The Black Theatre Network
is proud to announce the winners of the
23rd Annual S. Randolph Edmonds Young Scholar Competition
Author of Every Woman in No Man’s Land: Triumphs of the Modern Black Woman at the Expense of the Black Male Character in the Works of Lynn Nottage Brooklyn-native, Britney Wilson discovered her passion for writing at an early age and has worked to fulfill this passion in several different ways. The recipient of the first-ever Tom Joyner Foundation Full Ride HBCU Scholarship, Britney is currently pursuing her B. A. in English at Howard University, where she serves as Opinions Editor and author of a weekly column entitled Mut(e)iny: The Silent Rebellion at the University's newspaper, The Hilltop. Prior to her time at Howard, she was a member of the 2008 Urban Word NYC Slam Poetry team that placed 2nd in the nation at the Brave New Voices International Poetry Festival in 2008. At the same time, she was featured on the HBO series Russell Simmons Presents: Brave New Voices. She has been featured in publications such as the New York Daily News and Scholastic Action Magazine for a combination of her academic and creative achievements. In the future, Britney hopes to affect change and especially to advocate for the three demographics that she represents: African Americans, women, and people with disabilities, as a writer and public servant. |
Michele Wells is currently exploring Visual & Performance Art: Healing Post-Colonial and Post-Slavery Traumas. She believes that visual and performance art can act as therapeutic mechanisms for expression by reshaping history and exposing personal narratives for psychological healing. Her program consists of studio art, theater and history courses. She recently performed a piece on violence against women in Haiti and is currently exploring the plays of Langston Hughes in order to investigate constructions of African American women. She is drawn to roles that deal with women living through violent conflicts. She is also interested in roles that address women living in societies where religion is a form of oppression. “As an actress, I hope to give voice to women in powerless situations as they are the most vulnerable.”Her aim is to explore all three by seeking admission to the Master of Arts in Contemporary African Theatre & Performance at Goldsmith’s College, University of London, followed by the Ph.D in Performance Studies at Tisch School for the Arts, New York University. |
Stefanie A. Jones is a Level I student at the CUNY Graduate Center, and has a Bachelor’s of Science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She is a Ronald E. McNair Scholar, a Herfurth-Kubly graduate, a writer, educator, and critic. Her areas of interest are sociology and culture of power; economics, race, and sex/uality; and feminist, queer, and POC theatre. Stefanie teaches Introduction to Theatre at Hunter College in New York City.
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John Nyrere Frazier has enjoyed a long performance career. He began his professional acting career with two east coast tours as an actor and dancer with Silver Sun Limited in Kingston, Rhode Island. John moved on to attend North Carolina Central University’s theatre department. During his time at the university, he involved himself in both university and local community theatre. He also co-wrote a production - “Bye-Bye Black Birds - with one of his theatre department professors. The production was included in North Carolina Central’s production season and represented the department at the Irene Ryan Acting Competition. He eventually graduated with academic honors and was accepted to the Chicago College for the Performing Arts in downtown Chicago , Illinois where he received his MFA. While in Chicago, John worked with Shatter Globe Theatre Company, Adventure Stage Theatre, American Theatre Company, Victory Gardens Theater, and Next Theatre. He also worked with MidWay Video Games, EA Games/ Chicago, and Warner Brothers Entertainment as a motion capture artist. He is currently a first year graduate student at Miami University. |
1st Place Undergraduate
2nd Place Undergraduate
1ST Place Graduate
2ND Place Graduate
