Bio
Shavonne Coleman is a fabulist, facilitator, teaching/performing artist, writer, director, and cultivator of connection and community.
Coleman has performed as a storyteller and actor in spaces ranging from applied theatre to professional roles in theatre and short films. She has been a teaching artist in many spaces including Detroit Public Schools, VSA Michigan, CrossTown Theatre through Eastern Michigan University, Grand Rapids Civic Theatre, and Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit among others.
Prior to joining SMTD, she served as the theatre for dialogue coordinator at the University of Texas at Austin and as assistant director for transformative learning in the Center for Teaching and Learning. She has also been a visiting professor in the Theatre Department at Grand Valley State University, where she was the co-director of ReACT!, an anti-violence theatre troupe, and a member of the theatre faculty at Austin Community College.
Coleman has been awarded the Emerging Leadership award to research the historical impact of people of color in TYA from Theatre for Young Audiences (USA/ASSITEJ), the Teaching Innovation Grant and President’s Staff Award from the University of Texas at Austin, and the Anne K. Flagg Multicultural Award (AATE). She is a board member for CTFA (Children’s Theatre Foundation of America). Upcoming work includes a commission by Seattle Children’s Theatre to adapt Your Name is a Song by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow, which will go into its first development phase at the New Harmony Project’s 2023 Conference.
She received a BA in theatre from Grand Valley State University, and an MFA from Eastern Michigan University for applied drama/theatre for the young.
