ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ Announces Second Madeleine Moore Burrell Fellow

Keli Garrett
The fellowship, which honors playwrights whose work demonstrates a commitment to communities of color, announces its 2020 recipient.

 

ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ today announced 2020 Madeleine Moore Burrell Fellowship recipient, Keli Garrett. The academic residency, which is named after ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ trustee, Madeleine Moore Burrell, is now in its second year.

“We are thrilled to announce the second Madeleine Moore Burrell Playwriting Fellow,” said Rosita M. Sands, interim dean of the ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ School of Fine and Performing Arts. “Not only does this residency provide fellows with the opportunity to mentor and share their particular expertise with students who are at various stages of preparation for future careers, but the fellowship also gives our students the opportunity to engage in academic and preprofessional opportunities that highlight a range of theatrical experiences rooted in African Diasporic aesthetics and cultural traditions.”

The fellowship was created to advance ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ student learning, to support new play development by providing resident playwrights with resources and time to write, and to strengthen ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½’s commitment to cultural inclusion by exposing faculty and students to a broad pool of playwrights, particularly those representing communities of color.

Keli Garrett is a writer, director, and performer whose play adaptations have been produced and developed at numerous venues. Her work is anthologized in Contemporary Plays by African American Women. Garrett was born and raised in Chicago and holds a BA from ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ and an MFA from Brown University.

“My time at ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½ helped me find my voice as an artist and to think more completely about what that meant. Overall, I felt tremendously supported by members of faculty,” said Garrett about her time at ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½. “I feel great about returning as a fellow. It's full circle in a way. It means a lot that the work I have done in performance and writing has brought me back to my artistic beginnings. It's also an opportunity to work with and teach my younger peers. I’m looking forward to sharing what I know and learning from them at the same time.”

Keli will be teaching the Topics in Playwriting course Black Women and Experimental Theater this semester and will be working on developing a new play during her fellowship. A reading of the play will be performed by students during ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½’s Manifest Urban Arts Festival in May.

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Daisy Franco
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