’s film and TV work includes Harlem (seasons 1 & 3, Amazon Prime), Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix); Emmy award-winning Jesus Christ Superstar Live (NBC); New Year’s Eve in Rockefeller Center (NBC), and Google Arts & Culture (ink). Coming up, American Masters and Firelight Media will release, Camille A. Brown: Giant Steps co-directed by Michelle Parkerson and Shellée Haynesworth. Most recently, the documentary was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Short Form Documentary (Film) and was just released on PBS. Brown has received numerous awards including ISPA’s Distinguished Artist, The Dance Magazine Award, Emerson Collective Fellow, Guggenheim, Doris Duke Artist, Audelco, Princess Grace Statue Award, Jacob’s Pillow Award, and New York City Center fellow, USA Jay Franke & David Herro Fellow, Emerson Fellow, TED fellow, and Kennedy Center’s Next 50. Other awards include a Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellowship and the Obie Award for Sustained Achievement in Choreography. Most recently she was honored at the New York Dance Lab Honors and received the Transformative Award from Harlemstage. She returned to Broadway this past November for the revival of Gypsy- directed by George C. Wolfe and starring Audra McDonald. This is the first time new choreography has been done for a main stem production. Her work was hailed as “a brilliant stroke of choreography” (USA Today) and “a consistent, inventive charm.” (Daily Beast). Brown received a Drama Desk Award Nomination as well as her fifth Tony Nomination for her original choreography in this production. In 2025, her company returned to The Joyce Theater with her latest work, I AM, following a successful premiere this past summer at Jacob’s Pillow, and engagements at Holy Cross University and Arizona State University. “Set to live music, Brown’s choreography seamlessly unites various styles of the African diaspora, fusing and contrasting the intricate footwork and curving shapes of Afro-Caribbean dance, the irresistible rhythms of step dancing and body percussion, and the fluidity and daring of hip hop and street dance. All of it is infused with passion and persistence.” — Times Union “The joy of “I AM” is the joy of being entirely yourself, entirely present in the moment. We are here, Brown and the performers seem to say — and we’ll keep being here, together, dancing into the future.” —The New York Times Critic’s Pick (fb)

Playwright spotlight: Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj (he/him) is a multi-disciplinary American Theater Artist, Administrator, and Cultural Activist who investigates the complexities of narrative, perception, identity, political, social, and community storytelling through research driven work that explores BIPOC narratives that have been historically bypassed in the American Theatre recuperating Black histories through documentary-based practices. He is an alumnus of the Art Equity BIPOC Leadership Circle in partnership with the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University, member of the Metropolitan Opera / American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) DEI Council, a member of the Geva Theatre Engagement Committee, and currently on the Board of Directors for the National Queer Theatre. He is the former Associate Artistic Producer at Milwaukee Repertory Theater, and the former Artistic Director of New Freedom Theatre and American Stage Theatre Company. He is the former Stage Director and Artistic / Community Consultant for the inaugural Opera Theatre of St. Louis New Works Collective in partnership with the Mellon Foundation and the Edward Jones Foundation. Mr. Maharaj is the Founder and former Director of Artistic Programing for the Voices at the River Biennial Latinx and African American Playwright’s Residency Program, in partnership with Arkansas Repertory Theatre and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation. He is currently the Assistant Professor of Stage Direction (Musical Theatre & Theatre) at SUNY Geneseo. After his graduate studies at Brooklyn College, Mr. Maharaj was awarded a Masters of Fine Arts Degree from Brooklyn College. Mr. Maharaj is a proud alumnus of the Actors Studio Playwrights and Directors Unit, Lincoln Center’s Directors Lab, and Theater Communication Group’s Rising Leaders of Color in the American Theater. He is a Doctoral Candidate in Theatre & Performance at University at Buffalo beginning in the Fall of 2025. As a storyteller, Mr. Maharaj has worked on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and at many of our nation’s top Regional Theaters including the Bernard B. Jacobs, The Theater at Madison Square Garden, The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture, The Public, Second Stage Theatre, Soho Playhouse, Classical Theater of Harlem, New Federal Theater, New World Stages, Nuyorican Poets Café, Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Theatre Row, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Portland Stage, Actors Theater of Louisville, Alabama Shakespeare, Signature Theater, Theater Works, Goodman Theater, New Freedom Theater, Arkansas Repertory Theater, Perseverance, and The Kennedy Center. Mr. Maharaj has been honored with numerous awards for his body of work in the American Theater