Marjuan Canady, a Caribbean-American producer, director, writer, performer, entrepreneur, and educator, has been selected as the inaugural Front Row Productions Fellow. As previously announced, the fellowship was created by Olivier-winning and Tony-nominated Broadway producers Stephen Byrd and Alia Jones-Harvey in partnership with Columbia University.
In the program, Canady will develop her fellowship project; receive a $10,000 stipend and a $20,000 budget to cover development costs; receive one-on-one support from the mentors and advisors; have access to the Columbia University resources, including the library system and courses offered through the MFA concentration in Theatre Management & Producing; and have the opportunity to participate in the Theatre Management & Producing Concentration’s Producer Exchange Program with Stage One in the UK.
Canady's original work has been seen at The John F. Kennedy Center, The Smithsonian, Harlem Stage, Lincoln Center, the Atlas Performing Arts Center, the Miami Book Fair, and on Sesame Street. She is the CEO/author of the children's media brand, Callaloo Kids, in which she penned four books and then adapted those stories for the stage and digital media. She has also founded her own production company, Sepia Works, and a non-profit, Canady Foundation for the Arts. Canady is a graduate of Duke Ellington School of the Arts and holds her B.A. in Theatre/Africana Studies from Fordham University and her M.A. in Arts Politics from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She is a member of the Producers Guild of America.
Fellowship Mentors include Byrd, Jones-Harvey, Jujamcyn Theaters President Jordan Roth, and producers Eva Price, Willette Klausner, and Steven Chaikelson.
The Fellowship has also formed an advisory council of industry leaders who will serve as additional resources for the fellows, sharing their expertise, perspective, and complementing the existing mentorship and academic curriculum. The council includes North Carolina Black Repertory Theatre Artistic Director Jackie Alexander, The Public Theater Associate Artistic Director Saheem Ali, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company Artistic Director Maria Manuela Goyanes, Bespoke Theatricals General Manager Amy Jacobs, National Black Theatre Artistic Director Jonathan McCrory, Shubert Theatre (New Haven) Executive Director Anthony McDonald, producers Ira Pittelman and Jeffrey Richards, performer-director LaTanya Richardson Jackson, SpotCo Senior Vice President Stephen Sosnowski, and performer-director-producer Tamara Tunie.
INTERVIEW: Spotlight on Black Broadway Producers: Stephen Byrd and Alia Jones-Harvey
The Front Row Productions Fellowship is supervised by an oversight committee made up of leaders working in the theatre industry and Steven Chaikelson, head of the MFA Theatre Management & Producing Concentration at Columbia.
Visit FrontRowFellowship.com for more information.
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