PHOENIX and TUSCON, ARIZ.: Arizona native Chanel Bragg, an artist and passionate advocate for equity, diversity, and inclusion, has been named associate artistic director at Arizona Theatre Company. A graduate of Northern Arizona University and Cortez High School, Bragg is a producer, director, teaching artist, and performer whose mission is to open doors and shatter stereotypes for Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) and women in Arizona.

“My career, and life, was changed by the opportunity to be an associate artistic director at a leading LORT theatre,” said ATC artistic director Sean Daniels in a statement. “So I have always wanted to provide that opportunity for someone else. For me that person is Chanel Bragg. Also, it’s time for theatres to start hiring and promoting the immense talent that lives in their own towns.”

Bragg, whose M.A. from Western International University had an emphasis on innovative leadership, has worked with a range of Arizona fine arts institutions and is a three-time AriZoni Theatre Awards of Excellence recipient. Among the organizations for which she has collaborated are ATC, Black Theatre Troupe, the Phoenix Symphony, Free Arts for Abused Children, Phoenix Theatre, Stray Cat Theatre, Childsplay, Arizona Broadway Theatre, TheaterWorks, Spotlight Youth Theatre, and Desert Stages.

“I have spent my career carrying the belief that our Arizona theatre community rivals any place in the universe and now I’ve been given the illustrious platform to prove it,” she said.

Bragg also is co-founder of the Soul of Broadway, producer of the Alexander Project Tribute Band with Live Nation, founder of United Colours of AZ Theatre, and a supporting vocalist in the Phoenix Afrobeat Orchestra.

Arizona Theatre Company, now celebrating its 53rd Season, performs both at the Temple of Music and Art in Tucson and the Herberger Theater Center in downtown Phoenix.