Apollo Salon Series:
Dream, Girl!

Shirley Clementine Walker

Lisa Rosetta Strum is an actor, playwright, singer and educator. She currently made her Broadway debut as an acting company member in Arthur Miller’s, Death of a Salesman. Most recently she played the roles of Goneril and Mother Abbess at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. Her virtual film production of BALTIMORE that she directed for Ramapo College won FIVE Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Awards. She was also one of the directors for “All Hands On Deck”, a Virtual Series with Project Y Theatre Company and premiered her short new play, “An Actor Prepares” for the festival this summer. As Resident Theatre Director at Five Towns College, she directed Flyin’ West, For Colored Girls… and SWEAT (Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Award Winning Productions). Lisa made her full production Regional Theatre debut at Luna Stage with Nikkole Salter’s TORN ASUNDER. She also directed FALL by France-Luce Benson for the 2019 One Act Play Festival with Ensemble Studio Theatre.

Director

Cezar Williams is an award-winning director. Recent credits include the Off-Broadway premiere of Dancing on Eggshells (Billie Holiday Theatre), Till: A Musical (American Theater Group), Mitchelville (Lean Ensemble Theatre), Sweat (Purchase Repertory Theater), The October Storm (Hudson Stage Company), Crowndation (National Black Theatre and CTG Digital Stage), The Hunting Season (Planet Connections Festivity, Award for Best Direction), You Wouldn’t Expect (American Bard Theater), How To Be Safe (The Dirty Blondes Theater), Lunchtime in Heaven (48 hours in Harlem), Nightfall, Slow Gin Fits, Ain’t No Mo’ (The Fire This Time Festival 2013, 2014, 2016). He is the Artistic Director of the Obie Award winning Fire This Time Festival and an Adjunct Professor of Acting at SUNY Purchase College. Cezar Williams is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. For professional inquiries contact him at [email protected].

Pianist

Janice A. Lowe is a composer-poet and multi-instrumentalist. Noted for playing piano while intoning poetry, her work has been recognized by Creative Capital, MacDowell, City Artists Corps, The Rauschenberg Foundation and The Center for Contemporary Writing at University of Pennsylvania. Lowe has performed/recorded with the bands w/o a net; Julie Ezelle Patton’s Rock, Paper, Sisters; Anne Waldman & Fast Speaking Music; Irreversible Entanglements, BRAHJA and Digital Diaspora. Her musical theater compositions include Lil Budda, text by Stephanie L. Jones (O’Neill Musical Theater Conference; National Alliance for Musical Theater Festival of New Works.) She was commissioned to compose musical settings of the Millie-Christine poems from the Pulitzer Prize-awarded collection Olio, by Tyehimba Jess and has composed music for and music directed plays including Liza Jessie Peterson’s Chiron’s Homegurl Healer Howls (New Black Fest,)12th and Clairmount by Jenni Lamb (Stage Left-Chicago,) and Door of No Return by Nehassaiu DeGannes.

Dramaturg

Hayley Spivey is a Brooklyn based dramaturg, actor, and screenwriter from Atlanta, Georgia. She received a B.F.A in Theatre Arts from Boston University. In Boston, Hayley worked as a Junior Dramaturg for Company One Theatre as well as freelancing at companies such as SpeakEasy Stage Company and Artists’ Theater of Boston. Currently, she is writing her own stories while working with other writers to foster excitement for their own development.

Stage Manager

Belynda M’Baye is a New York based stage manager with experience working with mainly new developments of plays. She recently traveled to Sweden as PSM with Jason “Timbuktu” Diakite in “A Drop of Midnight.” Belynda is delighted to have worked with playwrights, nicHi douglass, Marjuan Canady, Jason Michael Webb, Lelund Durond Tompson, Kambi Gathesha, Mfoniso Udofia, Lee Edward Colton II, Liza Jessie Peterson and Aurin Squire, and with Producing Teams like Harlem 9, The New Black Fest, Now Africa, and Springboard @ Lincoln Center. She has worked as Stage Manager for Festivals, including: NYMF, NAMT Festivals, Going Down To The River Festival. Belynda is Program Manager of the Soul Series L.A.B – I Am Soul Residency Program for Playwrights, Directors and Producers at The National Black Theatre.

Producer

Keith Josef Adkins is a playwright, artistic director and screenwriter. Some of his plays include The West End, The People Before the Park, Safe House, Pitbulls, Sugar and Needles, the Last Saint on Sugar Hill. He’s been produced at Rattlestick Theater, Cincinnati Playhouse, St. Louis Rep, National Black Theater, among others.  Keith’s the recipient of the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, Samuel French’s Award for Impact and Activism in the Theater Community, National Black Theater’s Teer Spirit Award. He is also the artistic director of The New Black Fest, a 13-year-old theater organization committed to fostering insurgent voices from the African Diaspora. Keith’s TV/film credits include Run Sweetheart Run on Amazon Prime, P-Valley on Starz, Netflix’s Outer Banks, and he’s written or sold TV projects to JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot, HBO Max with Don Cheadle/Steven Soderbergh, and Neftlix through Regina King’s Royal Ties.