Bridging the gap between the academic and performing arts communities through dynamic public programs and digital initiatives that are free and open to all.
As a soloist, choreographer and master teacher, Ms. Gray has toured extensively across the U.S. and abroad as a tap dance artist since 1983 and in 1989 co-founded Tapestry Dance Company in Austin, TX with Deirdre Strand and currently serves as Producing Artistic Director & Artistic Director of The Soul to Sole Tap Festival. A graduate of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts/NYC, Ms. Gray has shared the stage with numerous tap legends and contemporaries since chosen to work with the legend Charles ‘Honi’ Coles in America’s first creative residency for tap at The Colorado Dance Festival 1989 and again with Jimmy Slyde in 1990. Her book The Souls of Your Feet – A Tap Dance Guide for Rhythm Explorers has been translated in the Czech Republic and China and has been an Amazon.com Bestseller in its category since 1998. Her numerous awards include the prestigious “Hoofer Award” by The American Tap Dance Foundation and she was honored as a premiere member of the Austin Arts Hall of Fame in 2002. She was also nominated for a Princess Grace Award in the early 1990’s, served on the Steering Committee of The International Tap Plan and served as Director of The International Tap Association from 2008-2018. and honored at the 2018 Dance USA Conference. Her work The Souls of Our Feet – A Celebration of American Tap Dance was chosen as an NEA American Masterpiece production and toured throughout the US, Canada, and China from 2009-2012. She can also be seen in the tap documentaries A Class Act: The Magic of Honi Coles, Tap or Die, Thinking on Their Feet – Women of the Tap Renaissance and Passing it Forward produced by PBS/Arts In Context. Ms. Gray is also proud to be a 2019 Austin Creative Alliance Honoree.
Deborah Mitchell
Deborah Mitchell celebrates 26 years as Founder and Artistic Director of New Jersey Tap Dance Ensemble. Ms. Mitchell has a rich, extensive background and career with the art form of tap dancing. As protégé of Leslie “Bubba” Gaines of the Copasetics, this award winning tap professionals credits include The Cotton Club Motion Picture, Tony-Award Winning Broadway Production Black and Blue, PBS Great Performances and international tours with the legendary Cab Calloway performing with Germaine Goodson as The Rhythm Queens. She is one of the subjects of Tap Dancing America by Constance Valis Hill and the documentary Gotta Move, Women in Tap by Lynn Daly. Under her direction, NJTAP Dance Ensemble has received 2020, 2019 and 2018 Jersey Arts Peoples Choice Award Favorite Modern/Cultural Dance Company, and the Company has been a recipient of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts Citation of Excellence.
Tony Waag founded the American Tap Dance Foundation a non-profit New York City based tap dance organization in 2001 with a mission of establishing and legitimizing Tap Dance as a vital component of American Dance through creation, presentation, education, and preservation. He also created Tap City, the annual New York City Tap Festival, International Tap Dance Hall of Fame, Tap Preservation and Hoofer Awards, the Gregory Hines Youth Scholarship Fund, Rhythm in Motion, Tap it Out, Tap Treasures, and the Gregory Hines Archives of American Tap Dance. As a performer and choreographer, he has been featured in hundreds of concerts, film and television productions. In January of 2010, he opened the American Tap Dance Center in New York City where he currently directs on-going education and training programs for tappers of all ages and levels.
ABOUT SEGAL TALKS
The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center is proud to announce the 17th weekly line-up of its new global series, SEGAL TALKS, which was conceived, created and curated by Frank Hentschker in March 2020. New York, US, and international theatre artists, curators, researchers, and academics will talk daily for one hour with Segal Center’s director, Frank Hentschker, about life and art in the Time of Corona and speak about challenges, sorrows, and hopes for the new Weltzustand— the State of the World. The Segal Center is the only theatre institution in NYC and the US creating original content.
The newly introduced ad-free SEGAL TALKS will be live-streamed in English from Monday to Friday on HowlRound Theatre Commons and on the Segal Center Facebook. All the previous SEGAL TALKS will be found on HowlRound, the Segal Center Facebook, and the Segal Center YouTube Channel. The Segal Theatre Center will raise money for theatre artists and companies. This program is in collaboration with HowlRound Theatre Commons, based at Emerson College.
SEGAL TALKS has been made possible by the support of Susan and Jack Rudin(†), the Hearst Foundation, and Marvin Carlson, Sidney E. Cohn Chair, The Graduate Center CUNY.
