CLEVELAND: Cleveland Public Theatre (CPT) has announced its 2018-19 artistic fellows. The fellowships include the National New Play Producer in Residence grant, the Joan Yellen Horvitz Director Fellowship, the Kulas Foundation Theatre Composer Initiative, and the Nord Family Foundation Catapult Fellowship. Selected fellows receive mentorship by CPT’s executive artistic director Raymond Bobgan, a financial award, and full underwriting of learning and artistic activities during the season-long fellowship.
India Nicole Burton will serve as the 2018-19 National New Play Network Producer in Residence. Burton will observe the day-to-day operations of the theatre and have networking opportunities. She is the founder of Ma’Sue Productions, an African American theatre company in Akron, Ohio, and served as its artistic director from 2011-2015. Burton is also a performer, director, and playwright. Two of her short plays were produced as part of CPT’s Station Hope program. She is the director of drama at Dike School of the Arts. She is currently working on developing and devising an original play about women in the Black Panther Party. She received a BA in Theatre Arts from the University of Akron.
Lauren Joy Fraley has been selected for the Joan Yellen Horvitz Director Fellowship. Fraley will assistant-direct, create new work, and direct at least one project in CPT’s season. She has trained in performance labs, workshops, and ensembles at CPT since 2011. She also has studied physical theatre and movement training with La Mama Umbria, NACL Theatre, and Earthdance. Fraley co-created and composed original music for Noonday at CPT. Other projects include Who We Used to Be, Don’t Wander Off, The Last Day, and the 2016 multimedia showcase Broken Codes with Maelstrom Collaborative Arts (formerly Theater Ninjas). She served as the outreach program coordinator for Playhouse Square, leading school and family arts programming for six years.
Buck McDaniel will be the Kulas Foundation Theatre Composer Fellow for the 2018-19 season. Under the guidance of the show’s producer and director, McDaniel will compose music and sound design for at least one CPT season production. CPT and Cleveland Public Library have hosted performances of his cycle Southern Songbook. McDaniel has been commissioned by the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Festival Chorus, the Pipeworks Festival, and the Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art, among others. His works “Put It All In” and “Labyrinth” have been broadcast on the classical music radio station WCLV, and his work “Three Movements” was performed by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony as part of their 2015 NEOSonic Festival.
The 2018-19 Nord Family Foundation Playwright Fellow is Lisa Langford, who will develop works through readings and workshop productions. Langford’s play The Art of Longing was produced at CPT. The play was a finalist for the Leslie Scalapino Award for Innovative Women Performance Writers and a semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s 2017 National Playwrights Conference. Her play Rastus & Hattie, a finalist for the Playwrights Realm’s Scratchpad Fellowship, had a reading at Kitchen Dog Theater in Dallas as part of the National New Play Network’s Cross-Pollination program. She has also had productions and readings at Cleveland’s convergence-continuum and Dobama Theatre. She received a BA in History from Harvard University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Cleveland State University.
