Playwrights Advisory Board

Reginald Edmund

Reginald Edmund, the first featured writer on Coalescence Theatre Project's Playwright Advisory Board, is currently the Founder and Managing Curating Producer of Black Lives Black Words International Project. Inspired by #blacklivesmatter, this project gives voice to some of the most contemporary political black writers from both the US, Canada, and the UK, asking them to explore the question 'Do black lives matter today?'.

Coalescence Theatre Project will host Black Lives Black Words in Bloomington in the future. This project was delayed but it won't be deterred.

In addition, he is a Resident Playwright at Tamasha Theatre in London, England and an Alumni Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists Theatre, an Artistic Associate at Pegasus Theatre-Chicago, and an Artistic Patriot at Merrimack Repertory Theatre, he was also a ‘10-‘11 Many Voice Fellow with the Playwrights’ Center. His play Southbridge was runner up for the Kennedy Center’s Lorraine Hansberry and Rosa Parks National Playwriting Awards, and most recently named winner of the Southern Playwrights’ Competition, the Black Theatre Alliance Award for Best New Play, and the Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award. His nine-play series titled ‘The City of the Bayou Collection’, include Southbridge, Juneteenth Street, The Last Cadillac, and All the Dying Voices were developed at esteemed theaters including Pegasus Theatre-Chicago, Deluxe Theatre, Actors Theatre of Charlotte, Bush Theatre (UK), Boston Court @ Theatre, the Landing Theatre, the Playwrights’ Center, and The National Theatre (UK). Reginald Edmund received his BFA in Theatre-Performance from Texas Southern University and his MFA in Playwriting from Ohio University.

Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum

Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum is a native of Ghana and a professor of Ethnomusicology at Illinois State University (ISU). She directs the ISU drumming and dance ensemble and teaches courses in Ethnomusicology and Black Music. Aduonum is also a nationally-acclaimed playwright and performer. Her performance art pieces, Walking with My Ancestors: Elmina Castle (2014) and Walking with My Ancestors: Cape Coast Castle (2019) connect the experiences of enslaved Africans at former slave dungeons in West Africa to the experiences of contemporary Blacks, marginalized groups, and immigrants. Both productions combine live drumming, singing, dancing, and acting and were originally produced by Don Shandrow and directed by Kim Pereira. Her solo performance of Walking with My Ancestors: Cape Coast Castle won the 2019 American Association of Community Theaters’ (AACT) state and regional awards for Outstanding Original Work, Outstanding Use of Music, and Outstanding Performance. She was one of four finalists at the AACT national competition at Gettysburg, PA, and an Outstanding Performer in a Leading Role. Aduonum was the Visiting Artist/Scholar at University of Georgia, Athens and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. B.A., Fisk University; M.M and PhD, Florida State University. Oforiwaa is a proud member of The Dramatists Guild of America.

Kim Pereira

Kim Pereira is retired from the School of Theatre & Dance at Illinois State University where he taught Acting and World Drama. He has a Ph.D. in Theatre from Florida State University and an MA in English and American Literature from the University of Bombay, India. 

He came to the U.S. via Bahrain in the Middle East, after a career in International Advertising, and has traveled to several countries in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia as well as to New Zealand and Australia.

As an actor, he has performed in several plays here in the U.S. as well as in his native India, with roles in classical and contemporary plays. Among them are Shylock (The Merchant of Venice), Malvolio (Twelfth Night), Iago (Othello), Francisco de Medici (The White Devil), Dr. Treves (The Elephant Man), Jerry (Betrayal), Brian (A Day in the Death of Joe Egg), Dr. Prentice (What the Butler Saw), Ganesha (A Perfect Ganesh), Robespierre (Danton’s Death), and Lucky (Waiting for Godot). 

His Directing credits include Waiora, The Trojan Women, The Taming of the Shrew, The Colored Museum, Death and the King’s Horseman, Mountain Language, Medea, Oedipus, Antigone, and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. 

He is the author of August Wilson and the African-American Odyssey, the first full-length study of August Wilson’s plays, and has published essays on Wilson’s plays in national and international journals, including The Cambridge Companion to August Wilson. He has written essays on Shakespeare in Stagebill and Asides for The Public Theatre in New York and The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington D.C., as well as for The Illinois Shakespeare Festival. He has presented papers at national and regional conferences on African-American Theatre, Indian Theatre, Shakespeare, and Shaw.

He is the author of several plays. Hostage, a play about an American journalist and an Arab-American, was a semi-finalist at the O’Neill Center’s National Playwrights Conference in 2013. 

In 2001, he wrote, filmed, narrated, and produced a two-hour documentary on contemporary Indian theatre, which is available on DVD and VHS. His commitment to diversity led to his being awarded the Strand Diversity Award in 2003. He is also the creator of a popular course at ISU on Civil Disobedience, taught in the Interdisciplinary Studies Program at ISU. He has reviewed films for radio, performed dramatic readings with the Peoria Symphony Orchestra, the Illinois State Wind and String Symphonies, and the faculty Chamber Orchestra, and was a film critic and bi-weekly forum commentator for several years on WJBC radio.

Sharece M. Sellem

We had the privilege of getting to know Sharece while producing her play Dreams in Detention. Her play Daisies on Harlem’s Doorstep has won a number of awards nationally.

A native of Hartford, CT, Sharece M. Sellem is a playwright, choreographer, director and performing arts instructor based out of New Haven, CT. She was trained by American Intercontinental University's Media Production Program, Headlong Performance Institute of Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, and Yale University’s Practical Approach to Directing Summer Program. Her resume includes performances at Bregamos Community Theater, Long Wharf Theatre, Pride Arts Center of Chicago, Charter Oak Cultural Center, Carriage House Theater, Norwich Arts Center, University of California San Diego, and more. She is the founder of Vintage Soul Productions. Visit: www.VintageSoulProductions.com

Amy Tofte

Amy is a Los Angeles-based playwright and screenwriter. She was awarded a 2015 Nicholl Fellowship in screenwriting from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Her play Women of 4G premiered last summer in Chicago at Babes With Blades. Also in 2019, she was a finalist for the Todd McNerney Playwriting Award and the Florida Rep PlayLab. Her play Helen & Troy was part of the 2019 Garry Marshall Theatre New Works Festival. She has been in residence at the Autry Museum of the American West, Brush Creek, The Kennedy Center and Yaddo with her work produced and developed throughout the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She is a proud member of The Dramatists Guild. B.A., University of Iowa; MFA, CalArts.