Originally founded in 1979 as the Center for Advanced Studies in Theatre Arts (CASTA), The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center was renamed in March of 1999 to recognize Martin E. Segal, one of New York City’s outstanding leaders of the arts. The Segal Center curates over thirty events throughout the Spring and Fall academic seasons, all free and open to the public. Dedicated to bridging the gap between the professional and academic theatre communities, the Segal Center presents readings, performance, lectures, and artists and academics in conversation. In addition, the Segal Center presents three annual festivals (PRELUDE, PEN World Voices: International Pay Festival, and The Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance) and publishes and maintains three open access online journals (Arab Stages, European Stages, and The Journal of American Drama and Theatre). The Segal Center also publishes many volumes of plays in translation and is the leading publisher of plays from the Arab world. The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (MESTC) is a vital component of the Theatre Program’s academic culture and creating in close collaboration a research nexus, focusing on dramaturgy, new media, and global theatre. The Segal Center provides an intimate platform where both artists and theatre professionals can actively participate with audiences to advance awareness and appreciation. www.TheSegalCenter.org
THE SEGAL TEAM
Executive Director: Frank Hentschker
Creative Producer: Sunyoung Kim
Next Generation Fellow: Andie Lerner
Assistant Director of Programs: Kyueun Kim
THE GRADUATE CENTER, CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, of which the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center is an integral part, is the doctorate-granting institution of The City University of New York (CUNY). An internationally recognized center for advanced studies and a national model for public doctoral education, the school offers more than thirty doctoral programs, as well as a number of master’s programs. Many of its faculty members are among the world’s leading scholars in their respective fields, and its alumni hold major positions in industry and government, as well as in academia. The Graduate Center is also home to twenty-eight interdisciplinary research centers and institutes focused on areas of compelling social, civic, cultural, and scientific concerns. Located in a landmark Fifth Avenue building, The Graduate Center has become a vital part of New York City’s intellectual and cultural life with its extensive array of public lectures, exhibitions, concerts, and theatrical events. www.gc.cuny.edu.
HowlRound Theatre Commons at www.HowlRound.com is a free and open platform for theatre makers worldwide that amplifies progressive, disruptive ideas about the art form and facilitates connection between diverse practitioners. HowlRound envisions a theatre field where resources and power are shared equitably in all directions, contributing to a more just and sustainable world. HowlRound was founded on an organizing principle in the “commons”—a social structure that invites open participation around shared values. HowlRound is a knowledge commons that encourages freely sharing intellectual and artistic resources and expertise. It is our strong belief that the power of live theatre connects us across difference, puts us in proximity of one another, and strengthens our tether to our commonalities. HowlRound is based at Emerson College, Boston. http://www.howlround.com
(Untitled)
SEGAL TALKS: Acia Gray, Deborah Mitchell & Tony Waag (US)
« Back to EventsClick Here to Watch Previous Segal Talks
SEGAL TALKS Week 17
ACIA GRAY, DEBORAH MITCHELL, TONY WAAG (US)
Monday, July 20, 2020, 12 noon EDT
“New Times need new Forms of Theatre.” Bertolt Brecht
Acia Gray, Deborah Mitchell & Tony Waag
Join us for an update on the situation for theatre artists in the US
As a soloist, choreographer and master teacher, Ms. Gray has toured extensively across the U.S. and abroad as a tap dance artist since 1983 and in 1989 co-founded Tapestry Dance Company in Austin, TX with Deirdre Strand and currently serves as Producing Artistic Director & Artistic Director of The Soul to Sole Tap Festival. A graduate of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts/NYC, Ms. Gray has shared the stage with numerous tap legends and contemporaries since chosen to work with the legend Charles ‘Honi’ Coles in America’s first creative residency for tap at The Colorado Dance Festival 1989 and again with Jimmy Slyde in 1990. Her book The Souls of Your Feet – A Tap Dance Guide for Rhythm Explorers has been translated in the Czech Republic and China and has been an Amazon.com Bestseller in its category since 1998. Her numerous awards include the prestigious “Hoofer Award” by The American Tap Dance Foundation and she was honored as a premiere member of the Austin Arts Hall of Fame in 2002. She was also nominated for a Princess Grace Award in the early 1990’s, served on the Steering Committee of The International Tap Plan and served as Director of The International Tap Association from 2008-2018. and honored at the 2018 Dance USA Conference. Her work The Souls of Our Feet – A Celebration of American Tap Dance was chosen as an NEA American Masterpiece production and toured throughout the US, Canada, and China from 2009-2012. She can also be seen in the tap documentaries A Class Act: The Magic of Honi Coles, Tap or Die, Thinking on Their Feet – Women of the Tap Renaissance and Passing it Forward produced by PBS/Arts In Context. Ms. Gray is also proud to be a 2019 Austin Creative Alliance Honoree.
