|
QUILOMBO LIST OF ARTISTS AND CONSULTANTS:
Carlos Diegues (Screenwriter & Director of 1984 Movie Quilombo) was one of the founders of Cinema Novo—the movement
that transformed film in Brazil and was a pivotal influence in the New Latin American Cinema—Carlos Diegues is probably
the most historically minded of its adherents. Like the other directors of Cinema Novo, Diegues is concerned with making films
which are "culturally Brazilian, and impregnated with national and Latin American problems"; and his entrance into the national
reality was, as with many other members of this group, through documentary films that put him in direct contact with social
problems. Ganga Zumba was Diegues's first feature. A reconstruction of the Palmares Republic of runaway slaves in Brazil
during the seventeenth century, it corresponded to the search for identity in which many Brazilian artists were then engaged.
It also represented the first Cinema Novo film to value Afro-Brazilian culture, as well as the beginning of Diegues's interest
in bringing black history to the screen. This interest continued with Xica da Silva, Quilombo, as well as the popular Bye
Bye Brazil. Other films in which Diegues is noted for directing include: Orfeu (1999), God is Brazilian (2003), O Maior
Amor do Mundo (The Greatest Love of All-2006).
Kim McMillon (Producer) has over 20 years of experience producing theatre in the Bay Area. In 1987, Ms. McMillon wrote, produced,
and directed Voyages, A Multi-Media Excursion Into Reincarnation at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Playhouse. In 2000, Ms.
McMillon wrote, and produced Confessions Of A Thespian: When Spirit & Theatre Collide. In between productions, Ms. McMillon
helped to produce the plays of Ishmael Reed, Wajahat Ali, and others. Ms. McMillon has also handled the publicity for such
literary artists as Al Young, Chitra Divakuruni, and William Poy Lee. From 2001 to 2005, Ms. McMillon produced the Oakland
Literature Expo as part of the City of Oakland’s Art & Soul Festival. Ms. McMillon is committed to Carlos Diegues’
vision of Quilombo as a Utopia where freemen, women, and slaves lived and worked together for the good of the whole.
Eleanor Holdridge (Director) has directed The Promise (Shakespeare and Company); Julius Caesar (Milwaukee Shakespeare); Two
Gentlemen of Verona (Alabama Shakespeare Festival); As You Like It, Twelfth Night and The Tempest (Shakespeare & Company);
Taming of the Shrew and The Tempest (Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival); Henry V (Shakespeare on the Sound); A Midsummer Night’s
Dream (Shakespeare Festival Saint Louis); The Imaginary Invalid (Pearl Theater Company, NY); Lettice & Lovage (Shakespeare
& Company); Art (Triad Stage) and Betrayal (Portland Stage). In the past she has served as Associate Artist at Shakespeare
& Company, Artistic Director of the Red Heel Theatre Company, Artistic Director of the Yale Cabaret, Resident Assistant Director
for the Shakespeare Theatre and Resident Director at New Dramatists. She is a Usual Suspect at NYTW and has taught and directed
students at The Yale School of Drama, NYU’s graduate program, Juilliard and The Shakespeare Theatre Academy for Classical
Acting. She holds an MFA from Yale School of Drama. Later this year Eleanor will direct The Crucible at Perseverance Theater
and Mary Stuart at The Pearl Theatre.
Danny Duncan (Choreographer) is a native San Franciscan who has worked in the Bay Area most of his life. As founder and Artistic
Director of Duncan and Company, he toured the West Coast for seven years. Duncan's writing career began in 1969 with Uhuruh,
which appeared Off Broadway in New York at the City Center Theatre. Since then, he has authored and produced eight original
musicals including Billie's Song -- winner of six Bay Area Critic Awards, including Best Musical of 1982. He is also the recipient
of the Bay Area Critics Circle Award for his choreography for Theatreworks production of RAISIN the musical in 1998 as well
as the Dean Goodman Choice Award for outstanding achievement in theatre. For five years Duncan served as Artistic Director
for the Mayor's Summer Youth Program (Bayview Hunter's Point) and for ten years with United Projects, an arts organization
that trained young people in the performing arts. Duncan has written the librettos and song lyrics for eight of the San Francisco
Arts Education Project's Events. Mr. Duncan has a long association with the School of the Arts and has taught at the American
Conservatory Theater. He has been associated with Artsed since 1991.
Khalil Shaheed (Musical Director) Khalil will serve as musical director and co-collaborator with composer Gilberto Gil. Using
the original score, Khalil will compose music that closely reflects the vision of Quilombo, and is influenced by African (Bantu)
as well as Brazilian culture. Khalil is the Executive Director of Oaktown Jazz Workshops, and has participated in collaborations
with Dimensions Dance Theater, Oakland East Bay Symphony, Healdsburg Jazz Festival, and John Santos’ Machete Ensemble.
His work reflects the broad spectrum of the African Diaspora, and the complexity of the African-influenced culture and experience.
