CLEVELAND: Cleveland Public Theatre (CPT) has named four 2020-21 Premiere Fellows, all of whom are Northeast Ohio-based artists. Premiere Fellows receive a financial award as well as additional fees for projects, professional development opportunities, and access to space and equipment needed to create their work.
“The four artists selected have demonstrated excellence in their craft and a commitment to adventurous new theatre,” said CPT artistic director Raymond Bobgan in a statement. “We know from experience that substantial financial awards to individual artists have a massive impact on artists and have a ripple effect on the whole community.”
This year’s Premiere Fellows include Ananias J Dixon, Nina Domingue, Siaara Freeman, and Toby Vera Bercovici.
Dixon is a theatre educator and coach at the Cleveland School of the Arts, Cleveland Play House, and Playhouse Square. Dixon has also appeared in productions at Karamu House and Dobama Theatre, among others, as well as in television projects like Blue Bloods and Boardwalk Empire. Additionally, Dixon served as assistant director for two productions during Cleveland Play House’s New Ground Theatre Festival.
Domingue is a New Orleans native whose solo show The Absolutely Amazing and True Adventures of Miss Joan Southgate was named to the 2020 Kilroys List. She was recently named the Barbara Smith Playwright in Residence at Twelve Literary Arts and the Nord Family Foundation Playwriting Fellow and Catapult Artist at CPT. Domingue’s solo show Ya Mama! previously played at CPT before launching a tour at the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
Freeman is a multi-year alum of the National Brave New Voices youth poetry slam competition, and has slammed and coached throughout Ohio and Detroit. She is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, a finalist for the 2017 Button Poetry Chapbook Competition, and a 2018 Poetry Foundation Incubator Fellow, among other accolades. Freeman is a teaching artist at the Center for Arts-Inspired Learning and is the Reaching Associate at the Anisfield-Wolf Sisterhood Project. Freeman is also the co-founder of the Outsiders Queer Midwest Writers Retreat.
Bercovici is an assistant professor of practice in the Department of Theatre & Dance at Cleveland State University. She has created dance-theatre adaptations of classic texts including The *Annotated* Taming: Or, Out of the Saddle, Into the Dirt and The Life and Death of Queen Margaret. Bercovici has contributed intimacy choreography to shows at Asolo Repertory Theatre and Portland Stage Company, has directed at Theater for the New City, Hampshire Shakespeare Company, and others, and has served as an assistant director at La MaMa E.T.C. and Classic Stage Company.
Cleveland Public Theatre strives to develop new, adventurous work, nurture Northeast Ohio artists, and produce ground-breaking performances and educational programs.
