This week we have a special round-table talk with pioneering play specialists of the world’s best play anthologies, featuring Dalbir Singh, Kathy Perkins, Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway and hosted by Sarudzayi Marufu.
Find out more about Beyond The Canon and our guests at beyondthecanon.com
Kathy A. Perkins, scholar and lighting designer, is the editor/co-editor of six anthologies, in addition to serving as a senior editor for the Routledge Companion to African American Theatre and Performance. A recipient of numerous research and design awards, including Fulbright, NEH, NAACP Image Award, the USITT Publication Award, and the ATHE Career Achievement Award in Academic Theatre, she has traveled to over forty countries as both designer and scholar. Kathy has designed nationally and internationally at such venues as Berkeley Repertory, Arena Stage, St. Louis Black Repertory, Baltimore Center Stage, Goodman, Steppenwolf, Yale Repertory, Manhattan Theatre Club, American Conservatory, Mark Taper Forum, Congo Square, and the Grahamstown Festival in South Africa. Kathy is Professor Emerita at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Dalbir Singh is a Ph.D. candidate in Performance Studies at the University of Toronto. He taught courses there as well as at the University of Waterloo and the University of Guelph. At Waterloo, he taught the first theatre course exclusively focused on racial identity and Canadian theatre. He has edited five collections of plays and critical essays on topics including Tamil culture and identity, post-colonial theatre, South Asian Canadian drama, and queer Canadian theatre.
Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway is Founder/Artistic Director of Beyond The Canon, Founder of Artistic Directors of the Future, Executive Producer & Senior Coordinating Producer of Black Lives, Black Words International Project and is curatorial consultant for Manchester International Festival. Simeilia has also been former troubleshooter and Manager of the National Theatre's Black Play Archive, Editor of the first monologue anthology for Black Plays inspired by black British Plays: The Oberon Book of Monologues for Black Actors: Classical and Contemporary Speeches from Black British Plays which was followed by a second monologue anthology published by Bloomsbury Methuen Drama: Audition Speeches for Black, South Asian and Middle Eastern Actors, interim Associate Producer at Theatre Royal Stratford East and former Trustee at Company of Angels Theatre Company. She also worked nationally and internationally as a theatre director, producer, dramaturg, teacher/guest lecturer and audience development consultant. Simeilia is currently a member of the editorial team for the Backpages Selection of the Contemporary Theatre Review (Routledge/UK) and editor for The Stage Newspaper. In 2017, Simeilia was appointed as a trustee for the Directors Guild of Great Britain.
