Tawnya Pettiford-Wates

Bio:

Tawnya Pettiford-Wates, Ph.D. is a Professor of Graduate Pedagogy in Acting and Directing at Virginia Commonwealth University and Co-Artistic Director of The Conciliation Lab, a non-profit social justice theatre company whose mission is “We create transformative experiences through the power of story.”www.theconciliationlab.org

Tawnya is a playwright, director, actor, poet, writer/scholar-activist and teacher. She has appeared with the Tony Award Winning company of the New York Shakespeare Festival’s Broadway production of “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the rainbow is enuf” performing in both the national and international touring companies.  Her television, film, industrial, voice over and commercial credits are extensive including a recent Greater Richmond Transit Company ad campaign and is featured voice talent for the video game HALO. Richmond Theatre directing credits include “Fences” and “A Raisin in the Sun” for the Virginia Rep, “Between Riverside & Crazy” for Cadence Theatre,  “A Streetcar Named Desire” for the Firehouse Theatre and “The Top of Bravery” for Quill Theatre in association with the African American Repertory Theatre, which won a Richmond Theatre Critics Circle ARTSIE for Best Original Work in 2017.  Some favored directing projects include James Baldwin’s “Blues for Mister Charlie”  at the Modlin Center for the Arts, “For Colored Girls…” for A Contemporary Theatre in Seattle and the Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis, “An Octoroon” at Theatre Lab, “Passing Strange” for Firehouse Theatre.

Dr. Pettiford-Wates is a contributing author in, Black Acting Methods: Critical Approaches, edited by Sharell Luckett and Tia Shaffer, Routledge, NY, NY, 2016. Her chapter is titled “Ritual Poetic Drama within the African Continuum: the journey from Shakespeare to Shange” and, African American Arts: Activism, Aesthetics, and Futurity, edited by Sharrell D. Luckett, Rutgers University Press, her book chapter is titled; “Behind the Mask of uncle tomism and the Performance of Blackness.” Her weekly column, “I’m Just Sayin’” by Dr.T  is published on www.urbanviewsweeklyrva.com

Pettiford-Wates is a member of:

  • Actor’s Equity Association (AEA)
  • American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA)
  • Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG)
  • Associate Member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC)