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Kristen Adele Calhoun

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Kristen Adele Calhoun is a writer, actor, producer and curator. She is currently an I AM SOUL Playwriting Resident at Dr. Barbara Ann Teer’s National Black Theatre and a member of the inaugural cohort of Writers in Residence at the Library of Africa and the African Diaspora. She is the founding Program Director of ArtChangeUS and co-producer of InterFest, an intersectional arts and ideas festival that began at the Harlem School of the Arts. She is the Assistant Editor of Contemporary Plays by Women of Color. Her play, Canfield Drive, about Ferguson, Missouri and the murder of Mike Brown had a rolling world premiere in 2019 at the St. Louis Black Rep and The National Black Theatre Festival. Other plays include A Pocket Full of Dandelions (Denver Center Theatre Company), Quilombo (5280 Artists Coop), With These Hands (Black American West Museum), and Aint Gonna Let Nobody (NAACP).

Television and film acting credits include House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Elementary, The Sinner, Blue Bloods, The Good Wife, and Everything I Whispered to Dorothy.

Off-Broadway & regional acting credits include Jackie and Me (Denver Center); Skeleton Crew (Premiere Stages); A Raisin in the Sun (Clarence Brown Theatre); Myrna in Transit (Ensemble Studio Theatre); Clybourne Park (Geva Theatre & Cleveland Playhouse); and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Shadow Theatre Co.)

A native of Dallas, Texas, she is a graduate of the University of North Texas (Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting) and the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University (Master of Fine Arts in Acting). Kristen is currently splits her time between Ghana, Mexico and the United States of America.

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National Black Theatre Opens Applications for 2024-2026 SOUL SERIES L.A.B. PROGRAMS


NATIONAL BLACK THEATRE is now accepting applications for the 2024-2026 SOUL SERIES L.A.B. PROGRAMS. Learn how to apply!

Video: Get A First Look at BLACK CYPRESS BAYOU at Geffen Playhouse


Get a first look at Geffen Playhouse's world premiere of Black Cypress Bayou, written by Kristen Adele Calhoun (HBO’s Sula, BLKNWS) and directed by Tiffany Nichole Greene (Hamilton: An American Musical, Rent). Check out the video!

Review: BLACK CYPRESS BAYOU at Geffen Playhouse


Part mystery, part cathartic family drama ruminating on legacies of evil and forgiveness, director Tiffany Nichole Greene’s production grips us tightly from the outset and does not easily let us go. Thankfully, along this 80-minute journey, we also get to laugh as well as exhale.

Interview: Kristen Adele Calhoun Excitedly World Premieres Her BLACK CYPRESS BAYOU


The world premiere of Kristen Adele Calhoun’s Black Cypress Bayou has already begun at the Geffen Playhouse. Tiffany Nichole Greene directs the cast of: Amber Chardae Robinson, Brandee Evans, Angela Lewis and Kimberly Scott. After a successful opening weekend, Kristen managed to find some time to answer a few of my queries.

HELL'S KITCHEN, REDWOOD, INFINITE LIFE and More Win Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards


Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, just announced the recipients of the 2023-24 Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards.

Cast Set For BLACK CYPRESS BAYOU at the Geffen Playhouse


Geffen Playhouse has announced the full cast for its world premiere of Black Cypress Bayou, written by Kristen Adele Calhoun (HBO’s Sula, BLKNWS) and directed by Tiffany Nichole Greene (Hamilton: An American Musical, Rent).

Photos: Go Inside the Relentless Award's PICKET PLAYS Reading


The American Playwriting Foundation (David Bar Katz, Founding Artistic Director) and Building for the Arts (David J. Roberts, President; Jeffrey A. Horwitz, Board Chair) presented a new Relentless Award for ten-minute plays by WGA members.

Daphne Rubin-Vega, Hari Nef & More to Perform at Relentless Picket Play Benefit


Get the latest updates on the winners of the Relentless Picket Play and find out which celebrities will be performing in the upcoming benefit reading on November 5. Don't miss out on this star-studded event.

National Black Theatre Selects Five Artists for 2023 Soul Series Lab Residency Program


Learn about the five talented artists selected for National Black Theatre's 2023 Soul Series Lab Residency Program. Discover their unique work and get an inside look at this exciting opportunity for emerging artists.

National Black Theatre Reveals 2023-24 Season 'Defiance of Our Bloom'


Dr. Barbara Ann Teer’s Tony-nominated National Black Theatre (NBT) has announced its 2023-24 season, ‘Defiance of Our Bloom,’ with a theatrical lineup of four productions created in partnership with three leading theaters including Ars Nova, The Apollo Performing Arts Center and The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. 

West Coast Premiere of FAT HAM and More Set For Geffen Playhouse's 2023/24 Season


Geffen Playhouse has announced the seven productions that will make up the 2023/2024 season in its Gil Cates and Audrey Skirball Kenis Theaters. The season will feature the West Coast premiere of Fat Ham, which is now playing on Broadway. Learn more about the full season lineup here!

Bishop Arts Theatre Announces 10 Commission Awards To Local Writers


Bishop Arts Theatre Center will continue its 28th anniversary season with The HOW TO BE Project: Ten Plays for Racial Justice, a one-act festival scheduled for February 17 – March 5, 2022, at Bishop Arts Theatre Center with ten written commissions for Black-identified writers speaking to the current moment of the Black Lives Matter movement, disproportionate policing in communities of color, and the exploration of the America that Langston Hughes called “the dream it used to be.” Inspired by select chapters from Dr. Ibram X. Kendi's book, How To Be An Anti-Racist, the festival seeks to present works that continue the dialogue in the enduring struggle for racial justice.  

SPACE On Ryder Farm Announces 2022 Residency Season, Applications Open Today


Today, for the first time in two years as a result of the pandemic, SPACE on Ryder Farm, the artist residency program and organic farm, opened applications for its 2022 Residency Season.

Kristen Adele Calhoun and Mildred Lewis to Close Out CONSEQUENCES Series


The final two writers in the collaboration between Harlem9, Harlem Stage, and The Lucille Lortel Theatre (co-producers) have been named.  Kristen Adele Calhoun and Mildred Lewis will close out the series with 15-day streaming periods on YouTube in May and June 2021. 

BWW Review: CANFIELD DRIVE Asks Where Are You in Your Work to Heal Racial Trauma?


Playwrights Kristen Adele Calhoun and Michael Thomas Walker's new drama, Canfield Drive, received its world premier this month, after being co-commissioned by 651 Arts in partnership with The St. Louis Black Repertory Company and the National Performance Network. Under development for the past four years, this breathtaking new play takes a hard, serious look at incidents and attitudes surrounding the August 14, 2014 fatal police shooting of Michael Brown, the Ferguson protests that followed, and the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Calhoun and Walker, whose work is well-researched and hard-hitting, uses a documentary theatre structure, its many short scenes based on interviews from people around Ferguson and around the nation whose voices might not necessarily have been heard in traditional media coverage.

HSA to Present Free Arts & Ideas Festival, INTERFEST


OBIE Award Winning actor Chris Myers, an HSA alumnus and Artist-in-Residence presents, 'INTERFEST,' a free, three-day arts & ideas festival. This event provides a platform for emerging artists and thinkers to explore the future of culture and community in an energized and transformative environment.

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