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Directing Portfolio

All theatre is political, and instead of shying away from it, I look for opportunities to complicate the narrative and confront issues within society. Growing up in predominantly white private schools in Washington, DC, and Northern Virginia, I learned early on that the way I was perceived was not solely based on a person’s experience with me but was also based on implicit and explicit bias. These early experiences drive my belief that theatre is a tool for change by creating opportunities to encounter diverse perspectives. I aim to create opportunities for actors from the global majority to inhabit roles not written for them, not just for the sake of opportunity, but to analyze how a story changes based on who is on stage. I lean into my lived experience as a Black woman to explore movement, collective speech, and rhythm, elevating and expressing a play's overt and covert messages. I'm drawn to work that is intentionally chosen and staged to reflect the times. I create work that questions or subverts societal structures to tell new stories of what America (and the world) can be.

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Sentient City

"What happens when a city that runs on water runs out of water?"- Citizen Glitch

Developed at Rorschach Theatre's Klecksography 2026 New Works Lab

Written by Michelle Lynch with devising support from Gaelyn D. Smith, Alexys Adams, Bertem Demirtas and Olivia Cholewczynski

Directed by Gaelyn D. Smith

Cast: Alexys Adams, Bertem Demirtas and Olivia Cholewczynski

Stage Management: Alexander Kunitz

Lighting: Emma Smith

Sound: Light Eldawah

Photography: Ryan Maxwell

Midiculous (Staged Reading)

Keegan Theatre Boiler Room Series

Written by Dwayne Lawson-Brown and Drew Anderson, in Development with DCPS Students

Stage Management: Jaida Gillespie

Cast: Bobbi Johnson, Daniel Young, Kara Harrison, Duane Richards, Lorenzo Miguel, Aysia Glenn, Ashanti Branch

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​Midiculous Middle School. A laughably lopsided social “order” in which students are designated either Queen Bee, Jock, Geek, or Goth – and woe betide any who dare defy their thus declared destiny. Add to this sinister stew a mysterious zombifying virus spread through TikTok dances. How is one to survive all of this “Midiculousness?” By turning to… you. Yes, you! In this Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style world premiere by Drew Anderson and Dwayne Lawson-Brown (writers of FROM GUMBO TO MUMBO and PUSH THE BUTTON), you decide the outcome of a metaphysical game show where only the winner escapes the prison of pre-teen politics. Let’s get Midiculous!

The Very Vivacious Veo (Staged Reading)

Written by Jordan Brown

Directed by Gaelyn Smith

Stage Management: Tia Thomas

Cast: Jordan Brown, Gary DuBreuil, and Sophia Colón Roosevelt

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Meet Veo, your grayscale, cartoonized, black friend from the black-and-white world of 1930s television. Join Veo as he sidesteps gunfire, tangos with white terror, and juggles aggressions on micro- and macro-levels to have the best day ever. The Very Vivacious Veo! welds his world and ours to solve the ever-relevant question: how do you find joy in a world that is practically designed to hate you?

Spit Dat Poetry Academy X Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company at the Youth Services Center (Staged Reading)

Written by students at Maya Angelou Academy at Youth Services Center and assembled by Drew Anderson

Directed by Gaelyn D. Smith

Cast: Kara Harrison, Queen Cain, Drew Anderson, and Gene Downing

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For the past three years, Spit Dat Academy has held a seasonal residency at the Youth Services Center through their in-house school, Maya Angelou Academy, in collaboration with performing arts instructor Dr. Patrick Crowley.  Over several workshops, students wrote poems that were compiled into a script and performed at the facility by several professional poets.

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