Directing
Kemar Jewel is a Black Queer director and choreographer from New York City, raised in Philadelphia. Currently, he is obtaining his M.F.A. in directing from David Geffen School of Drama. Kemar’s art has been seen in theater, dance, opera, music videos, live tours, and in musical theater. As a member of the Legendary House of Lanvin, Kemar, an alum of the Drama League Fellowship, draws inspiration from the Ballroom scene and his Caribbean upbringing. Kemar’s mission is to revamp classic stories by having them reflect the people in today’s society. Particularly, he is passionate about showcasing the magic of Blackness, Queerness, and their intersection through theater, music, and dance. Kemar believes that great stories teach the best lessons, and that those stories should have everyone reflected in them.
Kemar is also a passionate educator and community leader. He has taught workshops at various community centers, as well as at Temple University, New York University, The Franklin Institute, and other prestigious institutions and universities around the world. Kemar is the founder and artistic director of Xcel Dance Crew, a performance group that fuses voguing with other forms of dance and storytelling. Kemar serves as a co-president of FOLKS, the Black affinity group for the Geffen School founded by Angela Basset in 1981, which focuses on creating networks, new art, and safe spaces for Black artists.
Kemar became an internet sensation in 2014 for his viral YouTube video Voguing Train. Over the years, his projects have garnered millions of views across various media platforms and have been featured by Time, Vogue, the Huffington Post, NPR, and in film festivals around the globe. Additionally, Kemar choreographed and performed in the music video Feel the Vibe for international recording artist Bob Sinclar and toured Europe with Sinclar’s Paris by Night tour. He has served as a dance consultant for Todrick Hall and as a performer and choreographer for Taylor Mac. In 2022, Kemar’s project SOFT headlined the Global Black Pride event where his work was presented after the keynote address by President Joe Biden. Other credits include Signature Theatre, The Young Vic, The Guggenheim Museum, Portland Opera, the LANVIN fashion brand, and other theaters across the country.
Alexis Kulani Woodard she/her is a director and producer who believes in theater as a catalyst for liberation. She is a 2024 Princess Grace Award Winner in Theatre. A third-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, Alexis has directed an original adaptation of Measure for Measure, Ida Cuttler’s Moe’s a D*ck for the Langston Hughes Festival, and comfort ifeoma katchy’s Stray Dogs for the New Play Lab. At Yale Cabaret, she has served on the Advisory Board and directed Every Brilliant Thing and Four Meddling Kids and One Dumb Dog.
Before pursuing her M.F.A., Alexis worked professionally in Atlanta, Georgia. As a Spelman Leadership Fellow at the Tony Award–winning Alliance Theatre, Alexis served as the Co-Artistic Director of The Alliance’s inaugural 2020–21 Digital Season, where she produced Laugh Track, BackStage Atlanta, Spotlight Studio, and From the Ashes. Alexis also directed From the Ashes, an original adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 which was created in collaboration with the Alliance’s Teen Ensemble. While in Atlanta she directed Hamlet (The TINY Theater Company, Alliance Theatre: Guest Artist Series); HANDS UP: 7 Playwrights, 7 Testaments; and Do You Love the Dark? (Alliance Theatre). Her work on HANDS UP: 7 Playwrights, 7 Testaments earned the production six Suzi Bass Award Nominations, including Best Direction, and one win for Outstanding Social Justice Production. She also directed Lungs by Duncan Macmillan, which was shown at the National University of Theatre and Film “I.L. Caragiale Bucharest” and other venues around Romania.
She has worked with directors Liz Diamond, Tamilla Woodard, Laurie Woolery, Hana Sharif, Leora Morris, and Khalia Davis. Associate directing credits include A Christmas Carol: The Live Radio Play, Working (Alliance Theatre), and the world premiere tri-production of Dream Hou$e (Alliance Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage). She also has served as assistant director for the Suzi Award-winning world premiere of Hands of Color (Synchronicity Theatre), A Christmas Carol (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis), and A Kids Play About Racism (Bay Area Children’s Theatre).
Juliana Morales Carreño is a Colombian interdisciplinary theater artist in search of spaces of communion in which, through theatrical language, we can scratch our wounds as a society. She is co-founder of Anfibia Teatro, a theater company and cultural enterprise based in Bogotá, Colombia. She studied history and literature with an emphasis in theater studies at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá. She has trained as an actor and director with Hernán Pico, Pedro Salazar, Juan luna, Alain Maratrat, Yura Kordonsky, and Liz Diamond. She has worked in the professional theater and opera as a director, actor, producer, and playwright.
She was a 2020 winner of the New Creators Cycle for directing at Teatro la Maldita Vanidad and the Guanábana Scholarship for Performing Arts Entrepreneurship at Teatro Varasanta and IDARTES. Her literature thesis for the play María Pizarro was awarded a merit.
Some of her productions include Makanaky by Juan Pablo Herrera Montoya (PELZ), at Universitatea Naţională de Artă Teatrală şi Cinematografică, the “I.L. Caragiale” in Bucharest, Romania (2023); Solo Mia (2020) by Juanpablo Gómez at Teatro la Maldita Vanidad; Señorita Julia (2021), directed by Mariana Parejo, produced by Anfibia Teatro, in which she played Julia; As One (2022), winner of the Ópera al Parque 2021 Grant, which she co-directed with Pedro Salazar; Tosca (2021), a co-production of the Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo and La Compañía Estable, directed by Pedro Salazar; and Pedro Páramo (2014), directed by Hernán Pico.
Juliana is a third-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where she has translated, adapted, and directed a bilingual adaptation, Hamlet, Princessa de Dinamarca, and directed The Alley by comfort ifeoma catchy. She has also assisted Pat Diamond on Gianni Schicchi by Giacomo Puccini and The Seven Deadly Sins by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht for Yale Opera.