Director-Actor-Playwright-Educator — Dr. Eunice S. Ferreira, Associate Professor of Theater at Skidmore College, seeks to engage her students in the depth and breadth of the human experience as played out on the metaphoric stage. As a scholar artist, her research focuses on the intersections of performance and issues of race, class, gender, language and national identity, with a special focus on Cape Verde (West Africa), her ancestral home. Her visionary theatrical works weave her intensive research with performance and expression, creating an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural, global experience, as evidenced by her multilingual staging of Caridad Svich’s “The Orphan Sea” at Skidmore, which incorporated ten languages. In all areas of her work, she seeks to center antiracist, decolonizing, and reparative strategies … Art reflecting life in all its shades and rich tones.

Ferreira has brought her superpowers of connecting young people to the world via theater across many communities, including applied theatre work with youth in under-resourced Boston/Cambridge, MA communities. Since arriving at Skidmore College, she has taught and created new courses, including Black Theater, Theater & Culture, Mixed Race on Stage & Film, American Musical, Translation & Performance, and Theater for Social Justice & Change. Breaking through the ‘campus-bubble’, she has bridged her students to the Saratoga Springs community on multiple creative levels: serving on a variety of local arts committees, bringing college students into public school classrooms, nourishing public dramaturgical activism, engaging students in semester-long discussions with the regional artists of Black Dimensions in Art, Inc., inviting local and national community artist-activists into class to share the perspective of Art as Social Change (such as MLK Saratoga’s Lezlie Dana and street dance activist Dr. Shamell Bell), using local exhibits by POC artists for creative inspiration and collaboration (such as Marcus Kwame’s ‘Formerly Invisible’ exhibit at the Spring Street Gallery), and volunteering as a drama teacher for area kids. She celebrates the accomplishments of her students and their own growing creative activism, such as last year’s Springfest production UPLIFT, a BIPOC ensemble-devised original performance for which Ferreira served as advisor. UPLIFT was a recipient of the inaugural President’s Racial Justice Award and the students went on to form a creative, affinity support group for BIPOC students at Skidmore … Art stimulating action and building change.

With a Ph.D. from Tufts University and an M.A. from Emerson College, Ferreira regularly presents at national and international conferences. Her current leadership roles include serving as Vice-President/President elect for the Black Theatre Association, member of the Governing Council of ATHE (Association for Theatre in Higher Education), and board member of The Orchard Project, an artistic development laboratory and accelerator for new works. Her forthcoming books include Crioulo Performance: Remapping Creole and Mixed Race Theatre (Vanderbilt Press) and Applied Theatre and Racial Justice: Radical Imaginings for Just Communities (Routledge), co-edited with Lisa L. Biggs (Brown University).

In a myriad of impactful ways, Dr. Eunice Ferreira deftly weaves her breadth of artistic experience and community service with her exceptional academic and research background to activate the Living Stage of Theater in all its full vibrant colors … Art in action, creating a vital connection for ALL of us by expanding our experience of humanity!

RESOURCES

Follow Dr. Ferreira:
• Twitter @KriolaMama
• Instagram @BIPOCTheatre [her teaching account to center and amplify BIPOC theatre artists and scholars]

Website: euniceferreira.com

*Artists from Black Dimensions in Art, Inc.*

Interview with Ms. Ferreira about her direction of “The Orphan Sea” HERE

Black Dimensions in Art, Inc.: http://www.blackdimensionsinart.org

SPRINGFEST WEEKEND TWO: WRAP-UP — UPlift (Eliza Kuperschmid ‘21 and Gemma Siegler ‘22, Skidmore Theater Living Newsletter, May 7, 2022)