Deborah Mitchell celebrates 26 years as Founder and Artistic Director of New Jersey Tap Dance Ensemble. Ms. Mitchell has a rich, extensive background and career with the art form of tap dancing. As protégé of Leslie “Bubba” Gaines of the Copasetics, this award winning tap professionals credits include The Cotton Club Motion Picture, Tony-Award Winning Broadway Production Black and Blue, PBS Great Performances and international tours with the legendary Cab Calloway performing with Germaine Goodson as The Rhythm Queens. She is one of the subjects of Tap Dancing America by Constance Valis Hill and the documentary Gotta Move, Women in Tap by Lynn Daly. Under her direction, NJTAP Dance Ensemble has received 2020, 2019 and 2018 Jersey Arts Peoples Choice Award Favorite Modern/Cultural Dance Company, and the Company has been a recipient of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts Citation of Excellence.
ABOUT SEGAL TALKS
The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center is proud to announce the 17th weekly line-up of its new global series, SEGAL TALKS, which was conceived, created and curated by Frank Hentschker in March 2020. New York, US, and international theatre artists, curators, researchers, and academics will talk daily for one hour with Segal Center’s director, Frank Hentschker, about life and art in the Time of Corona and speak about challenges, sorrows, and hopes for the new Weltzustand— the State of the World. The Segal Center is the only theatre institution in NYC and the US creating original content.
The newly introduced ad-free SEGAL TALKS will be live-streamed in English from Monday to Friday on HowlRound Theatre Commons and on the Segal Center Facebook. All the previous SEGAL TALKS will be found on HowlRound, the Segal Center Facebook, and the Segal Center YouTube Channel. The Segal Theatre Center will raise money for theatre artists and companies. This program is in collaboration with HowlRound Theatre Commons, based at Emerson College.
SEGAL TALKS has been made possible by the support of Susan and Jack Rudin(†), the Hearst Foundation, and Marvin Carlson, Sidney E. Cohn Chair, The Graduate Center CUNY.
CONTACT
Send us questions during the live streaming at SegalTalks@gmail.com. Contact mest@gc.cuny.edu for more information on SEGAL TALKS. Contact Frank Hentschker at fhentschker@gc.cuny.edu for press information Follow us @segalcenter on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter
PARTICIPANTS FROM THE PREVIOUS WEEKS
Click Here for Week 16 Participants: Ping Chong (NYC); Susanne Kennedy (Germany); Lee Breuer & Maude Mitchell (NYC); Tiago Rodrigues (Portugal); Caridad Svich (US)
Click Here for Week 15 Participants: Karishma Bhagani, Anne Moraa & Sitawa Namwalie (Kenya); Émilie Monnet & Greg Hill (Canada); Satoko Ichihara (Japan); Niegel Smith (NYC); Jean-Claude van Itallie (US)
Click Here for Week 14 Participants: Kemi Ilesanmi & Ebony Noelle Golden (NYC); Gianina Cărbunariu (Romania) & Jeton Neziraj (Kosovo); Frédérique Aït-Touati (France); Iman Aoun (Palestine); Evoné Walters & Akiba Abaka (Jamaica)
Click Here for Week 13 Participants: Muriel Miguel & Gloria Miguel (US); Daniely Francisque (Martinique); Eugenio Barba (Italy); Paul Pryce (NYC); Liwaa Yazji (Syria)
Click Here for Week 12 Participants: Peter Schumann (US); Govin Ruben & Terence Conrad (Malaysia); Tania Bruguera (Cuba); Hope Azeda (Rwanda); Saman Amini (Netherlands/Iran)
Click Here for Week 11 Participants: Jonathan McCrory & Ngozi Anyanwu (NYC); James Scruggs & Tamilla Woodard (NYC); Jean-Luc Nancy (France); Awoye Timpo (NYC); Woodie King Jr. (NYC)
Click Here for Week 10 Participants: Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota (France); Ralph B. Peña (USA/NYC); Ruth Kanner, Joshua Sobol, Maya Arad Yasur (Israel); Avra Sidiropoulou (Greece); Ashley Tata (USA/NYC)
Click Here for Week 9 Participants: Kris Verdonck (Belgium); Aina Tur (Spain); Anne Bogart (New York, USA); Patricia Cornelius (Australia); Hoi Fai Wu (Hong Kong)
Click Here for Week 8 Participants: Maria Tri Sulistyani (Indonesia); Pamela Villoresi (Italy); Richard Foreman (USA); Thomas Oberender (Germany); Phillip Howze & Jordana De La Cruz(USA)
Click Here for Week 7 Participants: Ismail Mahomed (South Africa); Natalia Vorozhbit(Ukraine);Amir Nizar Zuabi & Fidaa Zaidan (Palestine); Roberta Estrela D’alva & Dione Carlos(Brazil); Edouard Elvis Bvouma & Hermine Yollo (Cameroon)
Click Here for Week 6 Participants: Andrea Tompa & Anna Lengyel (Hungary); Lola Arias (Argentina); Mihaela Drăgan & Mihaela Michailov (Romania); Zuleikha Allana (India); Stacy Klein & Stephanie Monseu (USA)
Click Here for Week 5 Participants: Rimini Protokoll’s Daniel Wetzel, Helgard Haug, & Stefan Kaegi (Germany); Guy Régis Jr (Haiti); Jalila Baccar (Tunis); Peter Sellars (USA); Oskar Eustis& Tony Torn (NYC, USA)
