No Dream Deferred announces 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 WILL DREAM: New Works Festival
Community Advisory Board

  • Denise Frazier, PhD

    Assistant Director of New Orleans Center for the Gulf South

  • Dr. Tara Melvin

    Director of Community Partnerships and Education New Orleans Opera Association

  • Carol Bixler

    Emeritus Producing Director of the Center for New Performance at CalArt

  • Dr. Robin Vander

    Associate Professor at Xavier University of Louisiana,Co-Founder and Director, Performance Studies Laboratory

  • Sacha Grandoit

    Professor of Theatre at Loyola University, Director, Producer, Children's Book Author

  • Jenny Mercein

    Theater maker and an Assistant Professor at Tulane University

  • Laura Bernas

    Actor, Theater Maker, Non-Profit Specialist

  • Amber Zu-Bolton

    Cultural Historian/Copastetic Presents

  • Lisa D'Amour

    Playwright, Educator, Interdisciplinary Artist and Co-Artistic Director of PearlDamour

  • Nick Slie

    Co-artistic Director of Mondo Bizarro

  • John "Ray" Proctor

    Professor of Theatre

  • Salvatore Mannino

    Creative Producer

“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.” - Creative Director Chivas Michael.

 

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.

 
 

“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,”
- CAB member Dr. Denise Frazier.