Kris Stone (Set Designer) has been designing sets throughout the U.S., Scotland, England, Ireland, and Australia in over 100
productions, earning her a nomination for The Irish Theatre Award for Best Set Designer, an NEA/TCG Award for Set Design,
a 2006 Bay Area Critics Award for Best Set Design, a Featured Designer at the 2007 Prague Quadrennial, and a nomination for
The Drama Desk Award for Maurice Sendak and Tony Kushner’s Opera Brundibar. Recent Theatre designs have been seen at:
Vineyard Theatre – NYC, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Yale Rep, Hartford Stage, Old Globe, Abbey Theatre - Dublin,
Long Wharf, New Victory - NYC, Huntington Stage - Boston, Riverside Studios - London, Alliance Theatre - Atlanta, The Dublin
and Edinburgh Theatre Festival, Arizona Theatre Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Asolo Theatre Festival, Women's Project,
The Vineyard, Hartford Stage, Rattlestick, San Jose Rep, and The Royal Theatre in Tasmania. Kris has designed the World Premiers
of many plays such as; God's Ear by Jenny Schwartz (Vineyard), Act A Lady by Jordan Harrison (Humana Festival), Gum by Karen
Hartman (Yale), The Black Eyed by Betty Shamieh (The Magic), Rules of Charity by John Belusso (The Magic), But the Giraffe
by Tony Kushner (New Victory), Suburb a musical by David Javerbaum and Bob Cohen (York Theatre), Slag Heap by Anton Dudley
(Cherry Lane Mentor Project), All About Al by Cherie Vogelstein (EST), Deaf Day by Leslie Ayvazian (EST), Goodbye Oscar by
Romulus Linney (EST), Urgent Fury by Allison Moore (Cherry Lane Mentor Project), Fortune by Deborah Zoe Laufer (Juilliard),
Dublin By Lamplight by Michael West and The Corn Exchange (Irish Tour, London, & Tasmania), Natural Selection by Eric Sobel
(Humana Festival), The Four of Us by Itamar Moses (Old Globe), Wonton Destruction by Jill Szuchmacher (3 Legged Dog) and Older
Testaments by The David Dorfman Dance Co. (Joyce Theatre).
Gilberto Gil (Composer) is a Grammy Award-winning Brazilian singer, guitarist, and songwriter, known for both his musical
innovation and his political commitment. From 2003 to 2008, he served as Brazil's Minister of Culture in the administration
of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. He was a key figure in the Música Popular Brasileira and Tropicalismo movements of
the 1960s, alongside artists such as longtime collaborator Caetano Veloso. The Brazilian military regime that took power in
1964 saw both Gil and Veloso as a threat, and the two were held for nine months in 1969 before they were told to leave the
country. Gil moved to London, but returned to the Brazilian state of Bahia in 1972 and continued his musical career, as well
as working as a politician and environmental advocate. Gil's musical style incorporates an eclectic range of influences, including
rock, Brazilian genres including samba and forró, African music, and reggae.
Durand Garcia, (Weapons & Fight Specialist) Durand has worked as a fight choreographer with Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Anima
Mundi Dance Co., Last Planet Theatre Co., Shotgun Players, Dragon Productions Theatre, Notre Dame de Namur University, Shady
Shakespeare, Diamond City Players, and the Sacramento Opera. He is the resident fight director for African-American Shakespeare
Company. During the period of Brazilian history that is highlighted in Quilombo, several famous battles took place that
will be staged through the use of dance, and capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian dance form that incorporates self-defense maneuvers.
Mr. Garcia has an exceptional understanding of the weaponry, and culture of Brazil during this period.
Stephanie Anne Johnson's (Lighting Design) lighting design career spans more than three decades. Ms. Johnson has designed
shows for Cultural Odyssey (San Francisco), Dimensions Dance Theater (Oakland), The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Arizona
Repertory Theater, La Mama Theater (New York) and Black Moon Theatre (New York and Paris). Her lighting design work has been
seen in India, The Netherlands, Italy, France and Belgium. Photographs of Ms. Johnson's designs were included in the show
Onstage: A Century of African American Stage Design which was presented at The N.Y. Public Library For The Performing Arts
in 1995. As a visual artist, Ms. Johnson has been the recipient of visual arts grants and commissions from the National Endowment
for the Arts, Oakland Cultural Arts Division and The Atlanta Arts Festival among other organizations. Ms. Johnson is a faculty
member at California State University at Monterey Bay in the Visual and Public Art program. She has degrees from Emerson College,
Boston, Mass. (B.F.A.), San Francisco State University (M.A.) and The University of California at Berkeley (M.F.A.).
Mestre Themba (Capoeira Expert) was the first non-Brazilian to hold the title of Contra-Mestre of Capoeira Ngola in the world.
Themba has presented, taught, and continues to teach Capoeira Ngola extensively at universities, schools and cultural institutes
all over the United States, the neighboring islands, Africa, and Brazil. He has a powerful knowledge of the songs, movements
and ways of the ancestors that have been passed on through the centuries in his Capoeira lineage of teachings that come directly
from Mestre Pastihna of Salvador Bahia Brazil. Mestre Themba's knowledge of the art of Capoeira Angola has been featured
in interviews on CNN, ABC, PBS, NBC and various radio and television shows throughout the United States, Brazil, the Caribbean
and Egypt. He has been a featured performer in the international group “Corpo Santos”, “Sounds of Brazil”,
Carnival in Brazil and San Francisco, Musical director John Santos, the Atlanta Black Arts Festival, and other productions
and events too numerous to name.
Mr. C. Daniel Dawson (Historian) is currently working as an art and media consultant, and frequently lectures on African and
African-Diasporic Cultures. He has lectured at the American Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the
House of World Cultures (Berlin), the Kit Tropenmuseum (Amsterdam), the University of California-Berkeley, University of Texas-Austin,
University of Wisconsin-Madison, the New School for Social Research, Stanford University, Columbia University, Princeton University
and the Federal Universities of Rio de Janeiro and Bahia, Brazil. In addition, Mr. Dawson has taught seminars on African Spirituality
in the Americas and Quilombos, Palenques and Maroon Societies in the Americas at Columbia University, the University of Iowa,
New York University and Yale University. He has also served as consultant for the Cooper Hewitt Museum, the Museum for African
Art, the International Center for Photography, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Jazz at Lincoln Center,
the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University, Ralph Appelbaum Associates and three different divisions of the Smithsonian
Institution.
|
