Valerie Curtis-Newton
Director/Educator
Director/Educator
Bio
Currently the Head of Acting and Directing at the University of Washington School of Drama and an Artistic Associate at A Contemporary Theatre (ACT), Valerie serves as the Artistic Director for The Hansberry Project, a professional African American theatre lab currently in collaboration with ACT. She has previously served as Artistic Director of both Seattle's Ethnic Cultural Theatre and Hartford's Performing Ensemble, Inc. and worked with Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Intiman Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, The Mark Taper Forum, New York Theatre Workshop, Tacoma Actors’ Guild, Southern Repertory Theatre, Capitol Repertory Theatre, and Northwest Asian American Theatre among others. Her credits include the premieres of Constance Congdon’s The Midwife’s Apprentice and Kia Corthron’s The Venus De Milo Is Armed and Slide Glide The Slippery Slope as well as productions of Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Flight, The Colored Museum, Combination Skin, Wedding Band, Spell #7, Zooman and the Sign, Porcelain, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Neat, Santos & Santos, Stevedore, Chain, and Hiro.
Valerie was a participant in the National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group (TCG/NEA) Career Development Program for Directors in 1997-1999 and in 2001 she received the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation’s (SDCF) Gielgud Directing Fellowship. Valerie holds a BA from Holy Cross College, an MFA in Directing from the University of Washington and is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers (SSDC).
Valerie was a participant in the National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group (TCG/NEA) Career Development Program for Directors in 1997-1999 and in 2001 she received the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation’s (SDCF) Gielgud Directing Fellowship. Valerie holds a BA from Holy Cross College, an MFA in Directing from the University of Washington and is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers (SSDC).
"For
most of my career as an artist and teacher, I have held firmly to the
belief that Theatre's fundamental function is to put us in relationship
with one another, inspiring a sense of community. As current events
shake the foundations of communities around the world, I find myself
increasingly committed to Theatre not only as a means of self-expression
but also as an essential condition for the creation and rejuvenation of
community."
What you should know
Contact info:
valcn@comcast.net
206.723.6791
Occupation: Theatre Director & University Professor
Current City: Seattle WA
Current Projects:
WANTED by Shontina Vernon (in development)
What’s next:
IDIOMS
Text by Jorgen Dahlqvist, Pia Orjansdotter, Valerie Curtis-Newton & Nguyen Duc Manh
Music by Richard Karpen, Stefan Ostersjo and Nguyen Thanh Thuy
Opens November 14, 2011 - Stockholm Sweden
Passion projects (the ones I’d kill to do):
Naomi Wallace's "Things of Dry Hours"
Eisa Davis' "Bulrusher"
Sarah Ruhl's "Clean House"
Catherine Trieschmann’s "Crooked"
Arthur Miller's "All My Sons" (DONE! Intiman Theatre 2011)
Anything from the Federal Theatre Project - I love those big messy plays
Anything by Alice Childress
August Wilson's "Joe Turner"
Shakespreare's "Winter's Tale"
Adrienne Kennedy's "Sleep Deprivation Chamber
Personal Motto: “Find the fear in the room and face it.”
Contact info:
valcn@comcast.net
206.723.6791
Occupation: Theatre Director & University Professor
Current City: Seattle WA
Current Projects:
WANTED by Shontina Vernon (in development)
What’s next:
IDIOMS
Text by Jorgen Dahlqvist, Pia Orjansdotter, Valerie Curtis-Newton & Nguyen Duc Manh
Music by Richard Karpen, Stefan Ostersjo and Nguyen Thanh Thuy
Opens November 14, 2011 - Stockholm Sweden
Passion projects (the ones I’d kill to do):
Naomi Wallace's "Things of Dry Hours"
Eisa Davis' "Bulrusher"
Sarah Ruhl's "Clean House"
Catherine Trieschmann’s "Crooked"
Arthur Miller's "All My Sons" (DONE! Intiman Theatre 2011)
Anything from the Federal Theatre Project - I love those big messy plays
Anything by Alice Childress
August Wilson's "Joe Turner"
Shakespreare's "Winter's Tale"
Adrienne Kennedy's "Sleep Deprivation Chamber
Personal Motto: “Find the fear in the room and face it.”