including the prestigious Woodie King Jr. Award, four Vivian Robinson AUDELCO Awards, Barrymore Award, Stage Directors and Choreographers Society Theatrical Moment of the Year, The New York International Fringe Festival Overall Excellence Award, Theater Communications Group Directors Grant and Playwriting Grant, SUNY Geneseo TLC Innovation Grant, Recipient of the National Alliance for Musical Theater Fifteen-Minute Musical Theater Challenge Award, he is a finalist for the Blue Ink Playwriting Award Competition presented by American Blues Theater, a semi-finalist for the Austin Film Festival, and a semi-finalist for The Frank Moffett Mosier Fellowship. Mr. Maharaj was twice hailed in The New York Times as a Critics Pick for his work in the American Theatre. His playwrighting residencies include the New Harmony Project Writers Residency, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, New Orleans Writer’s Residency, Alliance Theater, Arkansas Repertory Theater, Crossroads Theater, Amas Musical Theater, Triskelion Arts, the Resident Playwright of the Letter of Marque Theatre, is an alumnus of Theater Now’s Virtual Musical Theater Writer’s Group, The Downtown Urban Arts Festival in New York City, the inaugural playwright for the Theatre Raleigh New Works Reading Series, and a finalist for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. He is the recipient of the Negro Ensemble Company Cutting Edge Playhouse Playwriting Residency, is a featured playwright in the Meet The Playwright Series presented by the Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning, an alumnus of the Candela Playwrights Summer Fellowship, an alumnus of the Dramatic Question Theatre Classics in Color Program, and a finalist for the Broadway Advocacy Coalition Theater of Change. Mr. Maharaj was the stage director of the World Premiere of The Factotum at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in their 22-23 season. He was also the original Co-Book Writer and Dramaturg for this dynamic new American opera. He also served as the stage director and consultant for Slanted: An American Rock Opera, Madison Lodge, and Cook Shack as part of Opera Theatre of St. Louis’ Inaugural New Works Collective in their 22-23 season, as well as the stage director for Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha re-imagined by composer Damien Sneed and librettist Karen Chilton. Mr. Maharaj was featured in the Opera America ‘Creators in Concert’ series for his contributions to contemporary American Opera. In the 21-22 Season, Mr. Maharaj served as the Assistant Director on the World Premiere of Fire Shut Up In My Bones (Terence Blanchard / Libretto by Kasi Lemmons) at the world famous Metropolitan Opera House. This groundbreaking opera was the first in the one-hundred-thirty-eight-year history of The Metropolitan Opera to feature on the main stage an African American composer and librettist while opening the world of Opera to BIPOC and Queer BIPOC communities throughout New York City, many of whom saw themselves reflected on The Metropolitan Opera stage for the first time. As a scholar, he has lectured at Yale University, Columbia University, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, The Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Howard University, George Washington University, Catholic University, St. John’s University, St. Joseph’s College, and Brooklyn College. He has been featured in numerous articles and interviews in notable industry publications such as The American Theater Magazine, The New York Times, The Yale School of Drama / Repertory Theater Review, The Dramatist, The Uptown Magazine, Playbill, Broadway World, The Daily News, The New York Post, The New York Beacon, The Philadelphia Sun, Time-Out New York, Harlem News, Amsterdam News, and The Stage Directors and Choreographers Journal for his work as a theater practitioner and leader. Mr. Maharaj is the former Third Vice-President for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for the Borough of Brooklyn as well as the founding Chairman for the Equity in the Arts and Culture Committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for the Borough of Brooklyn. Mr. Maharaj has been recognized with the Time Warner Diverse Voices Grant, New York City Council Citation for Outstanding Community Service Leadership, New York State Senate Citation for Outstanding Community Service and Mentoring Leadership, The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania House of Representatives Citation for Excellence in the Performing Arts, Philadelphia Mayoral Proclamation, and a Proclamation from New York City Mayor, Eric L. Adams. Mr. Maharaj was recently awarded the 2020 Trinidad and Tobago United Community Association Inc. Award for his outstanding contribution to the Trinidad and Tobago Diaspora as an Artist, Advocate, and Educator in the United States of America. Mr. Maharaj is a member of The Dramatists Guild (DG), Stage Directors and Choreographers (SDC), American Guild of Musical Artistis (AGMA), and The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). He is represented by Michael Moore of Michael Moore Agency Literary and Creatives. Michael Moore Agency 450 West 24th Street, Suite 1C New York, NY 10011 Telephone: +1 212 221 0400 Email: michael@michaelmooreagency.c (fb)