Incoming Producing Artistic Director Shanara Gabrielle is an arts leader and multi-hyphenate theater artist with a focus on expansive and engaging experiences for all audiences. Shanara is a purpose-driven cultural producer, and is inspired to shape the future of cultural institutions and artistic practice as essentials of an engaged civic life.

As an artistic leader, Shanara has served as a Producer and Artistic Associate with Arena Stage, The Kennedy Center & ENOUGH! Plays to End Gun Violence, Shakespeare Theatre Company, and was the Artistic Producer of WORKING in DC, which performed on Black Lives Matter Plaza in collaboration with the AFL-CIO and Labor Heritage Foundation. Shanara  is a founding member of Theatre Communication Group’s “The Ferguson Moment ” and also the founder of Artists-As-Tutors Ferguson, a non-profit arts and education organization which received support from Talib Kweli’s Action Coalition, and earned national recognition in Rolling Stone Magazine. Shanara has been on the artistic leadership and education teams at the Center of Creative Arts, Great River Shakespeare Festival, Sharpfield Films, and on the literary script reading teams for Kennedy Center ACTF, Solas Nua, and Arena Stage. As an adjunct faculty member, she has taught at many universities across the country and is dedicated to mentorship of the next generation of theater makers. 

Shanara is a recipient of the prestigious Princess Grace Foundation Award and her theater work has been nominated for and won numerous Helen Hayes, Kevin Kline, and Critics’ Circle awards. Washington DC theater audiences have seen her work on stage across the region, including: Arena Stage, Signature Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company,  Imagination Stage, Adventure Theatre, Spooky Action, Solas Nua, Olney Theatre, Folger Theatre, Taffety Punk, Goethe Institut, and Phillips Collection. Shanara has worked professionally at theaters across the country, including: The Guthrie, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The New Victory, Great Lakes Theatre, Southern Shakespeare, Northern Stage, Idaho Shakespeare, Coterie Theater, Chesapeake Shakespeare, the cell nyc, St. Louis Repertory Theater, Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival, Stages, Theatre for the New City, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis, Hollywood Playhouse, The Black Rep, Upstream Theater, and many more. Driven by stories of humanity and tales of imagination, she is interested in creating new work and reimagining traditional texts with artists of courage and depth. She is dedicated to creating transparent, joyful, anti-oppressive creative processes. Her directorial work has been lauded as “specific, joyful and a celebration of all that is great theatrical art,” “a terrific mixture of intelligence and instinct,” and “visceral, intimately connected with the audience, extremely smart and utterly engaging.” 

Shanara can be reached at shanara@theateralliance.com.