1. Glenda Dickerson was an American director, folklorist, adaptor, writer, choreographer, actor, black theatre organizer, and educator.
11 Facts About Glenda Dickerson
1. 2.
Glenda Dickerson was the second African-American woman to direct on Broadway, with her 1980 musical production of Reggae: a musical revelation.
3.
Glenda Dickerson is known throughout the American Theater as a promoter of a "womanist" direction in the theater and her work focused on folklore, myths, black legends, and classical works reinterpreted.
4.
Glenda Dickerson worked in venues including the Biltmore Theatre, Circle in the Square, The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Ford's Theatre and the Kennedy Center.
5.
In 1971, Dickerson received an Emmy nomination and in 1972 a Peabody Award.
6.
Glenda Dickerson conceived and directed Eel Catching in Setauket: A Living Portrait of a Community, an oral history, creative performance project which documented the lives of the African-American Christian Avenue community in Setauket, Long Island.
7.
Glenda Dickerson was an Assistant Professor of Directing in the Department of Theater at Howard University and Chair of the Theater Department at The Duke Ellington School of the Arts.
8.
Glenda Dickerson held the distinction, along with Vinnette Carroll, of being one of the few African-American women to have directed on Broadway and she directed such actors as Debbie Allen, Lynn Whitfield, Charles Brown, Philip Michael Thomas, Robert Townsend, Clifton Powell, and many others.
9.
Glenda Dickerson received the inaugural Shirley Verrett Award in November 2011, which was established to honor the legacy of the late internationally acclaimed opera singer Shirley Verrett, who was the James Earl Jones Distinguished University Professor of Voice at the University of Michigan's School of Music, Theatre, and Dance.
10.
Glenda Dickerson died in Ypsilanti, Michigan, aged 66, on January 12,2012.
11.
Glenda Dickerson was survived by her daughter, Anitra Y Dickerson Duncan, and extended family.