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Kimberly Ridgeway, a Black woman with her hair in braids, speaks into a microphone.

Kimberly Ridgeway in residence at Central Works

Photo by Cheshire Isaacs

Kimberly will be working with Central Works co-Artistic Directors Jan Zvaifler and Gary Graves on producing their 2024 season and developing their 2025 season. All Central Works seasons are developed collaboratively, and Central Works plans to fully involve Kimberly in all aspects of leadership work.

Kimberly Ridgeway is a Director, Actor, Playwright, and Producer. Kimberly has directed projects locally for Altarena Playhouse, African American Shakespeare Company, Contra Costa Civic Theatre, Dragon Productions Theatre Company, Ubuntu Theatre Project, Bay Area Performing Arts Collective, Bay Area Drama Company, SF Playhouse, Town Hall Theatre, Playwrights Center of San Francisco, SF Playground, Theatre Rhinoceros, 3Girls Theatre and TheatreFirst. She has also directed projects for Three Willows Theatre (TX), National Black Theatre (NY), and Spokane Civic Theatre (WA). Kimberly wrote, produced and directed the full-length stage plays Prospect Place, Heavy Burdens, No More Secrets, The Confession, The Gigolo Chronicles, and The Drowning Pool. Some of Kimberly’s notable acting roles include The Revolutionists, The Piano Lesson, Colman Domingo’s DOT, and her award-winning portrayal of Camae in Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop. Kim can be found on Instagram @khaoss15 and on New Play Exchange.

For over three decades Central Works has filled a special niche for theater artists in the San Francisco Bay Area, producing more new plays by local playwrights than any other company in the region. “The New Play Theater” utilizes three basic strategies: some are products of the Central Works Method, some are developed in the Central Works Writers Workshop, and some come to the company fully developed. Learn more about Central Works.

2023-24 Arts Leadership Residency Panelists

Tanika Baptiste (she/her) is a SFBATCC winning director, actor, vocalist, and costume designer in the Bay Area. Regional credits: Adenikeh in Nollywood Dreams(San Francisco Playhouse), Shirelle in Beautiful: Carol King Musical (Woodminster), MC in N¿¿ER LOVERS (Magic Theatre), She/Angie in Is God Is (Oakland Theatre Project). Tessie Tura in Gypsy (Mountain Play/RVP), Swing for Beehive (Center REP) SBF in Single Black Female(Lorraine Hansberry Theatre), Deloris in Sister Act(Pittsburg Theatre Company), and Effie in Dreamgirls (Berkeley Playhouse). Select directorial credits include Crumbs From the Table of Joy(Townhall Theatre), Giraffes Can’t Dance(Bay Area Children’s Theatre), and At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen (Theatre Rhinoceros). Tanika is was a 2022-23 awardee of Theatre Bay Area’s Arts Leadership Residency grant with Theatre Rhinoceros. She is a proud member of AEA and a new member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. Catch her next directorial project, Group Therapy, at Theatre Rhinoceros, opening November 11, and her hand in the talent curation at Paypal Park Stadium this holiday season as she is the Experience and Talent Supervisor for Enchant San Jose.  

Amal Bisharat (she/her) is a Palestinian American theatre director, theatere maker, musician, and photographer. She is an Artist-In-Residence at Golden Thread Productions, co-producing and directing in their 2023 ReOrient Festival. She is also currently in the process of creating her first musical, a Palestinian refugee story adapted from the best-selling novel Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa. Bisharat is a grateful recipient of the 2022-23 Theater Bay Area Arts Leadership Residency Grant, Fall 2022 Theater Bay Area CA$H Creates Grant, and 2023 San Francisco Arts Commission Artist Grant. Bisharat believes in the transformative power of art and storytelling whether on a stage, in a photograph, or in the stories we tell ourselves.

Crystal Liu (she/any) is a San Francisco Bay Area-based theatre artist, and Development Director & Company Manager at Theatre Rhinoceros in San Francisco. She has felt and witnessed the healing powers of theatre from the age of nine and has sought to deepen her understanding of the craft ever since. Crystal has performed with, worked backstage for, and held administrative positions in theatre companies all over the San Francisco Bay Area. She holds BAs in Theatre and Anthropology from Yale University and is particularly interested in transformative theatre centering education, youth, and marginalized communities.

Phaedra Tillery Boughton (she/her) is a multi-hyphenate creative artist. Phaedra was awarded the 2022-23 Theatre Bay Area Arts Leadership Residency grant with SFBATCO. She continues to expand her artistic range as an Associate Producer, Casting Manager, and Co-Host of Creatively Shaded. Her past theatre productions include Crowns (Mable, Center Rep), Clybourne Park (Director, Hillbarn Theatre), Aint Misbehavin’ (Armelia McQueen, Hillbarn Theatre), The Color Purple (Hillbarn Theatre), and Caroline or Change and Little Shop of Horrors (Ray Of Light Theatre). She consistently challenges the concept of traditional theatre and finds new ways to push the boundaries of creativity and inclusion in the theatre community.

Dawn Monique Williams served as Aurora’s Associate Artistic Director from 2019 to 2023. An Oakland-native, she was Artistic Associate and a resident artist at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for six seasons. She’s worked in theatre across the US including: HERE Arts Center, Profile Theatre (Portland), A.C.T., Chautauqua Theatre Company, African American Shakespeare Company. Williams holds an MA in Dramatic Literature and an MFA in Directing. She directed Bull In A China Shop at Aurora in Fall 2019.