Click Here for Week 4 Participants: Milo Rau (Switzerland); Richard Schechner (NYC, US); Basil Jones (South Africa); Arthur Nauzyciel & Keren Ann (France); Guillermo Calderón (Chile)
Click Here for Week 3 Participants: The New BlackFest’s Keith Adkins with Dennis A. Allen II, France-Luce Benson, & Lisa Strum (NYC); Nature Theatre of Oklahoma’s Kelly Copper & Pavol Liska + The Big Dance Theatre’s Annie-B Parson & Paul Lazar (NYC); The Foundry Theatre’s Melanie Joseph with Aaron Landsman & Aurin Squire(NYC); Shahid Nadeem (Pakistan) + Abhishek Majumdar & Anurupa Roy (India); TR Warszawa’s Grzegorz Jarzynawith Agata Kołacz & Roman Pawłowski (Poland)
Click Here for Week 2 Participants: Laila Soliman, Dalia Basiouny (Egypt) + Sahar Assaf(Lebanon); Chou Tung-Yen, Kathy Hong, Wu-Kang Chen (Taiwan); Lucia Calamaro, Graziano Graziani, Valeria Orani (Italy); Meredith Monk (New York, US); Aristide Tarnagda & Safoura Kaboré (Burkina Faso)
Click Here for Week 1 Participants: Taylor Mac & Kristin Marting (New York, US); Mok Chiu Yu(Hong Kong) + Hanchen Feng, Shuyi Liao (China); Thomas Ostermeier(Germany); Teatro delle Albe’s Marco Martinelli, Ermanna Montanari (Italy); Toshiki Okada (Japan)
ABOUT THE MARTIN E. SEGAL THEATRE CENTER
Originally founded in 1979 as the Center for Advanced Studies in Theatre Arts (CASTA), The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center was renamed in March of 1999 to recognize Martin E. Segal, one of New York City’s outstanding leaders of the arts. The Segal Center curates over thirty events throughout the Spring and Fall academic seasons, all free and open to the public. Dedicated to bridging the gap between the professional and academic theatre communities, the Segal Center presents readings, performance, lectures, and artists and academics in conversation. In addition, the Segal Center presents three annual festivals (PRELUDE, PEN World Voices: International Pay Festival, and The Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance) and publishes and maintains three open access online journals (Arab Stages, European Stages, and The Journal of American Drama and Theatre). The Segal Center also publishes many volumes of plays in translation and is the leading publisher of plays from the Arab world. The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (MESTC) is a vital component of the Theatre Program’s academic culture and creating in close collaboration a research nexus, focusing on dramaturgy, new media, and global theatre. The Segal Center provides an intimate platform where both artists and theatre professionals can actively participate with audiences to advance awareness and appreciation. www.TheSegalCenter.org
Assistant Director of Programs: Kyueun Kim
THE GRADUATE CENTER, CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, of which the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center is an integral part, is the doctorate-granting institution of The City University of New York (CUNY). An internationally recognized center for advanced studies and a national model for public doctoral education, the school offers more than thirty doctoral programs, as well as a number of master’s programs. Many of its faculty members are among the world’s leading scholars in their respective fields, and its alumni hold major positions in industry and government, as well as in academia. The Graduate Center is also home to twenty-eight interdisciplinary research centers and institutes focused on areas of compelling social, civic, cultural, and scientific concerns. Located in a landmark Fifth Avenue building, The Graduate Center has become a vital part of New York City’s intellectual and cultural life with its extensive array of public lectures, exhibitions, concerts, and theatrical events. www.gc.cuny.edu.
HowlRound Theatre Commons at www.HowlRound.com is a free and open platform for theatre makers worldwide that amplifies progressive, disruptive ideas about the art form and facilitates connection between diverse practitioners. HowlRound envisions a theatre field where resources and power are shared equitably in all directions, contributing to a more just and sustainable world. HowlRound was founded on an organizing principle in the “commons”—a social structure that invites open participation around shared values. HowlRound is a knowledge commons that encourages freely sharing intellectual and artistic resources and expertise. It is our strong belief that the power of live theatre connects us across difference, puts us in proximity of one another, and strengthens our tether to our commonalities. HowlRound is based at Emerson College, Boston. http://www.howlround.com